NBC29Outages Plague Virginia Gas Stations

Outages Plague Virginia Gas Stations

Oil refineries in the Gulf shut down even before Hurricane Ike roared ashore in Texas. Now gas stations in Central Virginia are battling supply problems, many of them running out of gasoline all together. We talked to Charlottesville gas station managers and people filling up about what's going on with gas.

At the Joy station on High Street in Charlottesville they were running on empty for three days this week.  "If you don't have a contract with an oil company you're last in line to get it so it's hard for us," explained Joy Gas Station Manager Beverly Hayseltt. 

"East Coast on [Route] 29 beside Hardees and also Kangaroo was out 87 and I believe Hess was out of 87," shared gas station customer Stephanie Morris. 

When we got to the East Coast Station on Route 29 cars were filling up with regular grade, but they were totally out of premium and plus. Station owners say right now the supply isn't coming in the same quantity it was before Hurricane Ike.

"Right now they have us on allocations, we can get about 65 percent of what we got the month before," said gas station owner Wayne Breeden.

They say people topping off their tank often  is only adding to the problem.  Breeden said, "If you're used to pumping 1,000 gallons a day and then you go to pumping 2,000 gallons a day it makes it hard to keep your gas supply up."

Station owners say they expect the supply to get back to pre-storm levels and for prices to re-adjust within the next few weeks.

Reported by Liz Nagy
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