As I was driving back from Kathy's doctor appointment in Raleigh NC this
morning, we saw a couple of fire trucks queued at the diesel pumps at a
nearby Shell station.  A few blocks down the road, the scene was repeated
at a Kangaroo station.

After I had taken her home and got in the truck to go to my office, I
decided to stop in at my own local Kangaroo station and top off the
truck's diesel tank.  No sooner had I pulled up to the pump than fire
trucks started pulling into this station as well.

I asked one of the drivers what was up.  I was told that diesel fuel
supplies are dwindling very rapidly in the Raleigh area because the big
pipelines from the Gulf coast are not able to get fuel into the state.  By
8 AM this morning, half the diesel pumps in the Raleigh area were
reportedly out of fuel. Emergency services that operate diesel vehicles
have been advised not to use their contract reserves, but to top off tanks
now at commercial stations ahead of the holiday weekend. State sources
have advised that diesel fuel prices are expected to rise quickly to the
$4 a gallon level and stay there until the Gulf refineries come back up.
Same sources say that Gulf area emergency services will deal with the
refineries after the people problem is under control, which could be weeks.

Finally, local news says that injured survivors are being airlifted
around the country for medical services. The big Raleigh/Durham/Chapel
Hill hospitals have been warned to expect more than a thousand cases over
the next week or so.

State government is projecting that unleaded regular gasoline supplies
will get very spotty to vanished across the state within the next week or
so. The governor has shut down all discretionary travel by state workers
and is pushing car pooling on the radio.

Anyway, all this is anecdotal coming from myself, but it looks as if NC is
taking a share of the Katrina hit.  RVers driving through NC this
weekend should be prepared for high fuel prices, widespread fuel shortages
and slow emergency responses.  

Regards, John Kinney