Why are we seeing gas shortages now?

Texas is the energy capital of the country, both in terms of crude oil production and refining that into different types of fuel such as gasoline, diesel, jet fuel and other products. Several refineries shut down as a precaution before Harvey made landfall in southeast Texas coast on Friday night as a category 4 hurricane. In the following days, as the storm caused widespread flooding, more inland refineries stopped operations. As of late Wednesday, more than a fifth of the nation's refining capacity -- including two of the country's largest oil refineries -- was out of commission as oil companies battled flooding.

How long will this last?

There is still a great deal of uncertainty. Many refineries have not said when they expect refineries to be back up and running. But experts aren't panicking.

Jay Hatfield, portfolio manager of InfraCap's AMZA fund, said the "chances of this being a long-term shortage is zero. The only question is does it last one week, two weeks or three weeks, not a month, two months, three months."

There's little evidence of major damage at most Texas Gulf Coast refineries, which are well-equipped to deal with flooding, Hatfield said. However, they can't just flip a switch and immediately start producing gasoline and diesel.

1 / 9People wait in line to get gas at the Costco at Sam Rayburn Tollway and I-35 in Lewisville on Thursday, August 31, 2017. (Vernon Bryant/The Dallas Morning News)(Vernon Bryant / Staff Photographer) 2 / 9People wait in line to get gas at the Costco at Sam Rayburn Tollway and I-35 in Lewisville on Thursday, August 31, 2017. (Vernon Bryant/The Dallas Morning News)(Vernon Bryant / Staff Photographer) 3 / 9Rami Khdeir reacts to the gas pumps running out of gas at Krogers in Beaumont Texas, August 31, 2017. His father in law Asad Bassa tries to find another olace for fuel. (Rick Moon/Special contributor) (Rick Moon / Special Contributor) 4 / 9People wait in line to get gas at the Costco at Sam Rayburn Tollway and I-35 in Lewisville on Thursday, August 31, 2017. (Vernon Bryant/The Dallas Morning News)(Vernon Bryant / Staff Photographer) 5 / 9Locals wait in line to fill up their vehicles with gas at a RaceTrac near South Loop 288 and Brinker Road. Hurricane Harvey has disrupted gasoline production at refineries on the Texas Gulf Coast. As a result, consumers in Denton County are worrying about whether they'll be able to fill their tanks during the approaching Labor Day weekend., Thursday, August 31, 2017, in Denton, Texas, Jeff Woo/DRC(Jeff Woo / DRC) 6 / 9Motorist wait in line to purchase gas at Quik Trip located at 511 South Zang Blvd in Dallas on Thursday, August 31, 2017. There is a shortage of gas due to Hurricane Harvey. (David Woo/The Dallas Morning News)(David Woo / Staff Photographer) 7 / 9The QuikTrip gas station in Duncanville, Tx at Cockrell Hill Rd and Hwy 67 had run out of gas due to Hurricane Harvey on Thursday, August 31, 2017. (Irwin Thompson/The Dallas Morning News)(Irwin Thompson / Staff Photographer) 8 / 9avid McWherter pumps gas at the Kroger in Beaumont Texas, August 31, 2017. (Rick Moon/Special contributor) (Rick Moon / Special Contributor) 9 / 9Krogers gas pumps run out of fuel in Beaumont Texas, August 31, 2017. (Rick Moon/Special contributor) (Rick Moon / Special Contributor)

"The good news is it takes one to two weeks," Hatfield said about the risk of an extended disruption. "The bad news is it takes one to two weeks." In the meantime, Hatfield said tankers of gasoline could be diverted to Houston. Gasoline from refineries in Oklahoma and other nearby states could also be tapped into ease the supply crunch.

The Houston Ship Channel, which closed because of Harvey, partially reopened Wednesday. The U.S. is also a significant exporter of gasoline. Now some of that supply is likely to be diverted to domestic use.

How bad is it now?

In the short-term, gas shortages are often created by the panic of people keeping their tanks topped off. This sudden demand throws off the supply. As a result, regular deliveries to pumps -- which are based on normal seasonal demand -- become inadequate to meet the new rush for gas.

There were multiple reports on social media about long lines in front of gas stations in the D-FW area.

At a 7-Eleven station on Plano Road in Richardson, there were more than a dozen vehicles lined for gas Thursday morning. Mike Aynkulu, the store's assistant manager, said he wasn't sure how quickly they'd run out or when they would get resupplied. When the pumps get low, an alarm sounds and a gas truck usually arrives in 30 to 45 minutes, he said. That won't be the case today.

No such luck at the Shell across the street though. They are OUT. pic.twitter.com/vU7QqL8hUl — Claire Cardona (@clairezcardona) August 31, 2017

At the 7-Eleven on the corner of Zang and Colorado in Dallas, employees didn't expect the gas to last long and lines of two to four cars stretched from every pump.

Reid Hendrix filled up his wife's car in Garland last night, and after seeing long lines around 10:30 p.m. he knew he would need to get gas before work today. He was late for work, and his boss was messaging him wondering where he was. "We're in crisis, what do you want me to do?" he said.

Maximo Contreras talked to his girlfriend last night about needing to fill up. He has the week off, so he just needs to fill up and let the car sit in the driveway for now. He said he was lucky his first stop -- the 7-Eleven -- still had gas.

