I live in the 'burbs but I have friends in Atlanta and apparently, there's no gas inside the perimeter, and if there is...it's like 5 bucks a gallon! When will this get better?!

Atlanta Gas Crunch: 'We've Got No Gas Here'

"Mohammed Hussain got 3,000 gallons of gas delivered to his Chevron station in suburban Atlanta on Saturday. By Sunday morning, all of the gas, priced at $4.39 per gallon for regular unleaded, was gone . . . Across metro Atlanta, drivers in one of the nation's largest commuter cities are running into the same thing: a lack of gas and no clear idea when the situation will get better. State and industry officials say they're working as fast as they can and are urging people not to panic."

I think this might have something to do with the refinery capacity that got knocked off-line during Hurrican Ike.

I have kept quiet about our little gas nightmare around here, perhaps because it has been so surreal that I have been in denial about it. We could not get gas for 3 days straight - it was starting to get scary. My hubby drove around on his lunch hour and found something and waited on line for half an hour but now we have a full tank in each car - PHEW! Yesterday, only 1 out of every 5 gas stations had gas and people were waiting in line for hours only to have the tanks run out. I'm in NC and they said that due to the shut down of some of the Texas refineries from IKE, we only received 30% of our usual fuel shipment and because people panicked and started topping off their tanks and filling extra gas cans, there was not enough to go around for the people who were running on empty. There are only two major pipelines that come into the south, so when something happens to them, we are sunk. Our governor was able to get some tankers coming in from MD and states other than Texas, and now some of the damage to the pipelines has been repaired, so supposedly today we were up to 60% capacity and should be back to normal by next week.

My son lives in the Atlanta burbs as well, Deli, and he complains of the same thing. He has a gorgeous Jeep and it needs to be fed! BTW, you, Mariana, Mort and whomever else lives in Atlanta should meet with me when I come down next month. We could all exchange perfume samples over a cuppa at the coffee shop!!

And, my son is single and very good looking!

I live just outside Nashville. We've had a gas crunch for a good while now! It's getting a little better. They are saying that in a week or two it should be back to normal, again.

My mother lives in the burbs of Atlanta too!

My sister and her family, as well as my parents, are all in Asheville NC. Mom and Dad have not left High Vista (their subdivision on a mountain) in over a week because the tank is only 1/4 full. My sister has not been to work in a week because of the shortage. All are assuring me that they are perfectly fine. This is largly due to my sister's Mormon stockpile of a year's food stuff, as well as a small garden (producing fresh vegetables).

I could get down to Asheville from Lexington with a car full of foodstuff luxuries if I got gas in Kentucky before entering Tennessee but the family is assuring me that they are fine for the time being. They are being told that this could shortage could conceivably last for another 2 weeks or more.

Wow! I had no idea. Our gas prices shot up for a few days, post hurricanes, but have recently dropped down a bit. I haven't noticed any non-functioning stations. I just called my aunt and uncle in the piedmont area of North Carolina and they confirmed that open gas stations are few and far between in their area. They thought the situation was nationwide.

Colonia, I had the same reaction. In NJ, gas in plentiful and the cheapest in the nation because of the proximity to refineries. Until I read this, I had to idea that there was a problem anywhere. I haven't seen any news coverage of this at all. I hope you all have gas soon!

Twice last week I managed to fill up at the Chevron on Piedmont & Ponce (Mon & Fri), and both times reg was running around 3.96/gallon. I haven't been as fortunate finding gas in Cobb County. The QT up the street is out and has been for a while. The gouging Citgo across the highway gets gas in, but they have no compunction about charging as much as $5/gal for it. The Racetrac had some the other day (3.98/gal), but they were lined up at all the pumps, and I'm not real patient about waiting in gas lines. It reminds me too much of rush hour gridlock, and there are some rude-A people in Atlanta. I have better luck finding gas, and not having to wait in line during my lunch hour, fwiw.

My early week fill up should've lasted into next week, but I had to drive to Norcross twice, which is about 20-25 miles from work & home, and to the ball park twice which is another 15 miles from home. Once I hit 1/4 tank, I started getting nervous again. I'm only 10 miles from work, but I can't go back and forth to work for a week on a 1/4 tank. I'm rationing trips as much as possible this week, in hopes that the supply will be flowing normally again by next weekend.

