Gas shortage?

Hurricane Fran showed me a lot about how people will react when power is out for more than a few minutes. Holy crap it was funny sad and scary all at the he same time.

Last weekend of July this year I had to go pickup my daughter from my folks, I'd been on the road about an hour, wife calls says power is out. Turns out the substation near us had a failing transformer,power was out about 8 hours. We happen to have a Facebook page for the neighborhood, OMG the whining and carrying on. "They should have scheduled it and let us know so we could plan"
People take so much for granted ( myself included in some cases)

when the harsh reality of life happens.....
 
I drov by th fuel terminals in Selma this morning, I expected lines of tank trucks, more so than usual.
Wasn't much different than normal, no lines waiting, trucks loading in the racks.
One BP station was bagged on 96, I filled work van at BP on Bus70 and outlet mall rd. The other stations appeared to be normal as well
 
$10 limit is straight out ridiculous. Buying 4 gallons of gas at a time would be pointless. You'd burn a half a gallon just waiting in line. 10 gallon limit makes a little more sense.
4 gallons lasts me a week of commuting in a my Mazda. Same w/ my wife.
 
Funny.... sort of like.... "Stop adding to the panic we created"
I mentioned this earlier.
What exactly did they do to create panic?
All I saw was reporting that here would be a small shortage and expect prices to go up due to the increased price of delivery via vehicle instead of pipe.
Who actually said "Go out and guy gas NOW!"?
Would it be better to have no reporting? Then it'd be labeled a cover-up or conspiracy.

IMO people create their own panic.
 
Down in Midlands SC I've only see about a $.10-$.20 increase so far.
 
I mentioned this earlier.
What exactly did they do to create panic?
All I saw was reporting that here would be a small shortage and expect prices to go up due to the increased price of delivery via vehicle instead of pipe.
Who actually said "Go out and guy gas NOW!"?
Would it be better to have no reporting? Then it'd be labeled a cover-up or conspiracy.

IMO people create their own panic.
I just got an email from a local (Columbia, SC) radio station's loyal listeners club with the subject line "SC Gas Stations Are Running Out of Gas, Fill Up Soon".
 
IMO people create their own panic.

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I mentioned this earlier.
What exactly did they do to create panic?
All I saw was reporting that here would be a small shortage and expect prices to go up due to the increased price of delivery via vehicle instead of pipe.
Who actually said "Go out and guy gas NOW!"?
Would it be better to have no reporting? Then it'd be labeled a cover-up or conspiracy.

IMO people create their own panic.

Media outlets and the puppeteers know that the vast majority will react when the right buttons are pressed. We are a "must have it now" society so when there is even a remote chance of inconveniencing, the panic sets in. Its like they don't even have to try anymore.
 
Funny.... sort of like.... "Stop adding to the panic we created"
Yeah the local AM radio station calming down what the TV news (an hour away) got started.
 
Media outlets and the puppeteers know that the vast majority will react when the right buttons are pressed. We are a "must have it now" society so when there is even a remote chance of inconveniencing, the panic sets in. Its like they don't even have to try anymore.
Maybe - but tell me, how is the right way to report something like this then?
Better to not report anything at all?
 
Just pulled into Lowes gas station in Sanford... All the pumps were bagged, but saw the attendant outside and figured we'd just pull up and see what she had to say about things. Out of everything except Diesel.

Bad part is, delivery truck had been there about an hour earlier, but nobody in line would move to let him get to the tank fills, so he left and took his load somewhere else. If I was her, I would have called the cops and trespassed everyone that didn't move (i.e. leave) the property when she asked them to.
 
I mentioned this earlier.
What exactly did they do to create panic?
All I saw was reporting that here would be a small shortage and expect prices to go up due to the increased price of delivery via vehicle instead of pipe.
Who actually said "Go out and guy gas NOW!"?
Would it be better to have no reporting? Then it'd be labeled a cover-up or conspiracy.

IMO people create their own panic.


I have seen on every single news channel about how to report gas price gouges to the DOJ (Roy Cooper), but so far I have YET to see one report of what actually constitutes gouging. I've seen a ten cent differential on 4 gas stations on opposing corners before with no "gas shortage". Does that mean the pricey guy is gouging? Or is that just the market dictating? Is covering up your regular and mid-grade pumps and forcing people to buy premium gouging, or is holding onto the regular and mid-grade as reserves for police/fire use legit (seen stations do that before)? And yes, I have seen news stories in the Piedmont Triad where they are encouraging going out to top off vehicles because they don't know exactly how long it will be before the pipeline is back up/trucks can get to gas stations to replenish.

I was driving to Michigan once when the Niagra power grid went down. I was half way through Ohio when I noticed how dark it was on the highway. You could see car headlights, but entire cities were dark. I started watching for gas stations at about 1/4 tank. Kept passing dark stations until I finally found one running a generator for his pumps - thank goodness because I was on fumes at that point. Ran from North Ohio until mid Michigan without seeing many gas stations or ATMs. It was what I figured the early apocalypse would look like. This was only for a couple days in the summer.
 
Amazing! Seems that the folks in VA haven't heard of this... put 20gals of 89 ethanol free in the boat yesterday at SML and filled up the Jeep + 5gal can this AM leaving Rocky Mount

How is it their gasoline gets there thru a different pipeline than NC/SC?
 
Amazing! Seems that the folks in VA haven't heard of this... put 20gals of 89 ethanol free in the boat yesterday at SML and filled up the Jeep + 5gal can this AM leaving Rocky Mount

How is it their gasoline gets there thru a different pipeline than NC/SC?

Most of the gas stations in our little town are owned by one of two people. One of those is a hunting buddy of my dad. I remember him saying that their fuel is trucked in from the depot in Savanah. That was a few years ago and maybe it's changed, but I wonder where the dividing line is between supplied by colonial pipeline and supplied by port on east coast...

Edit: I was wrong. His supply is from an offshoot of Colonial in North Augusta. But, there is a depot in Savanah that you would think could cover some of the supply.
 
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Wife stopped to get gas this morning on her way to work. She called me and said the station was out of everything but premium and was 2.65 a gal.

That's not too bad considering I think it was 2.49 before all this crap started, but the fact that they were out of reg and mid grade is pretty concerning. I agree the media is hyping it up to be more of an issue than it is.


Lol.... I got 7 gallon of ethanol free if I need it though...
They were out of mid grade because they were out of regular. Most stations have a tank of premium, and a tank of regular. If you pick midgrade the pump itself mixes from both tanks.

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Maybe - but tell me, how is the right way to report something like this then?
Better to not report anything at all?

There is no right way. Someone will get butthurt or disagree in some way.

To give a personal opinion, make the information something along the lines of what the media said along with what @Mac5005 was talking about. Disclose the issue, make people aware that the storage tanks in their region are capable of handling X amount of supply when service is interrupted and move on. But hey, that wouldn't be the mainstream media way.
 
came home from Wrightsville today. left Wilmington and figured I would get some gas in Raleigh, mistake! was getting nervous about making it home. everywhere we tried or called was out. called about 20 miles ahead to Hillsborough and the 3 places we called said they had gas. got there and the first 2 were now out. pulled up to the 3rd and luckily got gas. here in Danville, the 3 places I passed had gas and no lines? some places I heard were out though. hope this doesn't last long. :beer:
 
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