Gas & People

Ok ok - we all know that Hurricane Ike is getting ready to make landfall around the Texas coastline. I have gotten more calls / text today about gas being over $5/gallon in Loretto and Florence. Well instead of believing them (because I didn't) I took the time to call a few gas stations and wouldn't you know - gas is only $3.79. I recall my high school and college Economics classes and we dicussed supply and demand as well as the "market" of a commodity. Even with a Hurricane coming in and with the 'possibility' of rigs having to be shut down it would be very hard to believe that gas would go up OVER $1.00 overnight. It now appears that Ike is not going to go right through the middle of the refineries and the storm is not expected to keep the rigs offline long. What will cause prices to rise is EVERYONE going out and getting gas right away because the demand is going to shoot up and the supply is going to reamin the same or slighlty lower. So it's not the Hurricane that is going to raise the prices right now - it is us! Maybe I am totally wrong about this but that is my thoughts on this.