Patience, patience

Hurricane Ike not only unleashed its mite on the Texas coastline and its inland refineries, but the monstrous storm also sent drivers from Oregon to the Carolinas scrambling for gas. Fuel prices on Friday had jumped significantly over the previous evening, and those wanting to fill up their cars – high prices or not – were often limited to merchant-imposed rations, usually about 10 gallons.
For Rockingham County residents who work in Virginia or Guilford or Forsyth counties, we hope you managed to gas up before leaving work Friday. Otherwise, simply getting home would have proved a dicey proposition.
Friday, the Shell Quality Mart on Freeway Drive in Reidsville, for example, was limiting drivers to 10 gallons. The only gas available was premium—for $4.03 per gallon. At the Quality Plus station at N.C. 87 and Vance Street Extension, drivers Friday morning were lined nearly into the highway for gas, which jumped about 40 cents in price overnight. In Eden, the Great Stop near Wal-Mart on N.C. 14 had closed its pumps, according to reports. The Gas Town on Academy Street in Madison had fuel Friday afternoon, but the cost there had obviously risen as well.
By 5 p.m., many Rockingham stations had simply run out of fuel.
Thing is, the sense of panic is only accelerating a supply problem that could still be more imagined than real.
Patience, patience.
Friday, the AP reported, Gov. Mike Easley declared a state of “abnormal market disruption” and signed an order allowing the attorney general to enforce North Carolina’s anti-gouging law.
Attorney General Roy Cooper said Friday the law applies to all levels of the fuel supply chain. Cooper said his office is ready to take consumer complaints. Easley said wholesale prices were up less than 20 cents a gallon, and consumers shouldn’t see prices rise substantially more than the wholesale increase.
“We are encouraging motorists to exercise some restraint this weekend,” AAA Carolinas spokeswoman Carol Gifford told The Associated Press. “The run on gas is creating a crisis before there is a crisis.”
Good advice, which we would do well to heed in the coming days and weeks. After all, it looks as though it would be a good weekend to hunker down at home, especially if you had the foresight to fill up mowers and lawn trimmers.