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Gas Shortage In the South Creates Panic

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Sep 27, 2008 8:06 am US/Eastern

Gas Shortage In the South Creates Panic

If Drivers Can Fill Up, They Get Sticker Shock

RALEIGH, NORTH CAROLINA (CBS4) ― The effects of Hurricanes Gustav and Ike largely emptied two critical gasoline pipelines that feed much of the South, leading to widespread panic-buying, shuttered pumps.

The widespread flooding and power outages that shut down 15 Houston-area refineries are not the only reasons why some 75 percent of gas stations in the region have plastic bags over their pump handles.

Getting supplies back has been made more difficult by other problems – a shortage of regional refineries, a middleman distribution system of gasoline "jobbers" seen as a weak link in the government's ability to control the economy's critical fuel link, according to AAA. 

Prices in Atlanta, topping $4.29 in some places, were the highest in the lower forty-eight.  Some motorists in the city ran out of gas in line and had to push their cars to the pumps. In Nashville, drivers waited for hours for fuel, only to see gas pumps covered in bags.

A petroleum executive suggested that No. 3 Georgia postpone its Saturday night football game against No. 8 Alabama, but it was rejected by the Georgia governor's office.

But the university's police chief did suggest fans who can't make a round trip to the stadium on a single tank stay home.

Many across the Southeast are keeping their cars in the garage this weekend, forced to cancel plans for fear they'll run out of gas.


(© 2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

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