BLOOMINGTON - Hurricane Ike created more than major weather havoc-it set off gas price spikes Saturday in Central Illinois as well around the nation. Gas rose to $4.99 a gallon in Knoxville, Tenn., sparking long lines at gas stations. | Best local gas prices | Price hikes probed

Locations surveyed locally were about 20 cents a gallon more.

In Clinton, prices at the Mobil station and Lara's Pantry rose to $3.99 Saturday up from $3.79 Friday night.

In the Twin Cities in the West Market Street, north Normal, and on Main Street, prices generally rose from about 20 cents a gallon for regular to $4.19 gallon.

"I guess I'm not really surprised," said Sean Lewis, Bloomington, as she gassed up at Thornton Oil Corporation in the 900 block of North Main Street, Bloomington. "I'm upset. I don't make a lot of money. I work part-time." He said he does a lot of cooking, and will have to cut back on groceries.

Other customers at Thortons Saturday evening included Brenda Richardson of Bloomington and Michael Crisman of Normal.

Brenda Richardson called the price hike "not too good. We're going to do less driving." Richardson said. "We're going out to get ice cream-this is going to be the last time for a while."

"I think they're gouging us," said Michael Crisman, Normal. "Something ain't quite right there."

Earlier Saturday, Chris Prince of Stanford took the price increase in stride while at Thorntons. "They should have waited until there was a need to raise prices. This was a pre-emptive move," he said.

He thought gas was bound to go up due to Ike, but hoped it would be later rather than sooner.

Hurricane Ike shut down 14 Texas refineries with a total capacity of 3.8 million barrels of crude a day.

Goeff Sundstrom, AAA's fuel price analyst in Orlando, Fla., said Ike disrupted prices at the wholesale level in the Gulf Coast.

"The reality is, we're facing a temporary shortage in wholesale gasoline," he said.

Refineries may shut down for days even without serious wind damage or flooding because of extensive procedures workers must go through to restart the massive complexes. Exxon Mobil said it was not able to assess damage because of the storm.-Hurricane Ike came two weeks after Hurricane Gustav. The last refinery shut down by Gustav restarted Thursday.

Refineries along the upper Texas Gulf Coast account for about a fifth of the nation's refining capacity.

The Associated Press and Pantagraph reporter Edith Brady-Lunny contributed to this report.