Certain states in the USA are experiencing fuel (gas) shortages especially states in the South-East of the country including Tennessee and Alabama.
The fuel shortage was sparked when a 330,000-gallon spill shut down a gasoline pipeline in Alabama on the 9th of September. This in turn led to a spike in fuel price.
This has become a problem as some cities have gone into panic prompting some people to start stockpiling fuel in their homes for fear of an all-out scarcity.
This particular situation was highlighted in Tennessee when their Governor Bill Haslam warned that consumers should continue to buy fuel normally so as not to create a shortage and some people did the exact opposite purchasing 4 times the amount of fuel they would normally purchase.
“There’s gonna be a lot stupid people out there that are gonna ignore the Governor’s warning,” said a consumer Lee Roy Wills “ which is exactly why I felt the need to order two ten-gallon gas containers off of Amazon Now, and immediately fill them up and to also top-off my ¾ full SUV. I mean, I pretty much had to get as much gas as possible before everyone else created a panic and kept me from getting any.”
This panic buying has now in itself created a shortage as supply is struggling to keep up with demand. Some cities have now started to ration fuel so as to avert a shortage.
The ripple effects of this gas spill has reverberated all around the South-East as apart from causing shortages and panic buying, it has even trickled down to the way consumers are treating attendants at fuel stations.
A Facebook user Melanie Edlin took to her page to complain about it trying to get buyers to calm down and revert to buying fuel in the normal amounts that they used to.
She said in her post; I WORK FOR A GAS STATION! LET ME EXPLAIN….THE TOWNS ARE NOT OUT OF GAS. IT IS THE PUBLICS FAULT THAT THE GAS STATIONS ARE RUNNING OUT. YOUR ALL BUYING FASTER THAN WE CAN HAVE IT DELIVERED!! CALM DOWN. THE MAN WHO DROPS MY GAS OFF EXPLAINED THERE IS PLENTY OF GAS BUT THE PUBLIC IS IN A PANIC. IF U ALL BOUGHT GAS AS U NORMALLY WOULD INSTEAD OF RUSHING TO FILL UP EVERYTHING U OWN AT ONE TIME EVERY STORE WOULD HAVE A GOOD SUPPLY. WITH THAT BEING SAID STOP PANICING. BUY UR GAS AS U NORMALLY WOULD AND STOP GETTING ILL WITH THE CASHIERS. ITS MAKES MY DAY WORSE BEONG CUSSED OVER GAS KNOWING DAMN WELL THERES NOT A DAMN THING I CAN DO ABOUT IT CAUSE IM NOT SOME MAGICAL GAS MAKING FAIRY.
Efforts are now being made to calm the public and get things back to normal working order.