'There was no major damage to the infrastructure, but there's no power so they have to wait' to start producing again, Beck said, although he declined to predict when prices will go back down. 'It could be a week or two before they get back online.' The average price of regular gas in Metro Detroit was $4.19 a gallon on Monday, 13 cents more than yesterday's average and a penny less than the all-time high of $4.20 in July, according to AAA. Nationally, the average was $3.84, AAA said. When the supply is down, prices will naturally go up, experts said. They expect gas to resume pre-Ike prices when the refineries are operating at full tilt again. 'We're hoping prices will come down within a week or sooner -- when refineries are back in production -- unless there's another hurricane,' said Nancy Cain, spokeswoman for AAA Michigan. Price reductions could take several days, said Mark Griffin, president of the Michigan Petroleum Association, which represents gas wholesalers and retailers. Once the refineries are online again, prices will drop, but he didn't know when that will happen. 'You can't just flip a switch and turn those things back on,' he said, adding that he thinks the price increase will be short-lived and will fluctuate for the next few days. 'They're going to go up, they're going to go down and no one really knows the answer.' Griffin said wholesalers have paid 60 cents per gallon more for fuel since Wednesday and many stations are losing money on fuel, which would have to be priced at $4.35 just for them to break even. Motorists who feared a huge leap in prices jammed into gas stations across metro Detroit Friday morning and throughout the day. Gas sales doubled in volume at some of the gas stations owned and operated by Woodhaven-based Michigan Fuels Inc. The company has 60 stations and supplies gas to 200 stations. 'Customer reaction was what you would expect,' said vice president Brian Mifsud. 'Not very good.' But they seemed to be more accepting of the price hike after Ike, compared to when Hurricane Katrina knocked a bunch of refineries off line in 2005, causing prices to spike, he said. 'This time around, it was better communicated than (when) Katrina hit,' he said. You can reach Jennifer Youssef at (313) 222-2319 or [email protected].