Gas shortages persist as Colonial Pipeline services resume

Panic-buyers in the southeastern United States continued to deplete gas stores in the region over a week after the Colonial Pipeline shutdown and several days after pipeline services resumed.

Colonial said it restarted pipeline services on Thursday after having shut down the previous Friday due to a cyber attack. The shutdown launched panicked gas hoarding in multiple states as consumers feared a looming gas shortage. 

The consumer crisis persisted into the weekend even as gas began to flow through Colonial’s network again. The website Gas Buddy on Saturday morning claimed that North Carolina was without fuel at 68% of its gas stations. 

South Carolina was listed with 49% of stations out of gas; Georgia posted 46% of gas stations out.

Washington, D.C., meanwhile, had a whopping 81% of gas stations listed as without fuel.   

Many of those numbers were down from earlier highs; North Carolina, for instance, peaked at 72% outages earlier in the week. 

Earlier in the week Colonial had stated that its services had fully resumed and gas delivery had “commenced to all markets we serve,” through the southeast into New Jersey.