Tales from the pump - From today's paper
We may have avoided a hit from Hurricane Katrina, but the Triad will still get sucker-punched by gas prices.
The shutdown of oil platforms, refineries and pipelines along the Gulf Coast due to Katrina drove energy prices sharply higher Tuesday, all-but-guaranteeing a surge in pump prices in the days ahead. AAA of the Carolinas estimates hikes of as much as 20 cents per gallon in the next several days.
That led Triad drivers to head to the pump on Monday and Tuesday in an effort to save some money at a time when gas prices seemed to be spiraling upward by the hour.
But time may be running out. Some gas stations in Greensboro and Summerfield were charging $2.99 for super unleaded gas by late Tuesday afternoon.
Scenes from around the region:
- Drivers intent on beating rising gas prices descended upon the RaceWay station on North Main Street in High Point. The station ran out of various grades of gasoline three times on Monday.
"Everyone was filling up their cars and gas cans," said Nikki Makwana, the manager of the station.
The shortages lasted a couple of hours, and at $2.45 a gallon for regular unleaded gas Monday night, customers kept coming back to see when the pumps would be up again.
- Down the road at the Hess-Wilco station on North Main Street, the gas kept flowing Monday night with regular unleaded gas at $2.46.
"[Monday] night you couldn't get into this place," C.D. Merricks, the station manager, said. "We sold double what we normally do. Everyone was in panic mode."
Merricks had to ask customers to pre-pay because he could not keep track of the cars.
By lunchtime Tuesday, regular unleaded gas was up 13 cents a gallon.
- Gail Hutcheson, a retired teacher, has limited her trips because of high gas prices.
But with a half-tank of fuel Tuesday, she did venture out to the Hess-Wilco on North Main Street in High Point.
"I wanted to come and get some gas before it goes up anymore," Hutcheson, 63, said.
- Along Battleground Avenue in Greensboro, regular unleaded gas prices ranged from $2.53 to $2.59 a gallon Tuesday afternoon.
Since gas prices started creeping up, Travis Funderburk has been filling up his Blue Bird taxi cab a little bit at a time.
"I can't afford to fill it. It would take my whole paycheck," said Funderburk, who put $6 of gas in his Crown Victoria Tuesday afternoon at a Battleground Avenue BP station. "It's too much, and it hurts."
- At the three gas stations on Wendover Avenue near the Interstate 40 interchange - Shell, Exxon and Sheetz - regular unleaded gas topped out at $2.60 a gallon early Tuesday afternoon. A mile away at Costco, it was $2.44 and cars lined up.
Overnight price hikes were not something Anita Hunter was planning on.
"We're trying to budget to work around it, but sometimes we've stayed home on the weekends because we can't afford to buy gas for the car," Hunter said, as she stopped at Sheetz Tuesday afternoon.
- Filling up his Chevrolet Tahoe SUV with $12 worth of gas at an Exxon station in downtown High Point, James Hayes said rising gas prices have caused him to cut back on travel. He hasn't completely filled his gas tank in more than a month, he said.
"You go where you have to go," he said. "You don’t go cruising."
Staff writers Ellica Church and Eric Swensen and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Contact Amy Dominello at 883-4422, Ext. 248, or adominello@news-record.com
Comments (1)
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Folks are in for a lot of hurt- most of Greensboro was designed to be utterly useless without cheap oil.
Posted on August 31, 2005 11:30 AM