Hold Onto Your Wallets, Katrina's Coming

For those of us sitting safely in California, the hurricane in the Gulf Coast is an interesting weather event, but it's easy to think it won't have much of a direct effect on us. Wrong (h/t Instapundit):

U.S. crude oil futures surged more than $4 in opening trade on Monday, hitting a new record high above $70 a barrel after Hurricane Katrina forced Gulf of Mexico producers to shut in more than a third of their output. Katrina, which strengthened into a rare, maximum power Category 5 hurricane as it spun through key oil and gas fields toward New Orleans, shut in a total 633,000 barrels per day (bpd), according to company figures on Sunday. It also forced the closure of seven refineries and a major U.S. crude import terminal.

As we know, anytime there's a threat in any form to the oil or gas supplies, prices immediately skyrocket. You can expect a big jump in gas prices if the damage is even remotely close to the worst fears of this storm.