[From the diaries by susanhu. Keep us posted, Olivia.]
I just got home from work. It was an unbelievable drive home. Over the course of the day, stories of huge gas-hikes-to-come started flooding into the local radio stations. They kept talking about it all day, and guess what? Tonight we are in an all out gas panic.
Apparently it started in Eastern Canada (link), in the face of fears of huge price hikes and possible shortages due to Hurricane Rita. The rumours continued flowing west, through Quebec, and into Ottawa.
The local radio station reported that some of the gas stations ran out of gas, while others had to call in police to handle the traffic.
The lines into stations were massive, going around blocks and down major roads causing traffic nightmares everywhere. I witnessed this myself … I was stuck in it! Lines and lines and lines of cars at almost every gas station I passed (~90% of them). I have to say I have never seen anything like it in my life. It was unreal.
The rumour is that gas will be over $2.00 per litre tomorrow – approximately $6.50 per gallon US, if my math is right … but it’s been a long day … One report came in of a gas station attendant who told his customers that gas would be over $2.50/litre tomorrow. It is currently selling from 0.97/litre to 1.21/litre (Ottawa Gas Prices).
Apparently it is not confined to Ottawa. The whole province is in the grips of a gas panic; Premier McGuinty spoke out this afternoon, reassuring Ontarians that we would not run out of gas! And the bigwigs at the gas companies also spoke out:
(More below fold)
“There are a lot of folks out there who are running to get to a gas station and I would suggest that they shouldn’t panic,” said Steve Ecclestone, general manager of Montreal-based refiner Ultramar, a major gasoline seller in Eastern Canada.
“It’s crazy. It’s just a lot of fear, panic and rumours going on.” (link)
It really scares me that people panic so easily. Similar to lonestar canuck’s diary and the water.
Times like these (in the wake of Hurricane Katrina and the onset of Rita, and their effects globally) I can really see how fine the line is between normal day-to-day life and the complete breakdown of society.
Update [2005-9-22 23:43:34 by olivia]: The evening news (CJOH) just reported on the chaos today, showing some video of line-ups. The two people they interviewed said they were filling up b/c they heard gas was going up to 2.00 at midnight tonight. The talking head said that at one station the price increased from 1.09 to 1.72(!) in the space of minutes, and that this “nearly led to fisticuffs at the counter.” Fisticuffs, can you believe it? People nearly coming to blows over gas prices in Ottawa b/c of Hurricane Rita.
How can it jump from 1.09 to 1.72 in the space of minutes? Oh boy. We’re all screwed, being screwed, whatever … just not in the fun kind of way.
The highest I’ve heard is now 180.9 in West Quebec.
I can really see how fine the line is between normal day-to-day life and the complete breakdown of society.
That is almost exactly, word for word, what my husband said after Katrina….and he said it with a small smile and a shake of his head.
Yes. Seeing the video of the hostility and huge jams of cars and angry people at the Houston gas stations today was very worrisome. Society does break down when people are panicked and afraid for their lives and their families’ lives.
Bill Nye is on Larry King Live, and he was first on the show — he said he’s afraid this is just the beginning. We could have 3-5 more of these by Thanksgiving. And it’s due to global warming. He said that, as much as we must worry about the immediate hardships, we also must — MUST — do something about global warming.
And, as I look at the live cameras on those huge — 100-mile-long — traffic jams tonight, I think about what we are doing to our planet as we attempt to escape from what we have caused.
And it may be too late to stem global warming; we could probably lessen its effects for each other, but it has already gone past the point of no return.
The thing is that people have to remain calm, or shit will undoubtedly escalate. Where are the Mounties on this?
Susan, see my post about how some tankers are being sent on the highways to help stranded, out-of-gas motorists get to higher ground.
http://www.boomantribune.com/?op=displaystory;sid=2005/9/22/18416/1688
This is not the first category 4 hurricane. Oil companies are criminal plain and simple. Paul Martin give us back our money you criminal. We sit on the 2nd largest oil reserves in the world and we are paying more than the states.
What do you mean by reserves? What’s in the ground, or what the gov’t has set aside for emergency?
I wrote a diary that spoke of this on my site: The Tar Sands gives Canada the 2nd largest oil reserves in the world
Not sure that cleared it up for you so, “In the ground”
Yes. Thanks. And Jerome wrote about it too, in reference to a French company.
How do you feel about development of these reserves? The effects on the environment?
Did you see Jerome’s diary, Big oil getting desperate: Making oil with nuclear energy? Some interesting stuff in there about the sands.
