Hurricanes are usually bad news to homeowners and businesses in their paths.  We have seen the overwhelming results – especially since hurricane Andrew did so much damage in the early 1990’s.  Since then, it seems that there have been more hurricanes of greater magnitude leaving greater destruction in their wake. 

The folks that live in the southeastern United States have been hit with multiple hurricanes one after the other and have had a difficult time just beginning to try to recover.  Now, on top of the grueling recovery, there is a severe fuel shortage that has hit the area as well. 

Because oil production had to be temporarily halted due to the storms, many areas in the southeast are playing catch up.  In Sandy Springs, GA, a mail carrier went twelve miles out of his way to get to a gas station that had gasoline to sell.  When he got to the station, he had to wait in line for 40 minutes to be able to get to the pump and purchase gas for his mail truck.  As they say, neither sleet, nor snow nor hail nor rain…not gas shortages.  The mail will get through. 

Many drivers are reporting having to go to several gas stations that are out of gas before they find one that has gas, and then they must wait in long lines to be able to purchase the gas they need.  The refineries had to shut down in advance of the hurricanes and it takes a while for them to get pumps up and flowing and online again.  Some of the refineries are still not up and running yet.

In addition to this delay, the U.S. Department of Energy states that even before the hurricanes, gas inventories were at their lowest levels since 1967.  On the other hand, there are some supplies of fuel getting through to the area, but the governor of Georgia feels that part of the shortage is self-induced because people are panicking and rushing out to purchase all the gas they can, which artificially increases the demand on an already thin supply.

In the weeks to come, everyone from the governors to lawmakers to the Department of Energy predict that fuel supplies will get back to normal.  They – as well as consumers – are looking much more carefully at ways to implement alternatives sooner rather than later, now that they know just what the combination of the aftermath of hurricanes and severe weather plus fuel shortages actually feels like.

The current fuel crisis is affecting everyone from limo drivers on Wall Street to municipal bus systems to individuals simply trying to get to work.  While lawmakers in Washington are grappling with the issue, everyone else is trying to just get through on a daily basis.

Since the warning was not heeded 30 years ago, people are just now having to figure out what to do to conserve fuel and to afford to purchase it.  The problem is that it is much easier to plan in advance than it is to come up with workable solutions once you are in the middle of a crisis.  And since the administration has been denying that there is a crisis up until the recent outcry became deafening, it left people at an even greater loss.  How can you plan for a crisis that the government says doesn’t exist?  Exactly.

Some of the latest victims of the fuel crisis are schools – and the kids that attend them.  Many school districts have had to curtail or eliminate activities that involve transportation. 

Of course, hurricane Ike and all of his previous hurricane relatives have not helped the situation, either, because the supplies of oil have been interrupted in the Gulf.  Even before the hurricanes there were cuts in driving activities.  Now they are mandatory.

One school district has curtailed the driving portion of driver’s education to save fuel.  In addition, there is a moratorium of sorts on field trips.  For now, unless a trip is for an essential athletic event, any other types of field trips are cancelled.

There are serious budget issues involved in these decisions to curtail or eliminate trips.  Busses get about 8 miles per gallon in city traffic and about 10 to 11 miles per gallon on the highway.  When even a small school district transports children it can be up to 7,000 miles per day to transport over 5,000 students, the cost can average about $3000 per day.  This is quite a hardship on districts that struggle with small budgets and are trying to stretch every dollar.

For now, for some school districts, this is the only answer.  Lawmakers are now seriously working on the fuel crisis issues and have finally passed a bill to try to begin fixing the problems.  This is a step in the right direction; however, you can’t fix 30 years of problems that have been ignored, overnight.

In the meantime, schools and other businesses and individuals will continue to have to suffer.  It’s unfortunate that our kids are losing out because it has taken so long to start working on the problem.