Riiiiight. . . The gas station owners are gonna be outta there anyway, right?

Just take whatever you need. And take food and televisions too while you're at it.

That said, people weren't stuck in New Orleans because they didn't have gasoline. They were stuck there because they didn't have transportation, period. They were stuck there because there wasn't a plan to evacuate all the people. Some were there because they didn't think the threat was real enough to go somewhere safer.

Vut everybody has a credit card, and nearly all gas pumps accept such cards--so this shouldn't be a problem. (Maybe there should be some rule that, in an emergency, people without credit cards should be allowed to proffer IOUs, as long as they are accompanied by a fingerprint, photo taken by the seller, photocopy of the driver's license, etc.

Last thing I'd do in an emergency is wait in line near a potential explosion.