Well, I'm in the envyable position of having a father in law that owns a fuel company. He delivers fuel to farm and business customers. He buys truckloads of fuel from a local pipeline/terminal at wholesale prices, marks it up, and sells it. (and we get to fuel up for free!)
On Tuesday, people in the region began hoarding gasoline. I saw some guy in a Toyota Sienna with 10 2.5 gallon gas cans strapped to his roof that evening (God only knows how much gas he had INSIDE the van). That same evening, my father-in-law got a fax from his supplier that said that the terminal hadn't recieved a shipment of unleaded in a couple days, demand was spiking, and their supply was dwindling. They said they would now only sell half truckloads, and it would cost $4.00/gallon until they get another shipment.
He had several thousand gallons of unleaded he had purchased at $2.20-$2.50 and customers calling like crazy. He rationed the "cheap gas" out to his customers, at the lower price, then when he ran out, he had to buy a half tanker load of $4 gasoline. Naturally, the price to his customers shot up accordingly. Everyone is pissed off. Everyone thinks he's gouging. What the hell is he supposed to do? Does he buy at $4 and sell at $2.50. I can tell you, he could do that for a couple days before he goes broke... no, strike that... before he goes into heavy debt.
I think this problem is partially because of the hurricane, partially because fuel isn't getting transported where it needs to go, and partially because people are panicing.
Like I said, I get my gas for free. I'm incredibly lucky. In spite of that, we've taken measures to save gasoline. Until further notice, I drive the SUV, or ride my bike to work, and my wife takes the sports car, (which gets 10 mpg better than the SUV) to her job, which is 20 miles away.
We all need to chip in, car pool, conserve gasoline, and hope that the oil fields, refineries and transportation system get restored soon in the New Orleans region. But first, lives need to be saved, people need to be helped, and perhaps most importantly, people need to be inspired.