Gasoline shortages in North Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, and parts of Florida in the wake of Hurricane Ike have driven some consumers to desperate measures as they hunt for places to fill up.

"Some people are even following tankers to the station and then they descend upon the station," said Randy Bly, a spokesman for the AAA"s Auto Club South Chapter which represents southeastern states. Bly said the Atlanta, Georgia and Nashville, Tennessee metro areas have been particularly hard hit.

Hurricane Ike shut 15 refineries in the Gulf Coast"s refinery row and shut several pipelines as well. The outages have driven U.S. gasoline inventories to their lowest levels since 1967, and refinery utilization rates have sunk to their lowest rates on record.

Supply distuptions could continue in some areas of the country for weeks, the U.S. government said on Wednesday.

In Nashville, Tennessee, there were reports on local television of people cutting in line and fighting at gasoline stations as motorists rushed to stock up after a news report that Colonial Pipeline was running below normal capacity, said Doria Gibbons, a nurse who lives in the city.

Colonial Pipeline runs gasoline and diesel from Houston to the Northeast.
Asheville, North Carolina, a town of about 70,000 in the mountainous western part of the state, also has suffered severe shortages.

Idling cars lined up for a quarter mile at some stations selling gasoline near $5 per gallon, according to DeChanile Brooks, a mental health therapist from Chapel Hill who was visiting the area for a conference.

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