[q]Gas jitters close schools, jam pumps
> Perdue's request, short notice rile parents
> By CARLOS CAMPOS
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
> Published on: 09/24/05
Gov. Sonny Perdue asked Georgians late Friday to remain calm as a hurricane again threatened to disrupt the state's gasoline supply. It didn't work.
Within minutes of his canceling school for two days next week and asking Georgians to conserve fuel in anticipation of a repeat of the Hurricane Katrina gas crunch, motorists began queuing up at gas stations, and anxious parents wondered what to do with their children on Monday and Tuesday.
Cars were 10 deep Friday afternoon at a Sam's Club in Marietta, where regular unleaded gasoline was sold out by 5 p.m. Gas manager Steve Stephens predicted that the rest would be gone within hours.
Retired U.S. Army Col. Wilburn See, 70, of east Cobb County spent about $150 to fill up his Cadillac Escalade and his wife's sedan.
"They told us they were going to stop the buses, so I figured I'd better come on and get some gas," See said. "We're worried about a shortage."
By Friday night, however, some gas stations appeared to be back to business as usual.
'You're joking, right?'
Almost as quickly as Perdue made his decisions public at a Capitol news conference, he found himself on the defensive. He called the conservation measures "calm, proactive actions."
"It's again — trying to be transparent, forthcoming about information and asking people to relax and to understand that while we are taking this action to conserve fuel, it is best handled in the spirit of calmness and rationality," he said.
In a conference telephone call, Perdue asked state school superintendents to suspend school Monday and Tuesday to help conserve 500,000 gallons of diesel fuel and countless gallons of gasoline expended by parents shuttling students and teachers going to and from work. Although the closures are voluntary, Perdue said he anticipates that every school system would close both days.
Only four school systems — Floyd County, Haralson County, Rome city and Thomasville city — decided to remain open.
"It was like, 'We have a situation here and we need your help and we really want you to do it,' " said Fayette County school Superintendent John DeCotis. "Every superintendent I spoke to is complying."
Some private schools said they also would close.
Sales representative Teresa McCreight and her friends were immediately burning up one another's cellphones with the unwanted news that school will be out.
A friend "called and told me that and I said, 'You're joking, right? Please tell me you made that up,' " she said.
McCreight, of Buckhead, said she has sales calls lined up Monday and Tueday and will either have to take two unexpected vacation days or pay $150 a day for a baby sitter to watch her two children, 10 and 7, who attend Sarah Smith Elementary School.
Perdue aides said the governor is sympathetic to the plight of parents and that he hopes they will use the weekend to make arrangements for their children.
Many schoolchildren, predictably, were delighted to get "snow days" in September.
Jeroson Williams, 12, heard about his good fortune along with a busload of other students heading home Friday from Sandtown Middle School in south Fulton County.
"Our bus driver must have been listening to the bus radio," the eighth-grader said. "She slowed the bus down, started listening to it. 'Everybody!' she started screaming. 'Four-day weekend!' "
The students on the bus exploded in celebration. "It was like a parade," Jeroson said. "Everybody was like, 'Yeah!' "
His mother, Karon, was less enthusiastic. Jeroson told her the news as soon as he came in the door. "I was lying there, thinking, how will that help?" she said.
The state's public colleges and universities planned to operate on a normal schedule, said John Millsaps, a spokesman for the University System of Georgia. But the institutions were encouraged to limit travel in accordance with the governor's request to conserve fuel.
Cox decries Perdue 'stunt'
As Hurricane Katrina slowed the flow of gasoline through pipelines from the Gulf Coast to Georgia, panicked motorists overwhelmed gas stations. Some stations ran out; others hiked prices as high as $4 and $5 a gallon.
"We don't want a repeat of the wasteful and unnecessary gas panic that we saw after Katrina," Perdue said. "Hopefully we've learned a lesson, and we just need to take a deep breath and be cool about the gas situation."
To help relieve the price spike after Katrina, Perdue suspended the state's tax on gasoline — about 15 cents per gallon. That suspension will continue through the end of September, and Perdue said Friday that he has no plans to extend it.
He urged motorists to fuel up only when their tanks near empty. It quickly became clear Friday, however, that many weren't heeding his message.
On his way home from work, mortgage broker John Rackley saw lines of cars at a QuikTrip on Five Forks Trickum Road. That station ran out of gas.
Rackley said Perdue's attempt to be proactive was admirable but backfired. "My feeling is the general public is thinking maybe something's going on that we don't know about," he said. "Nobody trusts the government anymore."
Perdue's political rivals — some of whom will vie for his job next year — also sprang into action Friday. Secretary of State Cathy Cox, a candidate for governor, said Perdue's "stunt" was causing chaos and costing parents who will have to pay for child care. The campaign of Lt. Gov. Mark Taylor, who is also running for governor, also chastised the move.
Perdue also signed an executive order Friday requiring state agencies to suspend nonessential travel and to go to four-day, 10-hour workweeks and encourage some employees to work from home. Perdue estimated that about one-fourth of the state's 100,000 employees could telecommute.
State agencies late Friday began putting together energy-saving plans, which they must submit to the governor Monday.
"The [transportation] commissioner did call in the senior staff and asked them to put an additional focus on teleworking and alternative work hours," said state Department of Transportation spokeswoman Vicki Gavalas.
Perdue encouraged private businesses to do likewise. Several major employers, including Coca-Cola and BellSouth, immediately encouraged employees to use mass transit, car pool or telecommute. MARTA officials said they are watching ridership closely and are prepared to increase train runs if needed.
The governor, meanwhile, was optimistic that the aftereffects of Hurricane Rita will be temporary and surmountable.
"If Georgians stick together, work together and conserve together, we can weather whatever problems Rita brings our way with the least possible inconvenience," Perdue said.
Staff writers Bridget Gutierrez, Mary MacDonald, Andrea Jones, Patti Ghezzi, Aileen Dodd, Diane R. Stepp, Heather Vogell, Chandler Brown, Scott Leith, Duane Stanford and Ariel Hart contributed to this article.[/q]
Very interesting.
and I've actually never travelled to this part of the forum 
I remember my friend's mom wanted to get back into a teaching career a few years ago, she said the tests were really hard. (and she now teaches kindergarden!)
But I digress. I am sure you did better than you think. 