ETA--I think the situation is worse in the south, because most of our supply comes from the gulf. The refineries were struggling to get back online after Ike.

I've been using gasbuddy.com to find out which local stations have been spotted open w/gas. The governor of NC said the supply should be back to normal by Monday - but since so many people have been waiting to fill up, there will still be a rush on the pumps and some gas scarcity before it all levels out. Considering that the state gov'ts and the oil refineries/companies knew the storm was coming, shouldn't they have had some emergency back-up plan to prevent massive gas shortages?? Jus' wondering ...

Haha, Chardkay...you're so sweet!

Mariana...I've only seen two stations and there had to have been 40 cars in line. I have half a tank in my little Honda, so lets hope it gets me through this little crunch!

*prays for gas* lol

I have a question. Are people in North America starting to buy cars with smaller engines, now that they can't afford (or can't find the gas) to fill their old big engines that were popular before?

(I know there are some people who drive cars with small engines in comparison to the norm, but I think the very small engines we have in Europe, less than 1000cc in some cases, are still uncommon.)

I recommend hunting gas down midday as opposed to after work or on weekends if your scheduled is flexible enough to allow it. There's less of a rush, and the wait in line time is minimal. Plus the trucks tend to deliver in the am.

We're not buying anything atm. No cars, no houses, no nada. I've seen more smaller cars on the road lately, but the big suv is still king.

Does anyone else see a correlation between upcoming election and 'bad news' being suppressed?

Oh, yes. And why have gas prices come down so much when home heating oil prices haven't budged? Because the first is a daily reality, the second hasn't hit yet.

No - the bigger bad news was the financial crisis, which affects us nationally and globally, so I think smaller regional stuff fell by the wayside. I agree with Paula/Perfume Addict's assessment that the financial crisis and the presidential debates overshadowed the other news this week.

I wish that were the case. I know a couple of people that are trying to sell their gas-guzzling SUVs, but they can't find any buyers. So they keep on driving them. I suspect there may be many others in that situation.

I'm driving a 1990 Honda Accord which gets good gas mileage, and I intend to keep on doing so for as long as I can. I bought her in 1996 from her 1st owner, and she's been a fabulous little car. I've had to spend about $2,500 over the last couple of years to replace worn-out parts, but that's a lot less than I would have spent buying a newer car. Good gas mileage, great engine, reliable... why give that up?

It's my stated intention to keep her alive until my hydrogen car is ready. I'm only partly kidding...

You mean our press/media can't cover several bad news stories simultaneously -- kinda like a politician-elect can't legislate
and debate simultaneously?

Funny how that happens eh ? We have the age of twenty four hour news broadcasts and yet they seem to cover less ground than what was in the days of noon, six and eleven ......or is it that they just take the two main items and insist on beating us upside the head with them constantly ?

<groan> You've hit upon one of my pet peeves.

I find it painfully ironic that, during the same time frame that college degrees became widespread, the quality/quantity of actual information dispersed via newscasts dropped like a rock.

Why does an educated population of adults not demand better quality news? Are there so many ways to gather information now that newcasts have become irrelevant?

Not to mention the cost of food. I have a sinking feeling that when gas prices do finally ease, that we'll find the increase in the prices at the supermarket have decided to stick around.

They do, and yes. You've stated it precisely. Newscast-watching is at an all-time low, and for good reason. Younger people in particular are getting their news from other sources, mostly the internet. I like to check a wide variety of news websites on a semi-regular basis; it's *fascinating* to see how different sources view news. Biases become immediately apparent. My current favorite list of news sources includes CNN, Fox, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Christian Science Monitor, the BBC, and Al-Jazeerah. And the occasional blog. Sometimes the pictures alone tell you all you need to know about biases. And what doesn't get covered is sometimes even more interesting than what does.

But back to the gas crunch: my mother, in Asheville, North Carolina, reports finally filling up their two cars for the first time in weeks. She says their representatives finally came down on Raleigh, the state capitol, and raised Cain. The crunch is highly selective, it appears; the eastern half of North Carolina had far more gas than the western half. That's apparently shifting now.

No problems in Michigan, BTW, where gas is finally at a more normal price again.

They're predicting another 2 weeks of the gas nightmare in Atl.