If you live in Nashville, this is not a new story to you. Apparently some type of “gas crisis” hit Nashville today and there is almost no gas left in the city.
If you’ve never lived in Nashville, let me explain the city to you: When anything remotely negative occurs, no matter how small it might be, people freak out! If it starts to sprinkle outside, people are ready to sandbag. If there’s snow flurries, you can’t find bread, milk, shovels, batteries, or bottled water. Also, people are either going to drive 5 mph on the highway, or 85 mph because they think the Anti-Christ is chasing them.
So, when Hurricane Ike hit, people freaked out and started filling up their cars, their lawnmowers, extra jugs, buckets, coffee mugs, and everything they could find. So now, less than a week later, you can’t find any gas in Nashville.
Apparently a few stations have it, but the line is over an hour wait. Ridiculous!
Some people think the gas stations are lying to us. One guy reported this morning that he went to a closed gas station and tried to pump gas from a closed pump and filled up his tank.
Who knows the truth anymore?
Unfortunately, I decided to wait until all the crazies filled up after “Ike” and to wait until the prices went back down, and right now, I pretty much have no gas! I have enough to get back to my apartment, but that’s it. Luckily, I have enough milk, bread, water, and other essentials to last me through the weekend. It also helps that Target is within walking distance.
Nashville has already made national news. We were featured on Drudgereport.com today for having no gas. The way people are handling this, I really expect to walk outside and see the sky turn black and a vortex to funnel down from the sky. It’s gonna be nice when walk out and see it’s 85 degrees, sunny, with a soft blowing wind.
Anyway, I guess the moral of the story is…don’t move to Nashville.
Tags: crazy people, Gas prices, Nashville, Richard Simmons, shortage of gas
September 19th, 2008 at 5:40 pm
It’s Y2K all over again… oh wait… that was a bunch of HYPE too! It took me forever to get home today! I think I found the 2-3 stations in Nashville to have gas and it took about 20-30 mins to get around them. THANKS ALOT BUSH! I am sure it’s his fault somewhere in this. Didn’t he call Ike himself and ask him to come? Hahaha! Osama/Binladin 08! I mean Obama/Biden08!
RELAX PEOPLE!
September 19th, 2008 at 6:04 pm
Dude. I’m from FL (ya know, where the storms actually HIT)and I can’t remember a time where we ran out of gas. Nashvillians need to chill out and realize that…it’ll okay.
By the way, you could have told me “the moral” of your blog about 3years ago. :]
September 19th, 2008 at 9:53 pm
Having lived in FL for a dozen years, I’ve experienced a few hurricane-induced gas shortages. As soon as the roads are cleared of trees and the power is restored to the gas stations — oh wait, the trucks can get to us and the lights are on at the pumps.
In that case, its a matter of supply and demand. It may cost $5 a gallon but some enterprising oil company will get gas to the pumps. The shortage will probably linger a few days, but it will eventually smooth out.
Meanwhile, try to stay calm. Avoid letting your tank get below half.
September 19th, 2008 at 11:55 pm
If a tornado hits, I hope the news station finds Alan Skiles again.
September 20th, 2008 at 8:05 am
Ohhh how I miss Nashville
September 20th, 2008 at 8:56 pm
I’m glad I left.
Grocery stores should have panic express lanes: bread, milk, and water only.
And nothing should go in a coffee mug except coffee.
September 20th, 2008 at 11:11 pm
Um…your description of Nashville clearly shows you must not know the city very well. Think about this:
-we don’t have a system in place to combat snow, ice, etc. like Northern cities do. For one thing, we really don’t need it. For another, if we did implement such a system of salting trucks, better asphalt, snowplows, etc., it would be at enormous cost. I think most can agree that they can deal with a day or two of ice rather than pay out the butt for a system that might be really used only twice a year. Maybe. If we’re lucky.
