It never rains but it pours

Americans, eh? If it's not a moral panic, it's some other kind of panic. I wonder if any pennies are dropping about now, if people are starting to realise that driving a gigantic SUV that only does 7 mpg isn't such a fantastic idea when you're trying to get out of Dodge?

Traffic snarled to a standstill across coastal Texas yesterday amid reports of petrol shortages as more than a million people attempted to flee Hurricane Rita.

People were stuck in a long queue of traffic (stuck in first gear, other words), many of them no doubt in vehicles that only manage about 14 miles per (US) gallon at the best of times. So then they were running out of gas and causing yet more traffic spontaneous self-organisation. What they want is a nice Golf that does about 60 mpg