Southeast Stations Running Dry
With many refineries still shut down, the price of gasoline is rising by the hour.
The AAA says that, just overnight, the price of self-serve regular gas jumped 19 cents to a nationwide average of $2.87 a gallon heading into the Labor Day weekend.
If we've never seen prices like this before, CBS News Correspondent Jim Axelrod reports there is something else many of us have seen – lines.
It was turn-back-the-clock-day in the southeast: 1970's-style gas lines… and desperation.
"Get every drop in there. Can't lose none," said one man as he filled up.
"What are we supposed to do for gas?" said Tawana Allen.
Stations are running dry.
"If it was $10 a gallon, I'd be buying it today since you can't get it anywhere else," said one distraught consumer.
With gulf pipeline capacity severely compromised, gasoline in the south is getting hard to come by.
"Listen, we're gonna have a problem this weekend when it comes to gasoline," said President Bush.
Politicians are asking people to cut back but some consumers don't see that as a realistic option.
"So the president and the governor say don't fill up. It doesn't make any sense. You can't justify the statement because we have to come out to make a living," said Peter Hoffman.
The price is climbing, the supply is shrinking, and complaints of gouging are being heard from Maine to Montana.
"It's frustrating. I'm definitely not planning on driving much at all. I'm parking the car for the rest of the weekend til gas goes back down," said Michael Villela.
Oil anaylst Bill O'Grady says 60 million barrels of oil from strategic reserves will more than make up for what Katrina has done to the supply.
"I suspect within about 10 days we'll see the situation will be significantly better than it is today," O'Grady said.
Not all the oil to be released from the strategic reserve is domestic. About half will come from Europe. It takes close to two weeks for a typical tanker to make the trip. It will surprise no one but rates to ship the oil doubled today.