PANIC AT THE PUMP: Despite frenzy for gas, Tri-County not running on empty
May 11—In scenes reminiscent of Y2K and the early 1970s, Tuesday saw local gas stations across the Tri-County area experiencing long lines of panicked motorists worried about a gas shortage hitting the region.
The panic at the pumps was exacerbated by a recent ransomware attack that shut down the Colonial Pipeline, the largest refined products pipeline in the United States. Based in Alpharetta, Georgia, the Colonial Pipeline is privately owned and carries approximately three million barrels of fuel a day across a stretch of more than 5,500 miles from Texas up to New York, and services about 45 percent of the fuel on the East Coast.
On Monday, the FBI announced that a Russian-hacker group referred to as DarkSide was responsible for the hack. On Sunday, the U.S. Department of Transportation issued an emergency declaration softening federal overtime and sleep regulations for truck drivers traveling between fuel distributors and local gas stations in 17 states across the south and eastern part of the country.
And while the Colonial Pipeline does not service Kentucky directly, the affects of the ransomware attack could lead to higher prices at the pump for Bluegrass state motorists.
State AAA experts have come out and said there isn't a gas shortage as a result of the cyber attack. However, on Tuesday morning three locally-owned gas stations in the Barbourville area, two Spur Oil stations and Lee's Food Mart in downtown Barbourville, reportedly ran out of fuel.
The Times-Tribune reached out to Lee's and was told that a smaller shipment of fuel had been delivered Tuesday afternoon and that a larger shipment would arrive Tuesday evening.
The City of Barbourville posted on its Facebook page Tuesday that "due to the fuel limitation in our area," the city's Street Department would only perform pickups on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday until further notice.
Barbourville Mayor David Thompson told the Times-Tribune that the city was just taking precautionary measures should the "limitations" last longer than a few days. He explained that the service referenced in the Facebook post only referred to one Chevrolet pickup truck with a dump-bed attachment. Thompson said the truck drives around the city eight-hours a day picking up residential debris such as doors, toilets, garage and attic clutter, yard trimmings, etc.
"By slowing it down, that allows us to do the same pickups. It's just we cut the days down, so we don't waste fuel," he said, later noting that the city's usual garbage services would not be affected.
"We don't see anything that would suggest that we would cease to provide a [city] service, we're just being cautious at this point," the mayor added.
And while the city doesn't plan on putting any of its services on hold, Thompson did say that if the issue were to persist long enough, the city could scale back some of its other services as a result.
"We mow with gas. We've got other trucks that run around all day long around the park system," he explained. "So if it lasts two or three weeks, we will have to make some similar changes and just kind of reconfigure how we do a few things."
Rumors had spread that the Barbourville Shell gas station next to Wendy's had also run out of gas. An employee at the gas station informed the Times-Tribune that because the station blends its gas, they were unable to sell V-Power and higher grade gasoline. However, the employee did say the gas station had enough regular, unleaded fuel and that an additional shipment of fuel was scheduled for Tuesday.
As the panic spread down Highway 25, some gas stations in Corbin also saw long lines of worried travelers.
Reports of people filling multiple gas canisters of gasoline were the norm at more than one fueling station in the area. Despite the panic and increase in demand, other gas stations in the area said they were not experiencing a shortage in fuel. For example, the Speedway in Corbin located near Exit 25 told the Times-Tribune it had received an additional shipment of fuel Tuesday morning.
In a statement issued Monday, the Colonial Pipeline said it was using a phased approach based on a number of factors and other safety compliances in an effort of reopening the pipeline by the end of the week.