-Also, we don’t really get snow…we get black ice. That is, ice that is pretty darned hard to see. Ice tends to be a wee bit slippery, and people, including those from other cities, can’t drive on ice. I don’t care if you lived in the Arctic for 20 years, unless you have awesome tires, you will slip on the black ice. It makes anyone nervous to slip in the road.
-I have lived here pretty much all my life, and I can’t remember one occassion when bread or milk has been impossible to find. It might be out at one store, but be available down the road. This gas shortage is totally different.
-And finally, I really find it hard to believe that no other city in America would panic if they didn’t have gas. I also find it hard to believe that panic itself is responsible. If regular shipments were coming in, then I can see maybe a small shortage, but to be out this long, I am lead to believe that a lack of shipments is to blame.
So quit acting like Nashvillians are unique to this problem, because I know people in Chicago would panic too if they thought they wouldn’t be able to get to work, school, the grocery store, the doctor, etc.
September 20th, 2008 at 11:25 pm
Well, first of all, I’ve lived in Nashville for about 5 years, in summer and winter, so I have some idea of how things work. I wasn’t attacking TDOT or any government agency for the way the snow is handled. I was saying that drivers take one of two extremes. If there’s flurries, it seems the whole city shuts down. However, if the flurries are gone but black ice is left, it is completely ignored and people fly 85 mph on it. I agree…black ice is dangerous…and people don’t know how to drive on it. Concerning the shortage of food and supplies, I’ve personally experienced it and seen the reports on the news. Granted, it might only be in the Green Hills/Belle Meade part of town where it happened…but it happened.
With the gas issue, CNN reported that a rumor circulated on Friday that gas was going to run out in the city. Therefore, people did the worst thing possible and panicked. This same thing could have happened in any other city…but it happened in Nashville. On the news tonight, they showed people filling up their trucks, and then filling up milk jugs and placing them in the back of their trucks. Sounds kinda crazy and dangerous to me. Shipments are coming in, but since people are panicking, the demand is higher than the supply
Currently, Nashvillians ARE unique to this problem because it’s not happening anywhere else right now. Knoxville and Atlanta saw portions of the problem, but not nearly to this height. I have nothing against Nashvillians (except the ignorant hockey fans…but thats a completely different story) and I consider myself one. My simple point is, people here in this city (that I live in) went way overboard with this problem and turned something simple into Armageddon. Granted, the media did not help one bit!
September 20th, 2008 at 11:28 pm
Btw Pusch…I was informed by an unnamed source that someone aligned with Al Gore HAS tried to push this off on Bush and blame him for it. While we’re at it, let’s blame him for the collapse of the Cardinals and Tigers and for switching over to that annoying new Facebook format
September 21st, 2008 at 7:43 pm
What was so offensive about David’s post about Nashville? It sounds accurate to me, coming from someone who has lived in Nashville for four years, and in the surrounding area for my whole life. When snow is coming, people “prepare”. The attitude in your comment was a bit sassy, just to be honest.
The truth is, since Nashville is in the south, yet not exempt to getting snow every now and then – people don’t know how to react and drive on snow/ice.
Finally, with gas being the issue, it’s a combination of panic, media, and pure ignorance on people’s parts.
September 21st, 2008 at 9:25 pm
David, you’re always causing trouble.
September 22nd, 2008 at 10:14 am
Where in the world did comment #7 come from? I was a bit taken by it… then busted out in pure laughter! What happened?
September 23rd, 2008 at 2:51 pm
This whole article with the comments made me laugh a little. It was interesting to say the least.
September 24th, 2008 at 11:24 am
Bottomline: I had to wait an hour to get gas. I hated it. And if people hadn’t freaked out (or been too greedy), we wouldn’t have run out.
Linejustabovebottomline: I also have lived in Nashville for about 5 years AND have lived in the north for the 20 years before that…I realize that Nashville may not be as adequately equipped as Michigan to handle certain elements, but anyone can admit that Nashvillians DO tend to panic just a little too much…