Usually, he's able to fill up with $15 or $20, but as the price climbed past $25 the nozzle was still pumping. "This sucks, but compared to what is going in Houston, that's way worse," he said.

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Bresha Jackson has to drive from Corsicana every day to get her aunt to cancer treatment at Methodist Dallas Medical Center, just a few blocks away. She usually fills up at night, but the stations in Corsicana were already empty.

She was paying cash, and kept having to scrounge up more bills and run them into the store when $10, $20, $30 wasn't enough to fill her tank. "Too much craziness," she said, scrambling as the line of cars grew. "This guy's been waiting."

Behind her, the driver of the next car threw his hands up in exasperation. "I hope they don't run out," she said. "It wasn't this crazy the last time a hurricane came through."

Cars packed the small parking lot around the 7-Eleven at the corner of Ross Avenue and Griffin Street waiting for a chance at the pump.

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Markus Robinson, who works downtown, says his boss told him 7 Eleven still had gas so he went on his break to fill up his tank. "Flashing back to the '70s," he said with a smile as cars lined up behind him. "It could be worse, I could be down along the coast."

On Monday, the popular crowd-sourced gas price website GasBuddy activated its online gas availability tracker encouraging drivers to report gas stations that are out.

Lots of cars here at 7 Eleven on Ross and Griffin downtown pic.twitter.com/Ozpz6rqLLc — Eline de Bruijn (@debruijneline) August 31, 2017

On Thursday morning, there were several locations in North Texas that were being flagged as having run out gas in GasBuddy's online tracker.

Red indicates gas stations that drivers reported as having run out of gas. (Screen capture from GasBuddy's online gas tracker. )

Responding to questions from The Dallas Morning News fuel suppliers and retailers have been reluctant to comment on how they see shortages playing out in the short term.

How much have the gas prices gone up?

At the Dallas-area gas stations, prices have started rising, but not too sharply yet.

From about $2.22 on Friday, before Harvey made landfall, gas rose to an average of $ 2.42 Thursday morning. However, there were reports of some gas stations charging $ 2.99 or more mid-day Thursday.

#GasPrices: National average surges to $2.46/gal, up 11c in a week, will hit $2.50/gal in next 36 hours. More hikes coming, shortages posbl. — 𝙋𝙖𝙩𝙧𝙞𝙘𝙠 𝘿𝙚𝙃𝙖𝙖𝙣 ⛽️ (@GasBuddyGuy) August 31, 2017

Is it legal to raise prices like that?

There were multiple reports of gas stations charging anywhere from $2.99 to $8 for a gallon of regular gas.

At the 76 gas station in Garland, the fuel-price display unit outside showed $8 for a gallon. The station was swamped with calls from angry customers after a photo was posted on social media, according to Robert Fernandez, who works there.

“They wouldn’t give me time to fix it,” he said. “We absolutely regret the error.”

Fernandez blamed the high price an employee error. It was supposed to be $3.09, he said, but soon after the station ran out of gas.

There have been numerous complaints about high gas prices, according to Kayleigh Lovvorn, spokeswoman for the office of Texas Attorney General.

“When evaluating whether a business is engaging in price gouging in the sale of fuel, we look to see if they are charging excessive or exorbitant prices,” Lovvorn said in an emailed statement. “We recognize that certain market conditions, such as decreased production and closed refineries, might cause market fluctuations.”

The attorney general’s office is looking into 984 complaints filed between August 25 and Thursday afternoon. On Thursday alone, its Consumer Protection Division received more than 500 complaints, “many of which involve allegations of high fuel prices in Dallas, including amounts ranging from $6 to $8 dollars per gallon.”

Lovvorn said there are no specific dollar amounts that indicate price gouging. The office is asking people who see gas priced at $4 per gallon or more take a photo of the price or their receipt and send that in with their complaint.

You can email complaints to ConsumerEmergency@oag.texas.gov or call it into (800) 621-0508 or (512) 475-4413.

But wait, haven't we paid more for gas before?

Historic retail gas price chart from 1994. (U.S. Energy Information Administration)

Gas prices have gone all the way up to $4 per gallon for regular gas during the 2007-'08 period, before crashing to below $ 2 per gallon as the Great Recession hit the U.S. economy.

Before Harvey affected fuel supply, the gas prices were at a multi-year low. And industry experts expect the current price spike to be relatively short lived. Prices are expected to normalize as oil refineries are back on and fuel supplies to gas stations resume.

What are the fuel suppliers saying?

"The South Texas area is expected to experience short-term interruption in fuel supply due to the delay in refinery operations in Corpus Christi and Houston," a statement from H-E-B said Thursday morning. "A surge in demand along with reduced supply has caused intermittent outages at H-E-B fuel stations throughout the state."

The retail chain said it's working with refiners and suppliers to "resupply H-E-B stations across the state as fast as we can."

Mike Thornbrugh, a spokesman for QuikTrip, said his chain would consider trucking out-of-state gas into the region if needed. That would, however, increase prices since the transportation costs are higher.

Staff writers Charles Scudder, Claire Cardona and Eline de Bruijn contributed to this story.