Over 1,000 gas stations out of fuel in Southeast, average price of gas rises above $3

Americans in the southeast are running low on gasoline, with over 1,000 gas stations out of service as the oil transportation company Colonial Pipeline continues to deal with the effects of a ransomware cyber attack.

While there is no shortage of oil or gasoline, the problem is transporting the commodity to the East Coast and panic buying. About 45% of the region's oil is delivered through the pipeline, which was hit Friday by the cyber attack.

A large part of the pipeline operations were restarted manually late Monday and the company is expected to have most of its operation back up and running by the end of the week, U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said.

According to reports, one out of every four North Carolina gas stations is out of gas, and about 17% of gas stations are without gas in Georgia and Virginia.

Florida, Maryland, South Carolina and Tennessee are also experiencing less severe outages.

"Demand has been two to four times normal in many markets and the system, even when it isn't stressed, can't support that," Jeff Lenard, vice president of strategic industry initiatives at NACS, the leading trade group for convenience and fuel retailing, told CNN in an email.

In some southern metro areas the majority of gas stations have run dry including those in Atlanta, Pensacola, Fla. and Raleigh, North Carolina. The national average for gas on Wednesday rose to over $3 per gallon.