Overnight spike of fuel prices has local motorists on edge

By Toya Graham - Toya Graham

High gas prices. Long lines. No gas.

Hurricane Ike has yet to come inland, but York County motorists were feeling Ike's punches at the gas pumps Friday as prices topped $4, with prices predicted to climb 40 cents more by this morning.

Reginald Nichols shook his head Friday as he pulled into Quick C gas station on Cherry Road and spied the premium gas price.

S.C. targets price gougers as Ike strikes

"It's crazy," said Nichols, a 20-year-old junior at Winthrop University. "I don't know if it's the actual storm or the rush to get gas from the rumors that it was going up."

Nichols' car, a Lincoln LS, uses premium gas only. The price: $4.25 a gallon.

"I don't know how much longer I can last," Nichols said as his girlfriend, Takeyshia McFadden, eyed the pump. "Luckily, we have a Honda, so we'll have to switch to that soon."

McFadden, also a 20-year-old Winthrop junior, said trips to their family homes near Myrtle Beach can cost anywhere from $100 to $120 for gas in the Lincoln. The same trip with the Honda costs $60 to $80, she said.

"I'm just glad my car doesn't take a lot of gas to go where I have to go," McFadden said.

But the couple has an immediate plan to combat the soaring gas prices.

"We're not going anywhere this weekend," Nichols said. "We're switching to the Honda Monday."

Danny Gardner, who volunteers with Bethesda Fire Department, doesn't have the luxury of switching vehicles to save gas costs.

"It's rough on us going to calls with the gas prices," Gardner said as he refueled a fire truck at a gas station along McConnells highway. "We have to come from our houses to the (fire) station to get the trucks. It kills us in personal vehicles."

Nearby, Gene Rogers of Rock Hill pumped gas into his Ford F-250.

"I have to run diesel fuel," said Rogers, 49. "It's nothing but price gouging. They're making a lot of money. We're suffering."

Higher gas prices prompted Dustin Bonneville to park his truck, but also hamper other lifestyle plans, he said.

"I will just have to pay what I have to to continue maintaining the same lifestyle," said Bonneville, 30, of Rock Hill. "If I want to go on vacation, I'll have to pinch money somewhere else."

To compensate for higher gas prices, R.T. Smith of Rock Hill usually uses regular gas in his SUV. Traveling for a living mandates heavy gas usage, he said.

"I know the storm situation is serious," Smith said as he pumped gas across the street from Winthrop. "We should have enough reserves that a two- to three-day shutdown of production should not impact us at the pump to the extent that it has."

Brooks Singletary, 43, of Gaston County, N.C., was on his way to Charleston on Friday when he stopped around 11:30 a.m. in Fort Mill at the Shell station on Gold Hill Road off Exit 88, where a gallon of unleaded was $3.99.

"There's no sense in buying gas in North Carolina when you're going through South Carolina," he said, referring to the normally lower prices in the Palmetto State.

Though North Carolina almost always has the higher gas prices, Friday's sudden hike saw Singletary paying roughly what he's used to at home.

"We're not saving any money," he said.