The Texas Gulf Coast as I'm sure you know continues to feel the effects of Hurricane Harvey’s destruction. A number of oil and gas refineries have been forced to close temporarily, and gas prices are on the rise nationwide due to those shutdowns.

Because of the refinery shutdowns, gasoline production supply is lowered. Therefore, demand goes up, and gas prices at the pump rise as a result.

The Gulf Coast is a major supplier of the entire nation’s gasoline, so hurricanes have been known to affect overall production for the U.S. Those higher prices at the pump are consistent with past storms.

The good news is that the increased prices usually level out within a few weeks.

Hurricane Harvey came ashore on the Texas Gulf Coast Friday night as a category four hurricane. That in itself proved to be devastating, and even though it has been downgraded to a tropical storm, it has been a very slow-moving system and continues to drop a tremendous amount of rain in Texas and Louisiana. Due to the wide spread flooding it is causing, people are now calling it the “500 Year Flood.”

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