Gas Shortage Continues Across Southeast in Aftermath of Cyberattack

Gas stations across 15 states in the Southeast continue to endure the effects of a six-day gasoline shortage in the wake of a disturbing cyberattack that wiped out the region's main fuel source.

The Colonial Pipeline is working again after a ransomware attack that resulted in a nearly week-long outage, but consumers are continuing to feel the burden. 

The fuel moves through the pipeline very slowly, at a rate of 5 miles per hour, said Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg during an interview. 

Nearly 90% of gas stations in Washington D.C. were out of fuel by 6:30 a.m. Friday as consumers rush to fill their tanks with gas.

In a state of panic, drivers were buying excessive amounts of fuel this week and drained more than 17,000 stations throughout the region.

Officials at the US Consumer Product Safety Commission are urging that people do not fill plastic bags with gasoline as the fuel shortage across the Colonial Pipeline persists. 

At least 30 percent of gas stations in Maryland, Tennessee and Florida were out of gas during the outage, and more than 50 percent of service stations in D.C., North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Virginia were completely out of fuel.

Issues in Alabama, Mississippi, West Virginia, Kentucky, New Jersey, Delaware, Louisiana and Texas had nearly been resolved by Thursday.

Buttigieg called the attack a "wake-up call" regarding the nation's systems in place during what he called the "cyber era."

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