As many of you know, Hurricane Katrina hit along the Gulf Coast, hitting Louisiana of the U.S.A. Katrina was the worst storm we have seen in the gulf since the 1960s. This storm caused devastation to more than Louisiana, but to all the South Eastern and mid Western part of the United States. Gas was limited for a few days, and it also went to $6.00 a gallon in Atlanta, Georgia within twenty-four hours!!

The southern most part of Louisiana is underwater. Not everyone knows, but New Orleans is below sea level. This means that in a flood or a heavy heavy rain, water covers the ground. This hurricane left water up to the roofs of some houses.

What caused the gas prices to go sky high was that when Katrina hit, it hit our oil supply along the gulf coast and destroyed the oil lines. This went on for about three days, and it was fixed about Friday.

Some of you are thinking, so what, I live in town. Well, some people live about 20 minutes to the nearest town, about 30 miles going 60 mph. Without gas, our economy will fail. It takes gas to get the items to Wal-Mart, and the mail to your house or P.O. box. It takes gas to go get groceries, get to school and to work. We depend on gas! Some of us don???t have a lot of money, so gas is putting a load on those families.

So you do the math: Your car holds about 30 gallons of gas, (ok, I am no mechanic) and it is about 30 miles to the mall. Your car gets about 15 miles to the gallon. So that means you use four gallons of gas to go to the mall and back. Gas is about $2.59 a gallon. So $2.59 times 4 is about $10.36 spent on gas. After awhile, that adds up. A couple of years ago, gas was probably $1.45 a gallon. So gas prices have really gone up lately.

So you think: are gas prices really fair? The average family spends about $250 dollars on groceries, and the average family is about two adults and three kids. About $100.00 dollars is spent on gas for 2 cars. $15.00 is given to you and your siblings together for allowance and about $22.50 for you and your siblings??? lunch money for the week. That is about $337.00 a week!! For the month that is about $1,450.00 dollars for a month, not including bills and taxes!! Of coarse there is more spent in December.

Ways you can help save gas and money is to do the following:

1.) Car pool with some of your friends in the neighborhood.
2.) Walk to near-by places.
3.) Ride the bus to school to and from school; this could fall under car pooling.
4.) Only buy stuff you absolutly need. It is okay to give yourself a reward every now and then.

So next time you ask for another toy, a new shirt, or to go to the bowling alley and your parents refuse to take you, think about how much that they have spent on you for the last month!!

So for this reason, I think gas prices are unfair. Most families have enough debt on their hands. Maybe gas will go down, I don???t know. But we could try to save some.

This is Kellee20, signing off!
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