Thanks for the link. I don’t check the “recommended” list as much as I should I guess.
Of course prices will have to rise, but the gasoline they are pumping now was already paid for, at the old, lower, rates. This is price-taking, or gouging, pure and simple.
Of course Bush is letting them do this–they are his buddies in crime.
But why is Martin?
Susan – I’m honoured to grace the FP at BooTrib!
It was one surreal experience today, and I learned an important lesson: Canada is fucked up too, WRT emergency situations. I mean … we’re talking about a storm in another country that hasn’t made land yet, and we’re up here in our little pocket freaking the fuck out!
The latest news, via the Ottawa Citizen:
And this image from Quebec City:
Price for regular gas is at 167.4 cents a litre in Quebec City, Sept. 22, 2005. (CP PHOTO/Jacques Boissinot) via Gas price rumours cause panic across Canada
We’ll see what tomorrow brings, as that’s when the prices were set to increase.
Luck. I hope your media get the word out.
My daughter just left here and was going to buy gas. I’m anxious to call her when she gets home and find out what she paid, and if she noticed any lines.
We have to go see my mom this Sunday, and I’m worried about it.
It was so terrible when we had gas shortages. I remember twice — in the early 1970s — when I luckily worked for an oil company and so got preferential treatment at gas stations. Then, in 1979?, when I moved from Los Angeles to Seattle, and I could not find a gas station open on Sunday and coasted on my last gallon of gas as long as I could (thank god I had a Toyota).
I was talking to my dad tonight about what happened today… He lives about an hour north-east of Toronto, and saw some lines but nothing drastic. Prices around 99 – 1.00 per litre range. He talked a bit about the last shortage in the 70s, and how it affected him w/ work as we lived out in the country but worked in the city. I was a young’un back then, so don’t remember any of it. Today was quite a shock.
Yes, let’s hope that things calm down. Media is a double edged sword here: they played a part in creating the chaos, but are also diffusing rumours of massive hicks and shortages.
… not hicks. :^)
hey there… in toronto here and no panic. filled up the tank no prob yesterday afternoon and went on my merry way… and if there ain’t no panic in toronto, it ain’t no thang, since we’re the centre of the universe and all… 😉
We all would have known TO was in ‘crisis’ when the Mayor demanded Ottawa send troops in to restore order! ;o) I know, I know … Mayor Mel is gone, but TO will never live that one down :o)
PS. I read a CTV article that said Toronto did have problems, and that one man was even taken to hospital by ambulance after an altercation for queue-jumping:
I can really see how fine the line is between normal day-to-day life and the complete breakdown of society.
Oy veh! A crawl under the Seinfeld rerun I was watching just now said “Why you might want to fill up your gas tank tonight.” And this is in California!
I don’t mean to butt in here but something rather bizzar just happened in the evening sky. I was lying on my couch watching the boob tube and I noticed this huge white streak in the sky. The sunset was about an hour ago but it was still twilight. I looked up in the sky out on my balcony(on the third floor) towards the ocean. I spotted a bright light then a huge poof of smoke, similar to what an F-16 puts out when they turn the afterburners on, but much wider, then the smoke cut out for a minute or so and I yelled over to my neighbot and he came out and saw it too. Then it lit up again for maybe ten seconds, cut out and then completely disappeared. More people came out because the original gases(?)or smoke was swirling into a very odd shape and changing color. One of the observers said he thought it was a missle. To my knowledge there are no missle bases near by. The is Camp Pendleton just north of here and Miramar Marine Airbase just south. I am no nutcase, you folks know that but this was truly strange. I was pissed because my camera is broken so i didn’t get a shot of it. Really strange.
On topic,,,gas has been well over $3.30 a gallon here since Katrina. Sorry to hear you guys up Canasda way are paying for the sins of our oil barons. There is absolutely no excuse for this price gouging. It is also putting airlines out of business. Two filed bankruptcy this week and Delta just laid off 9000, yes 9000 workers. What next?
My daughter saw the same thing and they got a pic with cell phone.
What the heck is it. I will post the other two pics over on the fbc.
NO WAY! She photographed that?
Have you called Art Bell? He’ll be all over this! (Oh, someone told me that there’s some religious person on instead of him now ??)
