Gas crisis strikes NC

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The gas shortage had people flocking to stations to fill up their tanks before the gas ran out.The local gas station pictured above had a steady stream of people all day before the station ran out of gas. Photo Courtesy of Regan Harsa.

Last week, a leak in a major gas pipeline has caused a large shortage of gasoline for drivers in 5 different states. The cause of the leak is still unknown, but over 250,000 gallons of gas have been lost.

The company, Colonial Pipeline, has a gas pipeline that stretches from Texas to New York, and the leak occurred in Alabama. The company has worked tirelessly to stop the leak and repair the damage. It has been confirmed that the pipe was successfully repaired on Tuesday night, September 20, and gas was delivered to all the stations mid-day Wednesday.oi9o

While fuel has since been delivered to all the gas stations, there was still a major crisis about the amount of gas left, citizen distress, and surge pricing. The panic of running out gas had LRHS students rushing to fill up their tanks before it’s gone, stay on campus for lunch, and carpool to school with fellow students.

When news of the crisis broke, many Raleigh citizens immediately made their way to  local gas stations to stock up before it was gone. By Monday, almost half of all Raleigh gas stations had run out of regular gasoline.  Will Floyd, a junior at LRHS said, “I’ve stayed on campus for lunch the past two days…I have a pretty big car that gets 10 miles a gallon so I’ve tried to not drive as much.”

Wendy Dragone, a LRHS librarian, did not join in on the state-wide panic but said, “I did try and go top off cause I know it was a  problem and I was not able to, the three gas stations I went to did not have gas anymore.”

Some gas stations started doing surge pricing, which is when a company hikes up the price of a product if there is a increase in demand. At one gas station the price per gallon went from $2.09 to $2.25. This was brought to Governor Pat McCrory’s attention and surge pricing has been stopped.

While the leak has caused many problems, North Carolina did everything right to solve the problem quickly and efficiently. Gas is now readily available again, so no need to worry about topping off that tank!

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