As an infrequent diarist, I'm used to waiting for someone else to address the issues that are on my mind. There are so many excellent posters here that I only rarely have to even venture off the front page. But here in Charlotte, NC the people have been suffering through a crisis that has nothing to do with being home to Bank of America and Wachovia. We're out of gas.
Hurricane Ike made landfall on September 7 as a rather strong category three storm. We knew that, heading straight for Galveston, that there would likely be some disruption in the supply of gasoline through the Colonial Pipeline. We had no idea it would be this bad. As production was ramped down in advance of the storm, our prices in Charlotte spiked upwards, rising 70 cents and quickly hitting $4.39 per gallon and staying there for a few days.
As the storm subsided, so did prices. This was no Katrina, who disrupted the flow of gas to such a degree that prices never really recovered even three years after the storm. But then something strange started happening. Gas started to run out. We were told by the ambitious mayor of Charlotte, Pat McCrory, and his surrogates that the pipeline was at 70% capacity and that there while supply would be tight, there would be no shortages.
But the situation did not improve. As gas stations started to run low, people started to worry. Once the plastic bags started cropping up on gas nozzles, people started to panic. Without that overreaction, and the accompanying greed that saw people waiting in line to top off their third SUV or fill up ten gallon gas cans, the crisis might not have been as bad. But to be fair, this is not a problem of people in lines trying to go to work. This is a crisis of bad government. Mayor Pat knew this was coming and did nothing to stop the price-gouging and the hoarding; he did nothing to use the might of the city to compel citizens and business to work together for a shared purpose.
Only after there really was a crisis, instead of just a bloody nuisance, did McCrory react. This last Thursday we heard from the gubernatorial candidate, urging prudence and patience. We were told, again, that the pipeline was at 70% capacity and that half of the stations in Charlotte had gas. Not even close. In reality we were so short of gas that the few stations that had any were quickly mobbed with lines up to several miles long. We were so short that stations were running out in South Carolina. Don't worry, we were told, shipments were being diverted from other states and we would get a major shipment on Friday.
By early Saturday, there were even fewer stations with gas. The one local station I saw got a partial truckload and was out of gas again within two hours. People were having to park in the line and push there empty cars uphill to the station, blocking the road in the process. It's now Monday morning, I've got a little less than half a tank of gas and it will be Wednesday before any more gas will be heading our way. At this point, I won't be able to head to work after tomorrow.
This is a crisis of government inaction. In a tornado, they'd be passing out bottled water or calling on organizations like the Red Cross to do so. Here? Nothing. It's been a free-market free-for-all with the owners of multiple SUVs filling up their tanks while cars line the roads. It also seems like the wealthier parts of town have had appreciably more gas. Sensible, if you're interested only in making the most money out of the crisis. Only recently have the police begun to direct traffic into and out of the stations, but again, that seems to be only in the wealthy areas. I for one cannot afford to wait for hours in line, using the little gas I do have in the hopes that there's still some gas when I get there. And the best part? No one outside of Charlotte seems to know.