Gasoline Shortage Appears To Be Creeping Into Philadelphia Region As Colonial Pipeline Resumes Operations
WILMINGTON, Del. (CBS) -- The Colonial Pipeline restarted operations at 5 p.m. Wednesday, but it'll take several days for things to get totally back to normal. Meantime, a few stations in Delaware and northern New Jersey have run out of gas.
The situation is especially bad in the southeast, where many stations have run dry. States of emergency are in effect in Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia and Florida.
There's real concern about the fuel shortage in Wilmington. Drivers could expect to see more gas pumps with bags over them that read "out of order."
At this Shell gas station in Wilmington, workers say one of its two underground fuel tanks became empty, so now there's no fuel supply for some of their gas pumps.
"I was just looking for a pump. Those two pumps are out of order," Frank Calabrese said.
At this Shell gas station in Wilmington, one of its underground tanks is empty so half of its pumps have 'out of order' bags over them because of a lack of fuel.
— Matt Petrillo (@MattPetrillo) May 12, 2021
Across the street, a worker at the Sunoco expects that gas station to run out of gas by end of day @CBSPhilly pic.twitter.com/dj70p7cFRO
Calabrese, of Wilmington, circled a Shell gas station before finding a working pump to fill up his 1929 Ford Model A.
"It's a little scary because I have to get back and forth to work," he said.
Across the street at a Sunoco along Silverside and Foulk Roads, a worker says it expects to be completely out of gas by Wednesday night.
Now drivers are being urged to only fuel up when their tanks are low.
"If you continue to top off on a daily basis for fear that there won't be gasoline when you need it, you're taking gasoline supply away from someone who does need it," said Jana Tidwell with AAA Mid-Atlantic.
Tidwell urges drivers to resist panic buying.
"It causes the area to purchase more gasoline than we typically would, which will cause some gas stations to run out of gasoline," Tidwell said.
Meantime the area is not yet seeing long lines at the pump like in Georgia and Virginia.
But as government officials consider moving supplies by train or ship if necessary to hard-hit areas in the South, drivers in Wilmington wonder how long until service along the pipeline is fully restored.
"Some of my friends are without gas right now in other states so I'm hoping it doesn't hit Delaware," Sandy Simpson said.