GasBuddy reports 71% of N.C. gas stations without fuel, says ‘headaches’ could last two weeks

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (WBTV) - Seventy-one percent of gas stations in North Carolina are without gas as of Thursday morning, GasBuddy reports.

The news comes days after the Ransomware attack on the Colonial Pipeline. The national average price per gallon reached above $3 for the first time since 2016. Across the border in South Carolina, GasBuddy reports that 54 percent of stations are without gasoline.

Thursday morning, GasBuddy reported Charlotte was among major cities seeing “some” improvement in gas availability. Patrick De Haan with GasBuddy says the situation will slowly improve.

“About 7-17 days of headaches if you need fuel in GA, NC, SC or VA,” Haan tweeted. “The situation will definitely take time and slowly improve due to a high number of outages and higher number of stations to refuel.”

The issue is causing a ripple effect on drivers in the Queen City as well. There were long lines, or worse, no gas at many service stations in the area for several days.

According to Gas Buddy’s Patrick De Haan, 71% percent of gas stations were out of fuel in the Charlotte metro area on Wednesday.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police provided an update on what they called a “gas crisis” Wednesday morning.

Police are asking residents to do the following:

• Limit non-essential travel
• Check on your neighbors
• Do not hoard fuel

Track the lowest gas prices in our area here.

“We are going to get through this,” CMPD Capt. Brad Koch said. “Similar to when we have severe weather and we lose a lot of bread and milk at stores.”

Koch compared the fuel purchasing to the start of the pandemic when people bought toilet paper and hand sanitizer in excess. “We are going to get through this fuel crisis.”

The actions of the police departments will not be impacted during the fuel shortage, according to CMPD.

So, when is it going to get back to normal?

Colonial Pipeline says they should be back up and running in a matter of days, but that doesn’t mean things will snap back to normal.

Until then, experts, and North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, are asking people not to rush to the pump.

North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper issued a state of emergency allowing for fuel transportation waivers in the wake of the cyber attack on the Colonial Pipeline.

In response to the temporary shutdown of the Colonial Pipeline, Cooper signed an executive order declaring a state of emergency in North Carolina and temporarily suspending motor vehicle fuel regulations to ensure adequate fuel supply supplies throughout the state.

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