GAS SHORTAGE STYMIES WEEKEND PLANS: Crisis or not, travelers hit the road

With all that’s going on this weekend within what ordinarily would be easy driving range, Georgia’s gas shortage could complicate many people’s plans.

The University of Georgia home game against Top-10 rival Alabama. The 20th anniversary of the Atlanta Football Classic. The North Georgia State Fair in Marietta. The PGA Tour Championship. Auburn at home versus Tennessee.

These are a few of the major events within a day’s drive of metro Atlanta planned for today through Sunday. With North Georgia gas supplies spotty, will everyone be able to get where they’re going?

The gas shortage extends beyond the metro area but has hit hardest in Atlanta, Nashville, Tenn., and the Carolinas, including the Charlotte area and the mountain towns to the west. For days it has closed civic offices, cut short workdays and even canceled community college classes.

The result is that many who initially intended to visit Atlanta this weekend have changed their plans.

“I didn’t want to come down there and be dealing with the same problems in an area I’m not that familiar with,” said Spencer Rawlings, a Nashville resident who regularly makes the four-hour drive for the Atlanta Football Classic.

“In Atlanta on a weekend like this, you’ll be sitting around in traffic, only burning up gas. I’ll eat the cost of my ticket.”

Some dedicated travelers refused to be hindered by the crisis. Forty-year Tennessee State University alum Martha Stratton, who drove from Nashville for the Classic, is relying on help from local friends to find gas.

“I decided I wouldn’t let the idea of a gas shortage keep me from honoring my commitment of supporting my team,” Stratton said.

In Athens, where UGA officials believe the city’s population could double with game attendees as well as ticketless people just coming to party, campus Police Chief Jimmy Williamson acknowledged that the weekend growth spurt could strain the city’s precarious gasoline levels.

Williamson warned would-be travelers to be smart before hitting the road.

“People traveling from deep South Georgia might get here, and there won’t be enough gas for them to get back home,” Williamson said. “My advice to you: If you don’t have a place to stay or don’t have a [game] ticket, you might want to rethink coming.”

Organizers tracking attendance for other events were seeing mixed responses.

“It was a little off than it has been on previous Thursdays,” Rick Burton, general manager of East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta, said of Tour Championship attendance. “Last year, we had about 15,000 to 16,000. [Thursday], we had maybe 10,000.”

John Grant, whose 100 Black Men of Atlanta Inc. on Saturday will sponsor the 20th Atlanta Classic football game at the Georgia Dome between the historically black Tennessee State and Florida A&M universities, said he still sees growth in ticket sales from people traveling to Atlanta.

“The trend around ticket sales don’t reflect that people are staying away,” Grant said.

Spokesman for the Governor’s office Bert Brantley said that the key to surviving the weekend —- and the uncertain future beyond that —- is not to panic. “If everybody stops filling up every day,” he said, “we can get back to normal demand.”

—- The Associated Press contributed to this report.