Panicked drivers swarm gas pumps in U.S. Southeast

Panicked drivers swarm gas pumps in U.S. Southeast

[NFA] Drivers in the U.S. Southeast formed lines on Wednesday to fill up tanks from the dwindling number of retail gas stations with fuel to sell, disregarding government pleas for people not to hoard supplies as the shutdown of the main regional fuel pipeline entered its sixth day.

This report produced by Jillian Kitchener.

“So I think we’re going to go on a wild goose chase.” Desperate American drivers were lining up for fuel Wednesday… and gas stations across the Southeast were running out.

Six days after a ransomware attack on the Colonial Pipeline prompted a shutdown of the largest U.S. fuel pipeline network, Americans ignored pleas from officials not to hoard supplies… causing shortages and panic buying.

Tempers flared in Knightdale, North Carolina, when a driver looking for gas allegedly cut in front of another driver.

And a shop in Tennessee that usually sells cans of gasoline said it had to stop.

“People were coming in and trying to buy, you know, five and ten cans worth of gasoline - they’re just hoarding it.

And that’s the worst thing that can happen.” More than 70% of stations in metro Charlotte and Raleigh, North Carolina, and Pensacola, Florida, were without gasoline on Wednesday, according to tracking firm GasBuddy.

EPA Administrator Michael Reagan is pleading with drivers to only get what they need: "I think the folks should follow the advice of the governors and the attorney generals, which they're asking folks not to panic, not to hoard gasoline... We have some really good coordinated efforts at the federal, state and local levels.

And we're working very hard to alleviate these circumstances.” Chris Decker, Professor of Economics at the University of Nebraska Omaha, says panic-buying can become a vicious cycle.

"One of the worst things you can do during a lot of news events of shortages is engage in panic-buying.

We saw that last year with things like toilet paper and sanitizer.

Well, that will lead to a self-fulfilling prophecy.

You will see those stock outages as a consequence of that elevated demand as people try to stockpile.” The disruptions are having widespread effects right before peak summer driving season.

The American Automobile Association said the average national gasoline price rose to above $3 per gallon… the highest since October 2014.