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With each passing day, you're less likely to find plastic bags over pump handles at the gas station.
According to fuel-tracking website: www.Gasbuddy.com, 43 percent of North Carolina's gas stations were without fuel as of 4 p.m. on Tuesday, down significantly from the 72 percent reported at the peak of the shortage on Friday, May 13.
"There's product becoming available, it's just slow," said Tracy Waldroup, District Manager for The Local Market chain of stores. "We're draining it quicker than it can come back into the terminals. As the days go by, that will get better and better."
Outside of Washington, D.C., no state or district may have felt the effects of the shortage more than North Carolina. GasBuddy's data, which is crowdsourced from app users, has consistently listed the Tar Heel State as having the worst fuel shortages of any state in the nation.
While 72 percent of North Carolina stations were reported as being without fuel at the height of the shortage, neighboring states Virginia (53 percent), South Carolina (52), Georgia (51) and Tennessee (32) were all faring considerably better.
The same held true as of Tuesday, even though the disparity between those states was noticeably slimmer in some cases. Georgia (38 percent) and South Carolina (40 percent) were barely outpacing North Carolina (43), while Tennessee (22) and Virginia (24) were in better shape.
The problems began almost two weeks ago when hackers conducted a cyberattack on Colonial Pipeline computer systems on May 7. The Colonial Pipeline runs from Texas to New Jersey and supplies about 45 percent of the gasoline used by the east coast. The company itself is headquartered in Alpharetta, Ga., less than two hours from Hayesville.
The Colonial Pipeline was back up and running as of Saturday, May 14, but shortages have been intensified by consumer panic buying and hoarding.
"We were selling in a day what might normally take three or four days," Waldroup said.