Is there a gas shortage in Orlando?

[twinsr241]

We are leaving on Monday for WDW. As I watch the news and all the terrible devastation left by Katrina I see the long lines for gas and the shortages. I was wondering if the shortages are in the Orlando area as well. Would these shortages affect the Disney transportation? I just want to be prepared.

I feel terrible to be leaving on vacation in wake of this national disaster. I am wondering if we should cancel our current plans and reschedule.

Any advice?

 

[black562]

I called Disney last night and they told me that their gas comes from the Virgin Islands. They also have 3 gas stations on Disney property that you can buy from as well. I'm more concerned about getting all the rumors taken care of. From the sounds of things, a few of the larger cities like Charlotte and Columbia have a few stations (40 out of 230 in Charlotte) out of gas but expected to get gas today (Friday), yet towns outside the cities along the interstates seem to have no problems, no lines, just high prices in the 3 dollar range (besides, inside the cities are always higher anyway).

Anyone from those areas care to comment from what you've seen, not what you've heard? Someone posted last night that the entire state was out of gas, totally false and a horible rumor to get started. Just because you see 3 or 4 stations out of gas, doesn't mean the entire state is out. My regular station here at home has the cheapest gas in town by at least a nickel and they're out of gas all the time....and this happened all summer long, now they have plenty and no lines...

 

[rchristiansen]

Hi There,

RE: Gas shortages, not sure.

However, I understand how you feel. I feel helpless and a little strange about goign to go to WDW next week as well. We leave on Sunday. Don't cancel. Be supportive of the victims where you can. One of the things I did was donate the money I was going to use for a new camcorder for this trip to the Red Cross.

I will do other things as well, but I thought that was my part I could do to balance the "WDW" trip with supporting the victims.

 

[rchristiansen]

. Just because you see 3 or 4 stations out of gas, doesn't mean the entire state is out. My regular station here at home has the cheapest gas in town by at least a nickel and they're out of gas all the time....and this happened all summer long, now they have plenty and no lines...

I also just saw on the news, that the big ones (Shell, Exxon, Etc) are more likely to NOT have shortages than the smaller ones.

Good to know about the gas at WDW -- we're renting a car so it's not that big of a deal for busses, etc and we always only use like 2 gallons of gas the whole week.

 

[KristiKelly]

I called Disney last night and they told me that their gas comes from the Virgin Islands. They also have 3 gas stations on Disney property that you can buy from as well. I'm more concerned about getting all the rumors taken care of. From the sounds of things, a few of the larger cities like Charlotte and Columbia have a few stations (40 out of 230 in Charlotte) out of gas but expected to get gas today (Friday), yet towns outside the cities along the interstates seem to have no problems, no lines, just high prices in the 3 dollar range (besides, inside the cities are always higher anyway).

Anyone from those areas care to comment from what you've seen, not what you've heard? Someone posted last night that the entire state was out of gas, totally false and a horible rumor to get started. Just because you see 3 or 4 stations out of gas, doesn't mean the entire state is out. My regular station here at home has the cheapest gas in town by at least a nickel and they're out of gas all the time....and this happened all summer long, now they have plenty and no lines...

I'm in NC, ~2 hours from Charlotte, 1 hour from Raleigh. On the news yesterday morning, we were told that there was about 5 days worth of gas left. Gas yesterday morning (Thursday a.m.) was $3.11 @ Kmart Express, my mom saw some for $3.29. I don't know what it is today.

There have been some problems with gas pumps and they have had to close some pumps because the price that shows up on the pump will only go as high as $2.99 so those places have closed the pumps until gas goes back down or they get the pumps fixed to read $3.00+.

DH heard today that some schoolsystems have considered going to 4 day weeks due to the busses but no decision yet.

There was a rumor yesterday that our Governor had said to close pumps on Thurs @ 4:00 pm and not reopen until Tuesday but that was a rumor.

For those of you travelling through NC, that's all that I know right now.

 

[4fireworks]

This might be a little off subject but, my DH and I were watching the news last night( seems like were doing that all day right now) and he brought up the fact that he's glad we're flying. I was lucky enough to get the SW deal for $59 each way and I had to convince DH at the time that it would be soooo much better to fly even if it was a couple hundred more, once again I was right! I had budgeted 2.50/gallon max, so we would have been way over!
I too feel guilty for going ( 17 days), but I know that I shouldn't feel that way. I know that if you do all that you can for them and pray alot that it's all you can do. I'ts just one of those things that we don't have any control over-we have to put it in Gods hands!

 

[twinsr241]

This might be a little off subject but, my DH and I were watching the news last night( seems like were doing that all day right now) and he brought up the fact that he's glad we're flying. I was lucky enough to get the SW deal for $59 each way and I had to convince DH at the time that it would be soooo much better to fly even if it was a couple hundred more, once again I was right! I had budgeted 2.50/gallon max, so we would have been way over!
I too feel guilty for going ( 17 days), but I know that I shouldn't feel that way. I know that if you do all that you can for them and pray alot that it's all you can do. I'ts just one of those things that we don't have any control over-we have to put it in Gods hands!

I feel guilty too. But I realize there isn't much I can do here except donate to the Red Cross (which I did). I read some other posts on another board and people were saying that people could help by taking their scheduled vacation. The area economy needs the money. Florida is still recovering economically from last year's storms. If everyone stays away again this year it will really hurt their economy even more.

We will continue with our vacation plans and keep the victims of Katrina in our thoughts and prayers.