By late Thursday morning, Robert Rowan was hard at work restocking fuel supplies at Buc-ee'sp Service stations in Brazoria County, where the demand for gas is overwhelming, as thousands of residents flee in advance of Hurricane Ike.
"The gas prices being so high that a lot of people have cut way back on it so therefore we have a surplus built up," he said. "So with times like this, it's good because when times like this come up, we are able to meet the demand."
In Freeport, where a mandatory evacuation order was issued, fuel fears were running high.
"We're out. We'll be out," said Denise Hernandez with Buc-ee's. "Hopefully if we get a truck in, but there's no telling how long it's going to take for the trucks up there to get filled up."
Gas was more readily available farther north outside the evacuation zone. The Garcias of Angleton topped off their tank before heading off to Odessa.
"It's my mom and my dad and my kids, my brother," said evacuee Jessica Garcia. "Two different trucks were pretty much taking the most important things. That's about it."
Area businesses were making preparations of their own, boarding up windows with landfall somewhere along the Texas coast just hours away.
"We're get ready for the hurricane. We have enough food, water and everything," said convenience store manager Shau Gau.
The Harris County Office of Emergency Management is busy getting ready for a possible Ike landfall in our area. The county has personnel monitoring weather and other storm related information at Transtar headquarters. The county says all of its workers are following hurricane plans. The county urges residents to review hurricane plans and follow instructions issued by the local office of emergency management.
