Millions of Americans continue to panic with the gas shortage caused by the Colonial Pipeline hack, with 10,000 gas stations running out of fuel and thousands more suffering long queues and severe shortages.
Desperate Americans rush to hoard fuel amid gas crisis
Anxious motorists are lined up for gasoline in more than a dozen states throughout the Southeast, with many attempting to hoard whatever is left in the pump. Those behind them, who had been waiting for hours to fill up their vehicles, became enraged by photos posted on social media of others filling buckets and giant barrels under cover of darkness.
As one Twitter user linked the gas crisis to the first 20 minutes of a disaster movie, fights broke out at several stations. Another said he never wanted to see vehicles lined up for gas in the United States, comparing it to "Ethiopia," as per Daily Mail.
From Washington, D.C., to Florida, gas stations have posted signs stating that they are short of gasoline, while companies with reserves are raising their rates to a whopping $9.99 per gallon. Desperate Americans were seen loading huge containers and transporting them from the stations on the back of their pickup trucks in several states. Although some sympathized with the motorists for stockpiling supplies, some chastised them for what they saw as self-centeredness.
Price-gouging gas stations as fuel costs soar amid shortages
On Tuesday, a gas station in Richmond, Virginia, was seen selling regular, unleaded gasoline for $6.99 per gallon, one of many stories of price gouging resulting from gas shortages in several states. The allegations of price gouging came after the Colonial Pipeline was shut down on May 7 due to a ransomware attack. The pipeline, which operates 5,500 miles between Texas and New Jersey, supplies 45 percent of the gas to the East Coast.
Fuel shortages have been recorded at Colonial's vast chain of stations, with at least 12,000 stations reporting that they are out of fuel. According to GasBuddy, 65 percent of stations in North Carolina were out of gas as of Wednesday afternoon, while over 43 percent were empty in Georgia, Virginia, and South Carolina.
Many gas stations clogged with cars from the Northeast to the South, like Florida, although the state is not on the pipeline. States of emergency have been declared by the governors of Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, and Florida, Newsweek via MSN reported.
Some companies take advantage of distressed drivers. On Tuesday, GasBuddy posted an average price of $2.83 per gallon in the Richmond area. According to local reports, a BP station on Williamsburg Road near Parker Street in the city charged $6.99 per gallon for regular gasoline.
Gas shortages to last until Memorial Day
The gas crisis that has afflicted most of the Southeast is likely to continue until at least Memorial Day, as Colonial Pipeline reportedly pays $5 million to the hackers who perpetrated the attack. Gas stations along the East Coast were forced to close due to gas shortages following the cyberattack, which former House Speaker Newt Gingrich called an "act of war."
After a ransomware attack on Friday evening, Colonial Pipeline, which carries 2.5 million barrels of gas per day between Texas and New Jersey, was shut down. The pipeline was up and running as of 5 p.m. Wednesday, but authorities estimate it will take a few days for operations to return to normal, as per The Sun.
The ransomware attack that caused the chaos is reportedly the work of a Russian criminal organization known as "DarkSide." It holds big companies' ransom by stealing their private data and refusing to release it before the ransom is paid. According to Bloomberg, Colonial Pipeline paid the hacker community nearly $5 million on Friday to release their servers.
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