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Blocked gas pumps in Washington: "Don't buy more gasoline than you need in the next few days"
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WILL OLIVER / EPA
The Colonial Pipeline, which was hit by a hacker attack, is back in operation, but the consequences of the disruption to the largest gasoline pipeline in the USA are continuing: Panic buying and bottlenecks at gas stations have occurred again on the east coast of the country.
The US capital Washington was particularly hard hit.
There three out of four gas stations ran out of fuel on Thursday evening, according to Patrick De Haan from the market analysis company Gasbuddy.
In the state of North Carolina, 69 percent of the gas stations were without gas.
In South Carolina, Virginia, and Georgia, roughly every second pump was out of order.
Other states on the east coast also suffered from bottlenecks.
Drivers in Washington were desperately looking for fuel on Thursday - and they resorted to dangerous means in the fight for fuel.
Images circulated on online platforms of consumers filling gasoline in garbage bags, so the authorities officially warned against putting the highly flammable fuel in plastic bags.
Biden doesn't want to say anything about possible ransom payments
US President Joe Biden called on Americans not to panic.
"Don't buy more gasoline than you need in the next few days," he said on Thursday.
The supply will soon return to normal.
"Panic buying will only delay it." To see queues at gas stations is frightening, the US president admitted.
The most important thing now is "not to panic".
Biden said that once the pipeline is restarted, the bottlenecks should resolve by the weekend or early next week at the latest.
This was a "temporary situation," said Biden.
The pipeline is very important to the US supply, it carries about 45 percent of all fuel consumed on the east coast.
Blackmailers had paralyzed the pipeline of the operating company Colonial last Friday with a hacker attack. The pipeline's operation came to a complete standstill, causing gasoline bottlenecks in parts of the country. The private operator of the pipeline had gradually resumed operations on Wednesday. Biden said there was strong evidence that the attack originated in Russia. The US government does not assume that the Kremlin was involved.
Much of the background to the cyber attack remains unclear.
For example, it is unknown how much money the hacker group DarkSide, which is believed to be responsible for the attack, wanted to extort from Colonial.
So far, the company has also kept a low profile on whether ransom money has been paid at all.
When asked about possible ransom payments, Biden said: "I'm not commenting on that."
apr / dpa
