ATLANTA -- Gas prices surged in Georgia on Monday to the highest of anywhere in the Southeast despite reports that Hurricane Ike inflicted little damage to oil refineries on the Texas coast.

The fuel gauge report released Monday by AAA shows the average statewide price for regular unleaded gas is $4.16 a gallon, a 16-cent increase from Sunday.

But some parts of the state were reporting as high as $4.99 a gallon, seen at a Chevron in Lawrenceville in the north Atlanta suburbs early Monday morning. Other stations throughout the state advertised prices much lower than that, ranging from $3.79 to $3.99.

Several stations in Camden County priced a gallon of regular unleaded at over $4.

In Macon, prices were as high as $4.49, and in midtown Atlanta, gas stations were charging between $4.29 and $4.59 a gallon.

Savannah had prices as high as $4.49. One station in Columbia County in east Georgia was advertising gas for $9.99 a gallon, but workers told The Augusta Chronicle that they were out of gas and only using the price to deter potential customers from stopping.

State officials have asked residents to report gas price gouging to the Governor's Office of Consumer Affairs. Between Friday and Monday afternoon, the state received 140 complaints of unfair pricing, a consumer affairs official said.

The national average for regular Monday was $3.84 a gallon.

The second highest Southern state was South Carolina with an average of $4.12 for regular unleaded gas. The cheapest price was in Louisiana and Virginia at $3.78 a gallon.

Many Gulf Coast refineries shut down production as a precaution before the storm and may remain shuttered for days, even if they were not damaged, because of power outages. Federal government officials have said Ike destroyed at least 10 oil and gas platforms and damaged pipelines in the Gulf of Mexico.

But that represents only a small portion of the 3,800 production platforms in the Gulf and pales in comparison to the catastrophic damage to energy infrastructure doled out by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita three years ago.

"Lines are back up and running at reduced rates," said Steve Baker, spokesman for Colonial Pipeline in suburban Atlanta, which normally supplies 100 million gallons of petroleum products a day to the South and East Coast. "We've got power and staff at virtually every facility of ours. We're just ready and taking advantage of the supplies we can get on line."

Baker would not disclose the level of flow since the disruption, nor speculate Monday night when conditions would return to normal. He said Louisiana refineries are just now recovering from Gustav, "but Texas refineries are still a ways from giving us new barrels."

Despite the storm, the average gas price in Texas was $3.68 a gallon Monday, according to AAA.

Many Georgia gas stations had wrapped plastic bags around dry pumps Monday after frantic drivers loading up on gas before Ike hit over the weekend tapped supplies.

AAA Auto Club South spokesman Gregg Laskoski said he's never seen a 24-hour increase as steep as Georgia's. He said the high prices reflect Georgia's dependence on oil coming out of Texas refineries.

"It's just remarkable to see this," Laskoski said by phone from his office based in Tampa, Florida.