Relief

by Clifford Krauss
NYTimes

On Sunday ahead of Gustav, some gas stations like this one in Gulfport, Miss., were running out of gasoline.

“I don’t know if there was a cheer, but there were plenty of smiles,” Don Pirolo, a ConocoPhillips refinery manager, said of the employees gathered at the company’s emergency operations center here. The crackers, fruit and soft drinks served at the center “taste a lot better today.”

From initial reports, the storm appeared to leave production platforms and refineries essentially unharmed, meaning that oil and gas supplies would not be disrupted and prices at the pump may continue to ease in the days ahead.