Gas stations in multiple U.S. states ran out of gas on Monday after hackers attacked a pipeline that runs from Texas to New Jersey.
Stations in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia were out of fuel after customers rushed to fill vehicles following the hack of Colonial Pipeline.
Approximately seven percent of stations in Virginia had run out of gas as of 11 p.m. Central Time on Monday, Patrick De Haan, an analyst with GasBuddy, which lists prices and availability at U.S., Canadian, and Australian stations, said on Twitter.
At the same time, over two percent of stations in North Carolina, about 1.5 percent of stations in Georgia and Florida, and about 0.5 percent of stations in South Carolina had no gas, he added. A small portion of stations in Alabama also ran out of fuel.
Bags covered pumps at stations across Pensacola in northwest Florida on Monday, while stations that still had gas saw long lines of drivers waiting to fill their gas tanks.
“It’s kind of scary when it’s raining because I don’t want to be stuck on the side of the road with my daughter with no gas,” Pensacola resident Tieisha Brown told WEAR-TV. “So this is my second attempt and I’m slowly but surely running low on gas trying to find a gas station.”
Nikki Fried, Florida’s agriculture and consumer services commissioner, urged people in a video statement not to panic buy or hoard gas.
Along with the cyberattack on Colonial, a shortage of truck drivers for fuel trucks has contributed to shortages, she said.
