Gas prices soar, residents react
Salisbury, Md. – Oil prices are spiking after news of attacks on Iranian energy facilities, and residents in Salisbury, Maryland are feeling the impact on their wallets.
“It’s going up, it’s crazy,” Salisbury resident Rontre Savage said. He said he knew other states had higher gas prices, so it was important to be grateful for prices not being higher, but that “$3.79 is a little crazy though,” considering it’s close to $4.
“I don’t know what else to say, gas prices are flying up out of nowhere,” Ocean City resident Doug Rago said. He said because “we have to pay for gas no matter what,” he usually doesn’t pay attention to prices but “how could you not miss it? They’ve just been flying up.”
With gas prices rising so much so quickly, many residents are feeling the financial impact immediately.
“I mean, they jumped up so fast, it’s like I got to make sure where I’m traveling now, I got the gas money for it because it’s just outrageous,” Salisbury resident Eric Middleton said. “I mean, it went up like 80 cents in less than two weeks.” Middleton said that though he wasn’t noticing a difference in his day-to-day expenses, he anticipated his monthly expenses were going to take a hit.
Jason Buller, a customer at the Royal Farms gas station on the corner of Pemberton Drive and Parsons Road, said he had noticed the price hike after only a few days.
“I’m just noticing it now it’s like $3.79, and I think when I got gas the other day was like $3.50,” he said. He said he noticed the increase almost immediately when it cost him well over $10 more to fill his gas tank.
For those who have to commute all over Delmarva, they say the price surges are particularly brutal.
“Because I do work in Delaware, so traveling from Salisbury to Delaware, with these gas prices. Yeah, you’re putting a strain on me a little bit,” Middleton said.
Rago is a field operations manager for a contractor group. “So, I’m bouncing around all day long, from job to job. It’s killing me,” he said.
According to data from AAA, the average price of gas in Wicomico County is $3.76. The highest average gas price on Maryland’s Eastern Shore is in Somerset County at $3.84, which is about the current national average.
