Four bucks and up for regular gas in Raleigh at this hour

A trusted source in the Raleigh/Durham area here in North Carolina called to let me know that the price of regular gasoline there is now $4.89, with premium at more than five bucks and a lot of stations limiting purchases to ten gallons. It's also been reported that at many stations the cars are lined up to the streets.

Also, I'm now hearing that this now how gas is going for this afternoon in Greensboro (about a half-hour south of where we are) and that some stations have already run out of the precious juice.

(If you're one of this blog's many foreign readers, this is more or less related to Hurricane Ike in the Gulf of Mexico, although how much of this is serious distribution shortage and how much of this comes from speculators going nutzoid on the oil markets, is anyone's guess.)

I hope this doesn't turn into another thing like what this blog went through with Katrina three years ago. As I said the other week, I'm still burned-out from that experience...

EDIT 2:04 p.m. EST: WRAL is reporting that the state's price-gouging law is now in effect, and has this photo from a gas station in Zebulon illustrating how jacked-up the prices have become...