More than 15,600 East Coast gas stations report out of fuel, after pipeline cyber attack

More than 15,600 gas stations on the East Coast are reporting having no gas – six days after Colonial Pipeline, which supplies the region with about 45% of  its petroleum – was shut down as a result of a cyberattack.

Gas stations in Florida, Maryland, Mississippi, South Carolina and Tennessee reported still being out of gas Thursday despite Colonial Pipeline, which runs from Texas to the coast, being brought back online the same day, according to The Center Square.

Patrick De Haan of GasBuddy, an app that shows customers prices and fuel outages of individual stations, reported Thursday at 12 p.m. CST that gas shortages in stations ranged from zero in Texas and Louisiana to as high as 74% in Washington D.C.

Haan reported South Carolina and Virginia each have 52% of their stations out of gas, while North Carolina reported 68% of its stations having no gas.

Colonial Pipeline reportedly paid $5 million in cryptocurrency to the cyber gang DarkSide to remove the ransomware it placed on the company's computers, shuttering the operation. 

U.S. officials anticipate the gas situation will return to normal by the weekend.