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Motorists are rising before dawn so they can
be at the filling station when the delivery truck arrives. Some
are skipping work or telecommuting. Others are taking the extreme
step - for Atlanta - of switching to public transportation.
Across a section of the South, a
hurricane-induced gasoline shortage that was expected to last only
a few days is dragging into its third week, and experts say it
could persist into mid-October. The Atlanta area has been hit
particularly hard, along with Nashville and western North
Carolina.
Those lucky enough to find gas are paying
more than drivers elsewhere around the country.
"I've used up gas just looking for
gas," said Larry Jenkins, a construction worker who pulled
his red pickup truck into a Citgo station in Charlotte, N.C., on
Monday. The sign said $3.99 a gallon, but the pumps were closed.
Many filling stations in the area have not had gas for days.
"Right now, I'll pay anything for
gas," Jenkins said. "I don't care if it's $5 or $6 a
gallon. I need it."
The shortage started with the one-two punch
of Hurricanes Gustav and Ike, which shut down refineries along the
Gulf Coast. Now, more than two weeks after Ike, many refineries
are still making fuel at reduced levels.
While other parts of the country get
gasoline from a variety of domestic and overseas sources, the
Southeast relies heavily on two pipelines that carry fuel from the
Gulf of Mexico. Because the gasoline moves at just 3 to 5 mph, it
can take up to 10 days to reach Atlanta.
A tendency among panicky drivers in the
hardest-hit areas to top off their tanks every time they pass an
open station has only made matters worse.
"Fuel is coming back into the system,
but as soon as it comes in, it's being sucked back out by
consumers who are afraid the shortage is going to continue,"
said Ben Brockwell of the Oil Price Information Service in Wall,
N.J.
In the meantime, government agencies have
postponed public hearings, community colleges have canceled
classes, and some companies have provided vans for carpooling or
encouraged employees to work from home.
Hours-long lines, "No gas" signs
and plastic bags covering fuel-pump nozzles are familiar sights
around Atlanta, where drivers have become intimately familiar with
fuel delivery schedules, rising before daybreak when they know gas
is coming to a certain station.
"I was just in Atlanta yesterday. There
is no gasoline in Atlanta, in Charlotte, in Chattanooga. It's like
a Third World country," former House Speaker Newt Gingrich
said Sunday on ABC.
Police officers and a security guard were on
hand to manage the flow of cars at a downtown Atlanta gas station
around midday Monday.
Kathy Burdett, 49, of Forest Park, said the
shortage ruined her weekend plans to visit Stone Mountain with
out-of-town guests.
"I didn't go anywhere all weekend and
we kept close to home," said Burdett, who had to hunt for the
gasoline her friends needed to make it home to Tennessee.
The average price for regular gas Monday was
$3.94 per gallon in Georgia, 30 cents higher than the national
average, according to the AAA. Motorists were paying an average of
$3.89 a gallon Monday in North Carolina and $3.80 in South
Carolina.
Authorities in North Carolina and Tennessee
said they were investigating reports of price-gouging, while
Georgia's consumer affairs office has subpoenaed sales records
from 130 gas stations because of similar complaints.
Even in Atlanta, a city notorious for long
commutes and traffic, some drivers were turning to public
transportation. Although the MARTA bus and subway system did not
have ridership numbers for September, a spokeswoman said parking
lots at stations were busier than usual.
As she waited in a gas line at an Atlanta
station, 27-year-old Kasheeda Washington said she planned to start
taking the bus because driving from her home in suburban Marietta
to two jobs in Atlanta and to classes at the downtown campus of
Georgia State University had become too expensive.
"I would have never thought this day
would come when I would have to wait for gas," she said.
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