Rising gas prices: Is Hurricane Ian to blame?

(NewsNation) — The nation has seen falling gas prices for 99 days straight over the summer, but now, gas prices have gone up four cents over the past week. And people are anxious that Hurricane Ian might be to blame.

According to AAA, the national gas average is now at $3.73 per gallon, whereas on Wednesday last week, the national average was at $3.68 per gallon.

But don’t worry just yet. AAA told NewsNation that gas prices are going up slightly because of refinery issues on the West Coast and in the Midwest, not because of the hurricane headed toward Florida.

There was even a fire at one of the refineries in Ohio last week, which ended up killing two workers. However, the refinery should be back up and running within a week.

Gas prices also rose the exact same day as the Federal Reserve announced another interest rate hike in an effort to ease inflation, but also keep the nation from entering a recession.

But AAA reassured that Hurricane Ian won’t have an impact on gas prices because the storm would have to head toward the refineries near Texas and Louisiana instead of Florida.

For the people in the path of Hurricane Ian, GasBuddy launched a new app to help residents find fuel and power sources during the storm. Users of the app will also be able to report if a gas station is out of fuel.