Half the gas stations in New Orleans and Baton Rouge are without fuel

By Matt Egan, CNN Business

Widespread and growing gas station outages are being reported in New Orleans and Baton Rouge, adding to the misery facing Louisiana residents following Hurricane Ida.

As of 7 am CT on Wednesday, more than half of the gas stations in Baton Rouge (52.7%) and New Orleans (52.3%) were without fuel, according to outage figures compiled by GasBuddy. Nearly 13% of the gas stations in Louisiana are also being reported as without fuel.

This marks an uptick from 7 pm CT, when GasBuddy reported that 46.9% of the gas stations in Baton Rouge and 44.3% in New Orleans were without gasoline.

These outages do not include gas stations that can’t service customers because they remain without power, GasBuddy said.

Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, told CNN that gas station outages are being driven by multiple challenges in the aftermath of Hurricane Ida, including truckers who may be out of position, obstacles getting to gas stations and the loss of power at racks where tankers fill up.

Drivers who are able to fill up are facing higher prices. The national average for regular gas rose to $3.174 a gallon, up from $3.159 on Tuesday, according to AAA.

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