By Lori Ehde
Under the threat of drastic price increases, local motorists lined up at the pumps Tuesday night to stock up on gasoline.
According to Rock County Co-op Oil Manager Jim Jellema, consumers overreacted to premature reports of shortages and price hikes.
He said it's true that prices in some parts of the country increased over the $5 mark, but that was where supplies had actually decreased due to panic buying.
"Everyone got excited thinking there was going to be a problem [as a result of the terrorism], so everyone started purchasing in fear of high prices," Jellema said.
"This created shortages at the pipelines, but that's about to be alleviated if they can just hang in there with us."
Regional media warned motorists that prices could be over $3 per gallon as early as Wednesday morning, so that's what prompted panic buying in Luverne Tuesday night.
In reality, local supplies were able to handle the extra business, so prices remained unchanged Wednesday.
Jellema said he purchased a load at 14 cents higher to handle the additional demand, so his pumps will reflect a slight increase for that load. The same may be true for other local gas stations if they were forced to buy at the increased price.
He said prices nationwide are likely to level off within a week once the pipelines have restored supplies.