Gas stations across the East Coast are starting to run out of fuel as one of the biggest petroleum pipelines fights to recover from a cyberattack.
Gas stations ranging from Virginia to Florida to Alabama are reported to have run out of gas, and drivers have been surprised to find long lines or no service available. The outages come as people are rushing to the pumps to fill up, causing a spike in gasoline demand.
In five states alone, Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia, gasoline demand rose more than 40% on Monday, said GasBuddy analyst Patrick De Haan. All five states are served by the Colonial Pipeline, which shut down Friday night as a precaution to evaluate the extent of the damage after hackers breached the company's internal computer networks.
The hack is the most significant, successful cyberattack ever on energy infrastructure in the United States.
