Holiday travel seen slower after Katrina

updated 7:46 a.m. ET Sept. 6, 2005

NEW YORK - Labor Day traffic slowed around the country as drivers lucky to find gas stations open paid over 30 percent more than before Hurricane Katrina disrupted Gulf Coast refinery and pipeline operations a week ago.

Pump prices are starting to level off, but analysts say the dramatic rise in gasoline costs has forced consumers to begin rethinking everything from vacation travel plans to how much they can afford to spend for food, clothing and restaurant meals.

Drivers paid an average of about $3.20 a gallon for unleaded regular on Monday, up $1.35 from a year ago, and 75 cents more than they did before the hurricane, according to Randy Bly, director of community relations for AAA Auto Club South.

The federation of motor clubs had originally forecast that 34.5 million Americans would travel 50 miles or more this Labor Day weekend. But Bly thinks that estimate was too high as drivers were spooked by the spike in gas prices and reports of shortages at gas stations in midwestern, southern and northeast states.

“We feel very certain Hurricane Katrina will bring this (original estimate) lower,” Bly said.

In Georgia, a moratorium on gas taxes and a slight dip in wholesale prices helped level fuel prices to an average of $3.05. On Friday, Gov. Sonny Perdue ordered a month-long moratorium on state gas taxes and called legislators into a special session Tuesday to ratify the decision. The governor’s order suspends Georgia’s 7.5 cents-a-gallon excise tax and 4 percent sales tax on gasoline until the end of September.

Robert and Claire Smith of Rockford, Ill., had planned to take their four children to an amusement park, but the high price of gas kept them from making the drive of over one hour. Instead, they visited both sets of grandparents nearby.

“The kids just don’t understand. Their day is not set by what gas prices are,” Robert Smith said, adding that, on Labor Day morning, his eight-year old had “this long face” of disappointment.

Ohio State Highway Patrol Sgt. Michael Forshe in Zanesville said traffic was definitely down on central Ohio’s interstate, I-70, this weekend. “I don’t see it as the end-of-summer blowout like it used to be,” he said.

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