Gas prices surge nearly 5 cents

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Gasoline prices rose nearly 5 cents a gallon Monday, bringing the total increase in the three days since Hurricane Ike slammed into Texas to almost 17 cents, according to a nationwide survey.

The average price of unleaded regular rose 4.7 cents to $3.842 a gallon, according to the survey released by motorist group AAA. That followed increases of 5.8 cents Saturday and 6.2 cents Sunday, which was the biggest one-day spike since after Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast in 2005 .

Gas prices are up 8.1 cents from a month ago and $1.048 from a year ago, according to AAA.

Ike slammed into the Texas coast and shut down the heart of the nation's refining operations. Early indications were that the storm did minimal damage to those operations, which was reflected in a drop in crude oil futures - down $3.14 to $98.04 a barrel in electronic trading.

Eleven states have gas prices above $4 a gallon in the AAA survey, led by Alaska at $4.371. The others -most of them in the Southeast and Midwest - are Alabama, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee.

South Carolina was among the states with the lowest gas prices during the runup toward the record high of $4.114 set July 17.

The lowest prices were found in New Jersey, at $3.523 a gallon.

The average price in Texas, where the storm hit, was $3.686, up 4.1 cents, according to the AAA survey.