How panicked drivers are making North Texas gas shortages worse

Why are we seeing gas shortages now?

Texas is the energy capital of the country, both in terms of crude oil production and refining that into different types of fuel such as gasoline, diesel, jet fuel and other products. Several refineries shut down as a precaution before Harvey made landfall in southeast Texas coast on Friday night as a category 4 hurricane. In the following days, as the storm caused widespread flooding, more inland refineries stopped operations. As of late Wednesday, more than a fifth of the nation's refining capacity -- including two of the country's largest oil refineries -- was out of commission as oil companies battled flooding.

How panicked drivers are making North Texas gas shortages worse

So here I am with a half tank of gas & work tomorrow.
Going to use a 1/4 of it tomorrow working so hoping to get some info on gas supply or location or even just opinions on this whole debacle.
Apparently, according to the authorities, this has all been caused by the idiots rushing the gas pumps after hearing there was a shortage - we obviously DO have a real shortage now because there was literally only 1 (wal-mart) out of 7 that I passed on the way home today with gas. The other 6 were either roped off, had bags over the handles or nice "we're sorry" notes on the pumps.

I didn't stop but just from observing the lines as I passed wal-mart, I'd say easily 80-100 cars were waiting for gas...out onto the road and down 3 blocks...absolute insanity.
I didn't have the time or inclination to wait for gas right now as I still have a half tank...but I'm going to need gas tomorrow.

Has anyone area this area found any good resources to locate pumps that still have gas & do you think it's going to get better tomorrow?

Had travel plans for the weekend (local but still 1 hr away & they're out where I'm going also) but unless I can find some gas in the morning I won't be going.

Figured I'd post something - didn't see anything about the shortage (created though it apparently is, thought it was funny when they came on the radio this afternoon saying there wasn't really a shortage yet pretty much every gas station I drove by was shut down...)

A few of my friends in the DFW area posted places that still had tons of gas. What county are you in?

a reply to: FissionSurplus

Denton & Collin

a reply to: coldkidc

Use GasBuddy.com for info on who has gas and how much it costs.

I have a friend in Denton County who wrote the following:

"FYI, QT's in Denton (2 off of university, one off of I-35, and one off of Swisher in Lake Dallas) should still have gas. I just filled up at the one off of I-35 and there was no line, granted it was 4am in the morning! LOL you do what you gotta do, right?!?! "

You may want to get your gas either super late or really early.

Good luck!

Remember ExxonMobil had to shut down one of their refineries. This one is the 2nd largest in the world. So things will be a bit wild for a few weeks.

So remember to plan accordingly, and ride the top half of your tank. And know prices will fluctuate for the next few weeks.

I'm in Forney at the moment. Knox on hwy 80 has a 10 gallon limit. The Buccees in Terrell still has gas.

South of San Antonio here. Our gas will probably be out tomorrow. Was told all our shipments as of now are going to corpus christi. They've been out for a while. The gas situation will probably level off once they start shipping out of Galveston and outside of Corpus again. Plants are mostly closed right now. People are there because they have to be for safety but they are not shipping.

Natural gas production has halted too as of yesterday. They don't have anywhere to ship to yet. A friend's husband works at a plant nearby. They ship out to Galveston from my understanding.

Gas should level off in the about a week or 2 at the most. Glad I work from home.

a reply to: coldkidc

This stupidity started as a facebook rumor, and repeated statements have gone out that there is no gas shortage. People are panicking over something they saw on facebook, ffs. We've never seen anything like it...absolutely zero fact, simply a facebook rumor, and suddenly all the gas stations in San Antonio have bags over their pumps.

I was caught in traffic earlier, which was generated entirely by the mindless idiots out there rushing to get gas, and had the opportunity to witness the gas prices at four different places raise ten entire cents right in front of me, within less than five minutes. People were acting like complete asses, cutting each other off and screaming and being stupid...and now there really IS a gas shortage...until a few hours from now when they all get trucks in.

Now...since this is ATS, it could be postulated that someone started that facebook rumor deliberately, knowing that people would lose their minds, despite repeatedly being told that there was no actual shortage. It would not surprise me either...it's no secret that plenty of people exploit the aftermath of natural disasters.

This whole thing is just weird. Then again, everything is getting weird.

Yep. It's happening in Austin too. I went to my local HEB to pick up a few things, and had trouble getting through the parking lot. There were probably 100 cars or more snaked through the lot waiting to get gas. Insane. I didn't know what was going on - guess I missed the facebook rumor.

I'm old enough to remember the gas shortages of the 1970's, with long lines and gas stations out of gas. This seems eerily familiar. Hope it works itself out soon - I'm down to a quarter tank myself.

a reply to: tigertatzen
I don't think it was a Facebook rumor, but you never know...I do know for a fact on Wednesday, August 27 channel 8 news was warning about gas shortages ALL DAY...then on Thursday, August 28 channel 8 backs off their warnings saying, "Calm down everyone, no need to panic there is plenty of gas coming, no need to top off your gas etc."

And then afterwards, chann 8 news had the balls to say, "Don't blame it on the news."

From my point of view, the source is from Dallas ###snipped### news. While I was watching channel 8 news on Wednesday, August 27 I knew people would panic for gas...It was so predictable the way they worked up the story showing one gas station out of gas, while everyone else had gas! Then BAM! Thursday comes and everyone tops off their tanks...all because of FAKE NEWS.

