I live in the Dallas area and we are seeing the impact very quickly as gas stations are running out of gas. The media is making it worse. I needed gas in one of the cars last night so I went to my usual place and there were over 40 cars in line. I kept on driving and found a few lines shorter but the gas was also $.25 - $.40 per gallon higher in those locations. At a local Sam's Club the line was wrapped all the way around the building because they hadn't taken an increase yet. I opted to pay the higher price and get it over with. Today I'll venture out to fill the truck up. People were even following a gas tanker to a gas station and waiting to get gas. This problem will likely start to trickle out away from the TX Gulf Coast area.

Another thing I learned from Katrina is that in about 3 - 6 months many parts of the country could start to see flood damaged cars for sale. At the time I was looking for a truck for my son and we found a really nice truck with low miles for a cheap price. I found sand inside in some weird places and rusted bolts and parts where they should never get wet. The early estimate is that 500,000 cars were damaged in Houston alone. In many cases the insurance companies will total them but not actually want the car. These cars will start showing up around the country so be careful! The same thing goes for RV's, ATV's and motorcycles. Look for unusual titles, salvaged titles, forged titles and etc. Carfax is a good place to see where a vehicle has been titled in the past.

Looking over GasBuddy , this problem seems to be more concentrated along the I-35 corridor through Texas. Unfortunately, that's a corridor I drive on a frequent basis. It will be "interesting" to see what difficulties I face when I drive home in about a week.

dd

Excellent Post. Cars/vehicles/etc will show up and be very clean looking. Never bought one, but have seen several that were on market. Buyer Beware. They will get to a city or town near you

I remember gas lines in the late 70s. When I moved to Louisiana in '79 I was in Lake Charles and sat in a gas line across from a refinery. I turned the engine off and pushed it through the line to save gas. Sometimes they would run out of gas just as you got to the pump. I feel your pain.

Well, between the time I headed to the river and headed home yesterday, gas went up 15 cents a gallon. I'm certain it will keep going? Not as bad as Katrina, it went up over $1 a gallon in a day. Pretty small potatoes compared to what the folks in the Houston area are going through though!

Up 10 cents here in Perham, where they're always willing to cash in on whatever reason is in the news... Maybe they're sending the extra profit to food relief?...

Obviously I wasn't too far off. I just read this online.
Flood Damaged Cars

My parents have always wondered if the Suburban we've had for going on 18 years was flooded by a hurricane in North Carolina (not sure which one) - and we bought it from THE DEALER! A great car - but I dare say it is now after a new engine, radiator, fuel pump . . .

Thanks for the warning, Northwoodsman.

Up another 10 cents yesterday

quote schweady: "Up another 10 cents yesterday
"

Yeah, up 30 cents this week here.

Yep. Still going on as of this morning, as I was driving to Arlington from Collin County. I'm in a somewhat rural-but-still-somewhat-populated area of Collin County and gas stations are few and far between us and the freeway - so there were still plenty of gas vultures about.

I had been topping off my take each night on my way home the first couple days after Harvey made landfall, trying to avoid the price gouging as much as I could. Then when people started freaking out over stations running out of gas, I stopped playing that game a) to avoid lines and 2) to not play in to the false panic.

The news media and social media have really blown this out of proportion. Yesterday on my way to work, I saw a dude hauling a trailer with 15-20 gas cans full and tied down in the back. I've seen a meme going around today too, (unverified) of a dude with a 55 gallon plastic (open top) trash bin in the bed of his truck, just pumping gas straight into it. That is hopefully not real, but it wouldn't surprise me if it was. It's creeps like that, that are causing the problem.

When you have that much refining capability that goes offline as well as pipelines shutdowns I am surprised it has not gone up more. Gas has been very cheap in the last year.

quote dentondoc: "Looking over GasBuddy , this problem seems to be more concentrated along the I-35 corridor through Texas. Unfortunately, that's a corridor I drive on a frequent basis. It will be "interesting" to see what difficulties I face when I drive home in about a week.


dd "

It sucks.