Who says y'all can't go home again?
Posted on 09/25/2008 7:23:52 AM PDT by Between the Lines
Hundreds of cars lined streets this morning as motorists in the Charlotte metro region tried to cope with an ever-worsening gasoline shortage situation.
Some motorists waited up to five hours, and fights were reported as people accused other customers of cutting in line.
Some gas stations that opened this morning with what they thought were ample supplies ran out within a few hours.
Police were called out several times to break up fights among angry customers.
North Carolina Gov. Mike Easley announced late Wednesday night that he had ordered tanker trucks from Tennessee, Wilmington and South Carolina to deliver gas to the western Carolinas. Easley said relief is coming to the area in the next day.
But it is too late to make a difference this morning.
Motorists who had hoped to awaken and find a re-supply of many gas stations were disappointed. The situation looks much the same as it did Wednesday.
At 6 a.m., about 50 cars were in line at the Gate station near the Wal-Mart store off Sardis Road North in southeast Charlotte. By 8:30 a.m., that line had expanded to an estimated 225 vehicles. The lines were even longer, spilling out onto Sardis Road North.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg police brought in a mobile watch tower, installing it in the Wal-Mart parking lot to keep an eye on customers and prevent an outbreak of violence among customers desperate to fill their nearly-empty tanks -- or, in some cases, to top off gas tanks that already were half-full.
The Texaco station on outbound East Independence Boulevard at Sharon Amity Road received a gas supply overnight, and customers lined up along both streets before 6 a.m. today. But about 8:30 a.m., clerks came out of the store and put bags over the pumps. The supply had run out.
It was the same story on Pineville-Matthews Road in south Charlotte, at an Exxon station. Clerks thought they had enough gas from an overnight shipment to last the day. Instead, the gas was gone by 8 a.m.
North Charlotte wasn't immune from the problems. Police report congested traffic on Mallard Creek Road at West W.T. Harris Boulevard -- due to customers waiting in line for gas.
And police in Matthews report the line along Monroe Road stretches for about a quarter-mile approaching Matthews Township Parkway, as motorists wait to get gas at one of few stations with fuel.
Police are directing traffic at a number of locations, where long lines of customers waiting for gas are blocking travel lanes on major highways -- including East Independence Boulevard and Pineville-Matthews Road. Matthews police were monitoring the flow of customer traffic at the Shell and Exxon stations on East Independence Boulevard at Matthews-Mint Hill Road, near Butler High School.
At 8:45 a.m., both of those stations had gas -- at least for a while.
Similar problems are being reported in the Fort Mill-Rock Hill area, in Gastonia, and in Union County. Motorists report all the stations in the Weddington-Wesley Chapel area of southwest Union County were without fuel late Wednesday night.
Abandoned vehicles could be seen this morning along the sides of roads across the area -- apparently the result of drivers running out of fuel.
One abandoned vehicle was reported before 6 a.m. on the right southbound lane of Wendover Road, between Independence Boulevard and Monroe Road. It was cleared a short time later. Other abandoned vehicles were reported before 9 a.m. on Sharon Road at Sharonview Road; Idlewild Road at East W.T. Harris Boulevard; and Eastway Drive at North Tryon Street.
Abandoned vehicles also were reported in parts of Cabarrus, Gaston, and Union counties, and in York County of South Carolina.
No gas nowhere.
Really bad in Asheville.
Oklahoma credit card time yet ?
All that text dedicated to describing the symptoms but not a single sentence to tell us what caused the shortage?
McCain wants to DRILL and the Demoncrats don't.
Demoncrats ENJOY seeing you in pain - financial or otherwise. Then they have CONTROL over you through the crisis's they create, by choice.
Why are there lines and shortages in NC? Are they more directly impacted by the oil issues off the Texas coast than we are here in Michigan? Heck we’re the ones job and industry losses.
I think these shortages in the southeast & midwest may be more responsible for Obama’s swoon than anything else. It’d explain why we haven’t seen a bounce for Obama in the battleground polls, even though it’s been about a week and half now since he started regaining in the national polls.
That was my question, too. There's plenty of gas around here and the price has dropped about 10-15 cents the past couple weeks.
ASHEVILLE, N.C. (AP) — A gas shortage that's frustrating drivers in the Southeast has prompted a community college in North Carolina to cancel classes for the rest of the week.
Officials say an increasing number of the 25,000 commuter students at several campuses of Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College aren't showing up.
A spokeswoman for the college in western North Carolina says even professors are calling to say they're stuck at home.
Drivers throughout much of the Southeast have been scrambling to find gas since Hurricane Ike shut down or reduced work at more than a dozen refineries on the Texas Gulf Coast. Some stations don't have gas to sell, while others report long lines.
North Carolina Gov. Mike Easley says more gas is headed to the state.
It’s got to be localized. Plenty of gas in the Kansas City area, and our prices have been drifting lower.
Did NC adopt an emergency plan that froze the price of gasoline like some other southern states?
This reminds me of the 1970s and why I am more than happy to pay the market going price for gas.
We have been asking that question for many days now. We are told the pipeline is running at only 85%, but that is normal in the off peak seasons.
The government excells at creating economic problems, doesn’t it? Perhaps some taxpayer-funded scheme, or additional layers of regulation would alleviate the pain. No?
Who says y'all can't go home again?
Part of the fallout from Hurricane Ike, gas deliveries in some areas of the Southeast are way down. At times as many as 90% of the gas stations in the area where I live, Marietta Georgia (northwest suburb of Atlanta), have been out of gas. A lot of the blame initially was assigned to people ‘topping up’, but as time has gone on it’s pretty plain there’s a serious gas shortage in many areas.
In Asheville, they are Bolshies, believe me when I say there is a whole segment of Ashevegas that is quite happy that more people are taking the bus and driving less.
Asheville is a Wacky Liberal Strong Hold, they like to call themselves “San Francisco of the East”...
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