OK, OK, this was published before I knew pipelines were broken and Ike screwed things up. People still freaked out. Oh well, read this as if it were fiction with some mix of truth. At least it's fun. Enjoy folks. Try to limit your driving.
With supply seeming to be cut drastically, prices began to rise. With the threat of a shortage of gas, demand skyrocketed. I sat by idly watching terror set in. I had 3/4 of a tank, I'd be fine. I turned on the news on Friday afternoon to see prices rising and something I'd never seen before, stations running out of gas completely. I raised an eyebrow.
"Maybe this is worse than I thought," I wondered.
No, no, all a media sham. Around 5:30PM I left my house to take my brother to work to find traffic out into the streets with people attempting to fill up. Some stations had prices up 50-80 cents higher than they were just hours before and the less expensive stations looked more like the oil embargo of the 70s than in 2008. I thought this would pass. I then passed a series of stations, they had run out of gas. Caution tape created a perimeter around the pumps and prices had been taken down from the signs. The apocalypse set in.
"This is what it's going to be like when gas truly runs out," I thought. "We're screwed."
I thought this would all pass and by Saturday morning things would return to normal, but upon seeing my first gas station that had gas around 8:30AM on Saturday, the line again was into the street. I wondered if these were the same people panicking yesterday and still waiting for a few precious gallons. More stations closed, the few remaining had raised prices anywhere from 60 cents to a whole dollar more per gallon. The media succeeded, they created mass hysteria.
Hurricane Ike brought destruction to the Texas coast, pounding Galveston and Houston leaving a swath of damage and by Saturday afternoon it had left its mark. As the news poured in about the damage in Texas, no one was sure about those crucial refineries. Once word came in, I laughed, no major damage reported, and gas would begin flowing without much in the way of continued problems.
I didn't fill up. I was fine, at the time of this writing I am still on that same tank of gas, with just under a half a tank left. Gas, while more expensive than a week ago, is now flowing at most of the local gas stations and I'll fill up upon needed it.
What is to be learned from this? We panic quickly and usually do not think things through when disaster is looming. The media quickly spreads information about a gas shortage and people lose it, promptly begin wasting gas by getting in their cars, drive to the nearest gas station and either sit in their cars burning fuel waiting to purchase more, or they drive around wasting even more fuel looking for a cheaper station or one that actually still has gas. As a society, we need to learn when it is appropriate to heed warnings from the media and when to use their messages to plan out accordingly. Rather than freaking out, I sat back and analyzed the situation, understood that it may or may not happen and conserve fuel rather than go hunting for more. Cut down on trips and the gas I have will get me places until the tankers show up much to everyone's delight.
Oil has continued to drop, meaning the price increase from Hurricane Ike will probably fade quickly and drop below pre-Ike prices and then I'll fill up, knowing that I didn't let the media's panic and fear inducing reports get to me and hopefully save a few bucks than those who decided going to BP at 8AM on a Saturday was a great idea.
