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No Gasoline!
In Nashville over 50% of the gas stations are out of gas and that's up from 85% being out on Friday. Any stations that have gas had lines Friday and some folks waited over an hour for gas only to find out they ran out. The pipeline out of Houston that serves Nashville was closed due to Ike and it's just now back to 100% but it'll take days before supplies return to normal.
The odd thing is most of the stations were out of gas as early as last Sunday but there were no long lines at those that had gas. I filled up Thursday after work with no lines. The local AM paper ran a story on Friday talking about the gas shortage and it sent people flocking to the pumps. On my way home Friday I passed 3 stations that had lines out into the streets which blocked evening rush hour traffic. Since now we had lines at the gas stations the television stations started reporting on the lines which sent even more people out to the pumps, many were topping off their tanks and filling up 5 gal containers, this also led to some short tempers and some minor altercations. The local media screwed the pooch on the whole situation, but thats a whole other topic....
Many people stayed home this weekend or stayed close to home, we went to eat Saturday night and would normally expect a 30-40 min wait at 6pm but we were able to get a seat within 5 minutes. I vaguely remember the gas crisis of the 70s but I was a kid so it really don't remember much. For me this really drives home how dependant we are on gas and what could happen if it were in short supply. We are being told by end of the week things should start returning to normal, but what if there was no end in sight? I use a tank of gas a week the changes I would have to make would probably include either requesting that I work from home most of the week, or find a job closer to home (25 miles one way now) and would drastically change weekend plans.
Anyone else seeing the shortages or thought about what they would do if gas supplies were limited?
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