---
author: Eric Wagoner
date: '2005-08-31T20:03:03'
draft: false
title: The Panic of Aught Five
---

Herd mentality and panic buying took over Athens today, as [everyone in town tried to fill every gas tank they had](http://onlineathens.com/stories/083105/gasoline.shtml) at the same time. Gas prices were up ten cents overnight, but by five pm they were up another ninety -- those stations that still had gas were happy to sell it at $3.39 a gallon. As I was driving home, the local radio news station was doing a special broadcast on the panic, and a county spokesman actually had to get on the air and implore the public to **stop calling 911** to ask where the cheap gas was. (!!!) Apparently it happened in Atlanta too, where the governor waived environmental restrictions and [enacted price gouging laws](http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/0805/31fuel.html) One well-publicized station was selling gas at well over $5 a gallon at the end of the day. Meanwhile, it's Dawn of the Dead [over in NOLA](http://www.livejournal.com/users/interdictor/). All that's standing before the complete breakdown of civilization are some well-prepared (and well-armed) nerds at [an internet data center](http://www.directnic.com/).