HOUSTON — From Florida to Tennessee, and all the way up to Connecticut, people far from Hurricane Ike's destruction nonetheless felt one of its after-shocks: gasoline prices that surged overnight — to nearly $5 a gallon in some places.

Fears of supply shortages, and actual fuel-production disruptions, resulting from Ike's lashing of vital energy infrastructure led to pump price disparities of as much as $1 a gallon in some states.

Yesterday the U.S. Minerals Management Service said there were two confirmed reports of drilling rigs adrift in the central Gulf of Mexico.

Compounding the jitters and higher costs for gasoline retailers was the fact that some big refineries along the Gulf Coast had been shut for nearly two weeks following Hurricane Gustav. Power outages threatened to keep millions of gallons of gasoline output idled for at least several days.

The price of regular gasoline soared as high as $4.99 a gallon in Knoxville, Tenn., yesterday, up from $3.66 a day earlier. In Florida, the attorney general's office reported prices as high as $5.50 a gallon and said it had received 186 gouging complaints.

In Connecticut, AAA said average prices jumped 10 cents overnight and Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said his office had received complaints of stations charging more than they advertised.

Prices in California ranged from $3.49 to $4.39 per gallon. In the eastern suburbs of Cleveland, gasoline jumped from $3.55 early in the week to $3.79. Regular gasoline at Chicago-area stations averaged $4.12 a gallon.

Hawai'i gas prices remained steady for the most part, according to AAA. The average price of regular in Honolulu actually went down a penny, from $4.22 to $4.21, while Hilo prices nudged up a penny, from $4.37 to $4.38.

Gas prices nationwide rose an average of nearly 6 cents a gallon to $3.733, according to AAA, the Oil Price Information Service and Wright Express.