Reported by: Scott Unes
Photographer: Larry Shields
Web produced by: Megan Wasmund
The clearest local evidence of Hurricane Ike's destruction is the sharp rise in gas prices this weekend.
Drivers who spoke with 9News on Saturday say they feel like they've been here before. Just when there seems to be a little relief at the pump, the prices jump back up again.
Gas prices around the Tri-State are hitting those familiar heights again, and drivers are making adjustments in their driving habits again to compensate.
Shirley Poage of Ludlow, Kentucky was putting what money she could into her gas tank at a Covington gas station. She says, "I get about 30 dollars at a time, lasts me a couple of days. Single mother of four, running her kids back and forth to school."
In Florence along Kentucky Route 18 gas shot up to $4.15 a gallon, rising sixteen cents just since noon Saturday.
Across the river in Ohio, prices are still hovering just under four dollars a gallon.
"Seems like it's almost twenty cents cheaper across the bridge," said Jason Crabb of Sparta, Kentucky.
The higher prices in Kentucky are a result of the reformulated gasoline, or RFG, sold there. Now, because of Hurricane Ike, Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear's office announced the supply of RFG may be limited for the next several days, which could push Kentucky gas prices even higher.
Governor Beshear's office says they will ask the Environmental Protection Agency on Monday for a temporary waiver on using the more expensive reformulated gasoline. They say they're also working with the State Attorney General's office to try to prevent price gouging.
Newport Mayor Tom Guidugli received a call Friday from Gov. Beshear's office letting him know that prices in the Southern part of the state were beginning to skyrocket.
"Gas prices went up to five dollars in Paducah, they said at 9:00, and at 12:00 the prices in Lexington went up to four dollars, when the price of oil went down 20 dollars the day before," said Guidugli. "We really didn't see that effect in Northern Kentucky, but he was real concerned, because the prices were jumping so quickly."
Drivers who fill up in Kentucky would welcome any help from the state, and the extra spending money that would come with it.
"We miss all those extra curricular activities that we'd have the extra money for," said Jason Crabb. "Because I drive anywhere between seventy to eighty miles each way to work. So I'm spending between 40 and 50 dollars a day just to go to work and back."
