Gas prices leap in Ike's wake
"Public panic can cause a run on the pump, creating more panic, so we are trying to control the situation," Mark Plowden, communications director for the South Carolina attorney general, told ABC News.
Gas prices soared in several Southeastern U.S. states, topping $5 a gallon in the Columbia, S.C. area and $6 in Tallahassee, Fla., ABC reported.
Prices also spiked in Kentucky and Virginia. In North Carolina North Carolina Gov. Mike Easley signed an emergency order to enforce the state's anti-gouging law.
With Hurricane Ike cutting into refinery and supply activity in the Texas and Louisiana coast within a week after Hurricane Gustav's departure, industry analyst Phil Flynn of Alaron Trading Corp, told ABC the setting was prime for prices to jump.
"In this situation the price spike is totally justified," he said. "You've got supplies at the lowest level they've been in many years and at the same time you have a surge in demand ahead of a storm."
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