Hurricane Ida, Labor Day travel send gas prices above $3 in Miami Valley

MIAMI VALLEY — Gas prices in some parts of the Miami Valley are sitting at $3.19 per gallon at a couple stations in Dayton and others are also above $3 per gallon, according to GasBuddy.com.

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The spike comes days after Hurricane Ida slammed into the Gulf Coast, where many refineries are located.

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“She took off about 13 percent of our refining capacity,” said Jeanette Casselano, director of communications at AAA. “With a category 4 storm, that typically takes three plus weeks for refineries to get started again and get back to normal operations. We don’t have a timeline from those refineries on when they’ll be operating again.”

The upcoming Labor Day weekend has more people on the road, which means a higher demand for gas. AAA reports the current gas prices are the highest ahead of Labor Day travel since 2014.

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Dayton area gas prices were at an average of $3.06 per gallon, still below the national average of $3.17 per gallon, GasBuddy.com reported Thursday afternoon. Prices were still rising in the region around 12:30 p.m.

A week ago Dayton’s average price for a gallon of gas was $2.85.

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