Gas trucks at Doraville tank farms
Gas trucks at Doraville tank farms
Long lines around Atlanta gas station in early September 2005
Atlanta area gas customer 2012
Empty Atlanta gas pump in early September 2005
ATLANTA -- It's eerie enough that Isaac is bearing down on the same area of the Louisiana coast where Hurricane Katrina wrecked havoc seven years ago to the day.
One question here in the metro Atlanta area is whether we could see a repeat of gasoline shortages like we did in 2005.
Within days of Kartina's landfall, long lines began forming around Atlanta gas stations, many of which ran dry.
Fuel trucks leaving Doraville's gasoline tank farms suddenly found themselves turned into pied pipers with lines of cars following them.
Part of the reason was damage the hurricane did to gulf coast oil rigs and refineries.
Hurricane Rita made the situation even worse only a couple of weeks later.
With Isaac's approach, several gulf area rigs and refineries have evacuated or closed temporarily.
But an oil industry spokesman here in Atlanta told 11 Alive News any damage from Isaac isn't expected to come close to the 2005 double hurricane devastation.
"At this point our industry has not indicated that there's anything like the level of problems we had with Rita or Katrina," said Richard Cobb of the Georgia Petroleum Council.
"We're not anticipating supply disruptions at this time," he added.
Many drivers made an already bad situation worse in 2005 by rushing to gas stations to fill their tanks, even if they didn't need to.
"Our biggest problem at a time like this is panic buying by the public," said Cobb.
Atlanta area gas prices rose nearly 7 cents over the past week and are up about 20 cents over last month.
Some oil industry experts say we could see higher prices thanks to Isaac, but probably not any serious supply issues.
That is, if we don't panic again.