Upstate residents are staying home, shopping less, and carpooling to conserve gas this Labor Day weekend after prices soared as high as $5 a gallon in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, which knocked out power to pipelines in the Gulf Coast.
Chrissy Miller, 30, of Piedmont had thought about going home to Delaware, "but gas prices definitely affected me not being able to go," she said. "I'm not going to do as much shopping."
Cliff Burke of Taylors normally spends time with his mother in Anderson. This year, he will call her, he said. "If I don't have to go out, I'm not going out," said Burke, 40.
Senthia Conyers, 33, of Gray Court said prices are "a little bit out of control" but she still plans to travel to the Midlands.
"Instead of going out to eat, I can cook and bring my lunch. I take that (extra money) and put it toward additional gas," Conyers said. "Anything that I want and don't really need, I just take it and put it toward gas."