Journal-News.com

Depending if you had product and electricity, Tuesday, Sept. 16, was a great day to be in the fuel business.

For those gas stations that had product and electricity, business was brisk with plenty of cars, trucks and sport utility vehicles lined up.

At the Shell station on Ohio 4 and Liberty-Fairfield Road, manager Jeff Marshall said he was selling about 1,000 gallons an hour, with gas selling at $3.99 a gallon for regular unleaded. By noontime Tuesday, Marshall had a little more than 4,900 gallons left at his station that has 15,000 gallons of gasoline.

"We'll be good to about 4 p.m.," Marshall said. "When we get to about 2,000 gallons, I'll call the distributor. They said they'll be able to pump (gas from storage terminials) later this afternoon."

At the gas pumps, Kelly Smith of Liberty Twp. had finished up filling up her SUV and was filling a small gas can for the family's other car.

"There were only three stations open along (state) Route 4 and they were crazy backed up," she said.

Donald Donahue, who lives in the Rochester Hills mobile home park, also was finishing filling up his vehicle.

"I'm putting more money in gas," he said. "They said gas was going up again so I decided to fill up today."

Donahue said he got stuck when he couldn't find any gas stations open on Sunday and he waited a half hour on Monday morning to get some gas.

In Fairfield Twp., a motorist backed a green Chevrolet Blazer into a gas station pump at 2607 Tylersville Road, causing hundreds of gallons of fuel to spew about six feet in the air. The fuel then rushed downhill into a sewer grate and a nearby creek bed.

The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency and an environmental and hazardous waste management company were called in to clean up the spill Tuesday afternoon.

In Middletown, the Sunoco station on South Main Street and Oxford State Road was doing a brisk business as people who couldn't find gas at other places wound up there.

Jaspreet Batth , the assistant manager, said they were selling about 700 to 800 gallons an hour at $3.97 a gallon. As of midday Tuesday, he had about 12,000 gallons and said he already had ordered more fuel from his supplier for Wednesday.

At the Shamrock station on Central Avenue downtown, employees Tammy Adams and Danny King were sitting outside the station telling people they were closed.

Adams said the station has about 7,000 gallons in storage but can't use the pumps because there hasn't been any electricity since Sunday.

However, across the street, Jack's Rec Center was open as they had electricity.

Steve Hightower, president of Hightower Petroleum Co., provides fuel for Duke Energy as well Kroger gas stations and several emergency organizations.

Hightower, who was contacted in San Diego, Calif., said the storm damage and power outages have put a lot of stress on the system.

"You don't miss it until you don't have it," he said.

Hightower said while power outages have prevented getting fuel out of the terminals in Dayton, Columbus and Lebanon to the fuel trucks, there could be more shortages and higher prices at the pump until production gets back to normal along the Gulf coast, despite the price of oil being about $90 a barrel.

With two lines of vehicles waiting at least 30 minutes to fill up at her gas station, Vicki Nesbitt said she hasn't seen this kind of desperation in drivers since the Sept. 11 attacks.

"People are scared to death gas is going to go up so high," Nesbitt said, serving a constant line of customers, who were also eager to buy cold beverages and snacks at the Certified Sunoco in Hamilton. "So it's like people are trying to stock up on gas."

Nesbitt said she had been selling about 1,000 gallons an hour, as some cars ran out of gas waiting in line to fuel up with $4.09 unleaded. On a regular day, Nesbitt said she sells a few hundred gallons an hour.

"After passing by three stations with no gas, I'm going to sit here and wait," said Donald Hershner, who still had a half tank in his truck, or enough for about half a week's worth of driving. "What worries me is supply and demand. If they're charging $5, I have to pay."