Why the # didn't you fill up in the one that had some ?

ffs

Dear ATS Readers, Writers,

I was afraid this would happen when I saw where a refinery had to shut down. And I also saw that the pipeline for fuels to east coast went down... causing near future shortages to be expected in SC, GA, NC, region.

It might sound silly but this type of thing is why I try to keep my car fuel tank near full all the time. If it gets to half that is a rare thing for me. If I keep it full or almost full, if there is a reason to travel quickly, I have enough range to get a long ways away without the need for a fuel stop.

Good luck in trying to find fuel for work.

If the fuel shortage does happen, on the east coast, it is not a good time as this storm begins to bear down on that region.

Depends on how wound up Irma gets and it's final path it takes. It could cross Florida, enter the Gulf again, build up again, and hit the same region from the opposite direction.

Kinda like a 1,2 punch to the USA... not good.

I hope all turns for the better with this new storm threat...

Pravdaseeker




a reply to: coldkidc

Maybe those inconsiderate jerks who screwed up you fueling plans also had to get to work? Maybe you aren't the only person that works in Texas? But it could be some sort of conspiracy

originally posted by: tigertatzen
a reply to: coldkidc

This stupidity started as a facebook rumor, and repeated statements have gone out that there is no gas shortage. People are panicking over something they saw on facebook, ffs. We've never seen anything like it...absolutely zero fact, simply a facebook rumor, and suddenly all the gas stations in San Antonio have bags over their pumps.

I was caught in traffic earlier, which was generated entirely by the mindless idiots out there rushing to get gas, and had the opportunity to witness the gas prices at four different places raise ten entire cents right in front of me, within less than five minutes. People were acting like complete asses, cutting each other off and screaming and being stupid...and now there really IS a gas shortage...until a few hours from now when they all get trucks in.

Now...since this is ATS, it could be postulated that someone started that facebook rumor deliberately, knowing that people would lose their minds, despite repeatedly being told that there was no actual shortage. It would not surprise me either...it's no secret that plenty of people exploit the aftermath of natural disasters.

This whole thing is just weird. Then again, everything is getting weird.

Yeah. I didn't need gas when I woke up. By the end of the day, I was wishing I'd filled up because every gas station around was either out of gas or had an hour wait to get gas. Well, frak that. I don't have the time. I have to practice bass and waste the day on ats. So! I just waited til midnight and went out and filled up. There was only a 15 minute wait then, and I somehow managed to keep awake at the wheel when Coast to Coast was on. Gah. George Noory is so boring. I should have listened to Queen instead. Oh, yeah. But anyway. Before all that happened, I went into a gas station taco shop (not Laredo Taco - I wish we had those!) and listened to tales of commuters fighting to get in line for gas and I also like umm watched the chaos outside around the gas pumps. It was pretty fascinating. They formed a line around the store and idled their motors as they waited. While they waited, an attendant would occasionally come out with a sticker and stick it on the pump that was out of gas. One by one, slowly, they closed each pump until they were all closed. Just fascinating! I took my time eating those tacos and eavesdropping on conversations about the hurricane and the gas shortages and how we can't possibly survive this crises. We're all doomed, they said. So, I finished my tacos and got in my car and turned the key and BANGO! "Fat Bottomed Girls" by Queen was on Lone Star 92.5. It was just magical.

Collin county....no outages....no lines after 8 pm last night so.....

a reply to: imitator

That's what I meant by things being weird. There was definitely a facebook post involved because I and everyone else I know has the link shared by someone else on their pages. Last night I guess TPTB decided to just start circulating another link on facebook to ameliorate the panic from the first one...too little too late, however, because all the gas pumps were long empty by that time.

My neighbor said he saw it on the news that there was a shortage, but then he couldn't find that story when he checked again later. The whole thing is very strange, and everyone I know is questioning it very heavily right now. It was probably just a big, weird snafu but when those spidey senses start tingling, it's pretty hard to ignore them.

a reply to: coldkidc

That happened on Molokai, in Hawaii, a few years ago. They get a barge every month with enough supplies for the following month, including gas. A few days before it was scheduled a station was running low (they only had like two or three stations), but not in danger of running out. Someone called a friend and said they were going to run out, and before you knew it the entire island was lined up, and they did run out.

a reply to: 4003fireglo

First off, Queen is AWESOME.

I have to say, I found it fascinating to watch as well...in a horrifying kind of way. It really provided insight into what things would be like if there were a true crisis in this city.

I don't think many people would fare very well in such a scenario. When people are willing to risk causing an accident, putting themselves and whoever is with them in the vehicle in danger just to fill up their gas tank, imagine what they would do if they ran out of food or water in an emergency. It's pretty scary to think about. Those people were acting like lunatics.

I declined to fill our tank last night even though we are at a quarter tank. It was an act of defiance...I'm not paying $2.45 a gallon when five minutes earlier it was $2.34, just because my fellow San Antonians have stepped outside their damn minds over a rumor. I'll be curious to see what the prices are by noon today. Lots of money was being made last night, that's for sure.

It's reached here where I live in South Carolina.

While out yesterday, gas prices have jumped 40 to 50 cents more a gallon (average price here was around $1.94 per gallon...now is at $2.34 per gallon).

Many gas stations are quickly running out (bags over the pump handles) as people are freaking out...mostly not because they think it will run out, but because of the prices going up, so they are running out to top off tanks and fill gas cans.