No religious person took over, it is George Noory and he is not a nut, in my opinion, as I listen to the show every single night, all night, it is on as a matter of fact, I cannot sleep without it. Bad when I wake up and something interesting is going on, then I cannot go back to sleep. Art Bell is still on weekends, but I think he is on vacation right now.
http://www.coasttocoastam.com/link to site and I just may post that pic on site, should I…it is probably just part of a rocket, after jettison…or???????
Holy Crap Diane…that is it. Where was she when she took that picture? There was a girl in the parking lot taking a pic with a cell phone!
She was in Tustin, standing outside her house, see the other pics I posted on FBC. Cell phones are just so cool aren’t they.
It was just so bizzar! I know it wasn’t a jet. I worked at an airport where they did training at night and this was not a jet! Had to be a missle but the strange part was how it just disappeared. I have to get a new cell phone.
Was it headed east?
No, it was heading due south!
Over the ocean, very high up. This is the flight pattern coming into San Diego from LAX but it was up way too high for commercial and I am telling you this was no flight manuevers. I watched those all the time in the 90s out of Tucson airport when I worked there.
You and/or Diane might do a diary about this. It’s very interesting.’
I forwarded your original post to the Left_Coast mailing list I’m on, and Lisa in L.A. says:
“No, I saw it too, in west LA – I thought it looked like a missile
trail. It was illuminated for the longest time too.”
It has made me very uncomfortable. Am I paranoid?
It was almost as if it came out of the ocean the way the trail looked before that picture was taken when I first noticed it.
Could it be this? Seems like a possible match, although I don’t really know the geography around that area…
…and the reporter’s name is Scully. 🙂
And this just goes to show what a crappy idea it was to build our transport infrastructure on mobile IC engines pulling around massive boxes of metal that are generally filled only to a quarter capacity.
The demise of public transportation in the US is one of those things that drives me absolutely crazy. It was the single biggest bit of looting committed in world history. The automobile companies, and their allies, made trillions and the public footed the bill. Now we are going to have to spend billions, and the public will have to foot the bill, to re-establish what we had and establish new systems.
After an early dinner last evening, we drove out to look at some land for sale. Hubby needed to get gas. First station we come to, people are lined up waiting to fill up. We drive on and the next station and the next are also crowded. We started to notice that some of the pumps had been bagged.
We go on and look at the land (disappointing) and head back home. Finally, Hubby is nearly on empty and we must pull in and wait our turn getting gas. I walk inside to buy a box of donuts and it’s madness in there with a long line of people paying cash. A couple of the regulars are joking with the cashier about how she’s really having to work for her money today.
Finally, I give her my debit card for the donuts and the processing system jams. She reads the LED out loud, “Maximum processing exceeded,” and explains to me that means too many people are making transactions at the pumps. I fish around in my purse and find enough quarters and dimes to pay for the donuts.
“What’s going on?” I ask her, “Did I miss a news alert or something?” “It’s Rita, of course,” she looks at me like I’m dumb, “Price of gas will go up and there might be shortages like last time, you know. People are filling up just in case.”
So there ya’ go. Guess I’ll join the fun and go fill up my car today…
I spoke to my sister in Barrie, my sister in law in Burlington and my brother in law in London and there were lines there too. The whole fam-damily phoned to see if we were okay and if we were evacuating.
People are lining up here too for gas and water and there have been tonnes of accidents on the highways – I’m guessing it’s due to having so many people unfamiliar with Austin roads and trying to find their way to evac. centres.
My mother in law phoned to say the Canadian Army would come and get us but my husband and I decided we’d rather not get on a Chinook – thankyouverymuch!
Things here look like we’re not going to get hit at all – but it’s sucky that they’re throwing people out of hotels for the Austin City Limits Festival (which they haven’t cancelled)
Panic is kind of a sucky state of being.
Heard on npr that a busload of people being evacuated caught on fire and 23(?) people died. The trooper they interviewed said the fire raced though the bus maybe because of oxygen tanks.
I also went through the shortages in the ’70’s and remember the hostility, long lines and “regular customers only” stations. Folks, if you don’t have alternate transport you might want to spend time thinking about other ways you can get around.
It’s the sixth anniversary of my move back into town. I can get most everything I need within walking, biking or bus distance except unfortunately the full time job out in the ‘burbs. My employer had a handy shuttle service but of course someone decided to redo the schedule and now a number of us are cut out. Fortunately I have a neighbor who goes out that way and in an Insight too but not every day.
And what can people with disabilities do (this will eventually include all of us)? Electric scooters or …? Shit shit shit.
Bourque has a list of links to Canadian gas prices for the most up-to-date info.