Since we are all in a talk about the financial meltdown credit crisis, I thought it would be good to talk about another major crisis that has not, to my knowledge, been mentioned here and it at least should. I'm talking about a gas shortage in Georgia!
Hurricane Ike damaged the easy distribution pipelines for gas for many corners of the southeast, and that is understandable. What is not understandable is how both Louisiana and Texas seem to be back right where they were before in terms of average gas prices, and yet a state like Georgia has all of a sudden become the state with the most expensive average gas prices in the surrounding 48 states. That's right! Behind only Hawaii and Alaska, Georgia, whom at one time along with Alabama, South Carolina, Mississippi and even at times Tennessee was consider one of the cheapest states to get gas, is now the 3rd most expensive state for gas. And a big reason is that there is a big shortage.
Maps and other info after the bump...
Take a look at this map. The entire state of Georgia, except for one small area around Savannah, is pretty much, no pun intended, a red state. The most dire is of course Atlanta, where gas costs on average just over $4 a gallon. The current average cost of gas for the state of California according to GasBuddy.com - $3.81.
The situation has gotten so dire that local news stations, like 11 Alive News, keeps tabs on the latest gas station openings and tanker deposits. A real-time, updated map can be found here. In fact, coming back from a gig in Alpharetta to Marietta at 11:45 PM on Saturday night, there was a BP station on the way back where I spotted a line that had to have been more than 50 cars! Sound eerily like the gas crisis of the 1970s? There's no other way to describe it.
Now some of you may look at the map and say "oh, well there are over 40 spots around Atlanta so you can get gas!" Atlanta is a large city, with lots of twisting roads, and plenty of ways to guzzle your gas. The fact that you only see 40 bubbles, at best, in and around Atlanta may be fine and dandy if Atlanta were say the size of Macon, GA. But it's not, and I don't know if you noticed from the map above, but the majority of gas sightings appear to be in the surrounding Atlanta areas (Kennesaw, Marietta, Smyrna, Roswell, etc.) According to the 11 Alive map above as of 11:00 AM 9/29/2008, Atlanta, the metro city itself, which houses a population of over 5,000,000 people, had only 9 gas stations that were spotted to have gas, some only having regular 87 - no unleaded 91 or premium 93. Let me say that again - 9 gas stations, in a city of over 5,000,000 people!
I waited in line for 20 minutes at a Walmart gas station near Kennesaw, GA at 11 AM Sunday just to fill up. I'm glad I did, because half the gas stations went dry during the day and I could have found myself a good 15-20 miles from being able to find a gas station with gas.
DKos community, I'm writing this diary to get the word out that Georgia is in a real heap of trouble. All I ask is for this story to get out because unless it does, things won't change and many people will continue to suffer. Tallahassee, FL was among those hit hardest in terms of gas shortages after Ike, but today, the town is returning to normal. I credit that with the fact that the people made a big shout about the price gauging and gas shortages to the press and anyone who would hear, and fast action was accordingly undertaken. I have not seen any news items, except from IReports on CNN.com, discussing the gas crisis that is enveloping Georgia, and this has been going on since Ike landed, which was almost three weeks ago! If we can get the word out, then hopefully some normalcy can begin to return to Atlanta and the rest of Georgia.