Gas Price and Hurricane Katrina

I didn't pay much attention to the news yesterday. Learned on Monday that the city of New Orleans was spared by Hurricane Katrina from the worst direct hit, I thought that it was over. I don't like the idea of living in a coastal city that is basically under the sea level, but some people choose to do that. And New Orleans prospered.

This morning as I was driving along my usual commute passing a gas station where I am a regular, I saw the sign for the gas price. $3.17. At first, it didn't registered with me. It was different. Yesterday it was $2.79, and two days before that it was $2.59 and had been that for 10 days. For a split second I didn't even know whether the price went up or down. Then I realized it was more than 10% increase from yesterday! I simply couldn't believe my eyes.

Lunchtime I read New York Times, which I do everyday. On the front page was a large photo of New Orleans inundated by floodwater. Levees broke and water rushed in. 80% of the city was under water. Everyone had to evacuate. City is uninhabitable for weeks to come. Damages are not just limited in New Orleans. Other coastal communities and infrastructures were also destroyed. Oil refineries on the Gulf Coast included. Some experts are predicting $4 gas within this year.

As I grow older, I sadly realize that disaster can strike at such an unexpected moment, and bring so much devastation. In my childhood memory, we had floods two to three times. My brother and I would make the best out of it on those occasions. We tried to catch fish from the floodwater, and my brother did catch some one time. Our furniture were soaked in ankle-deep water, but a child would not care that much. Now as a grownup, I understood what natural disasters meant to my parents then. They had to protect their young children as well as their meagerly earthly possessions. Disaster means you have to start all over again.

Tonight on my way home, I stopped at another gas station and filled up my gas tank, only 4.3 gallons, at $2.78 per gallon. My next car will have to be more fuel efficient than 30 mpg.