Wow... wife just reported WalMart here in NW San Antonio pretty much cleaned out... long long lines at the gas pumps... and it is 8:30 at night? The storm isn't even supposed to come close to here.
Check out the five day track above with the big bubble covering the whole state of TX.
Bet a lot of evacuees did.
People hoarding gas. Rumors it will be $4-$5 by next week. That and with record heat and shutdown of nuke plants and impact of Rita on our power infrastructure, who knows what the power grid in Texas will do. It's pretty stable compared to Northeast or Northwest.
I figure I can donate what I probably won't need to local shelters. Yesterday it looked like Austin may get CAT1 / Tornadoes.
That's a little ridiculous. However, I'd fill up tomorrow if I could. The Houston refineries are shut down. That's on top of the ones Katrina knocked out. Gasoline will be in short supply next week, and price will ration it. It might easily get to 4 bucks a gallon or more in the short term. It'll drop quickly thereafter when the Houston refineries refire, assuming they don't have much damage.
Joe Bastardi is still sticking with his Galveston/High Island landfall prediction. That's a worse case scenario for the refineries.