By — Njeri Jackson
The southeast region of the U.S. is in a current gas shortage after the Colonial Pipeline was shut down after it fell victim to a ransomware attack on May 7th witht the whole issue blowing up on May 11th. DarkSide, a criminal group, is suspected of the hacking incident. Virginia, South Carolina, and North Carolina seem to be the most impacted by the shortage.
The shut down cut off the transportation of 45% of oil transported on the entire east coast. In the southeast, people hastily scramble for oil, causing shortages that will impact the oil supply for the future.
As the shortages of oil build ups with gas stations running dry and gas tanks selling out, the total gas in the area is dropping rapidly. Tuesday night, there was complete chaos; lines for gas spiraled around corners, and people were in a rush to get full tanks of gas. It is being advised that people shouldn’t keep buying oil in excessive amounts unless absolutely necessary.
As the demand for gas shoots up, and the supply goes down, the price keeps shooting up. The gas prices nationally hit up to $2.985, nearly $3.
VIrginia’s governor declared Virginia in a state of emergency because of the fuel shortages. Florida, Georgia, and the Carolinas have declared similar actions, and all the governments are trying to ease supply concerns. As of wednesday May 12, 7.6% of gas stations are suffering outages.
Colonial Pipeline has said that it hopes to be running most of its services by this weekend.
