Alert: Colonial Pipeline Shutdown

[OTRA15]

11:03 EDT update --

Colonial Pipeline's website is still down . . . amazing there has been no news on this IMO.

[OTRA15]

1421 EDT -- still down.

[Al U. Minium]

Observed long lines and 1 station out of fuel east US 74 (Independence Blvd) this afternoon in Charlotte, NC.

[OTRA15]

Seeing articles to that effect:

https://www.charlotteobserver.com/ne...251316998.html
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/colonia...s-price-rises/
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news...as-shortage-l/

Colonial main site still down: https://www.colpipe.com/

[ITSNO60]

Diesel prices in Arizona are definitely up from the earlier lows this year of 2.29 to 2.59. Not too bad up North if you shop around, paid 2.89-2.99 from Montezuma to San Carlos Reservation, no shortages noticed but saw prices on the highway as high as $3.59.

[OTRA15]

Colonial site is back up . . . press release from last night:
https://www.colpipe.com/news/press-r...tem-disruption

[Tomzstream]

We have cancelled our trip to Western SC for the Albino Skunk Festival this weekend. We were looking at widespread fuel outages and LONG lines. My wife had the final say. Her memory is better than mine and she reminded me that it was 13 years ago that a Hurricane hit Houston and took out the Colonial Pipeline causing widespread outages throughout the South. We were out on our first Airstream trip to a festival in Flatrock, NC from Raleigh. Not that far, but we ended up hunting for fuel and she swore never again. The Hurricane pretty much degenerated to a Tropical Storm and ruined our festival anyway.

It is interesting that it only took a day or so once it hit the news for the reserves to be depleted, and with no immediate startup in sight, it's not worth risking it. We would have required at least 4 fill-ups. No doubt there was a lot of panic buying and just plain hoarding. The lack of transparency by this company didn't help and folks felt very insecure.

If this was a real crisis... and actually it is, perhaps people would have behaved differently. But I really don't think America is anything like what it was some short 75 years ago. The Greatest Generation would have rallied to conserve, not hoard, and rationing would have been instituted right away. Why is it a real crisis? Because we are in the middle of a Cyber War with Russia and its serious... deadly serious.

I kind of view it as my civic duty to NOT take this trip, and although I am a risk taker by nature (I tow an AS after all), this is one time I can defer on my desire to hit the road after this long long hiatus, it's probably better to let the locals attend this limited attendance festival in our place, and have the benefit of the fuel we would have otherwise competed for. There will be other festivals and I can stand to wait.

[Tomzstream]

The few stations that do have fuel have begun limiting purchases to $20 or so... Such is the case at most of the Walmarts and Sams Clubs. You can't go far towing an AS on $20 of gas so it's just not a tenable situation...

We have appealed to the fine folks who put on this festival, and perhaps they can resell our RV space, and as for the tickets, maybe they can admit a few in our place, and while this one was a rescheduled event, we had the choice of reusing our tickets from last year for either a Spring or Fall event this year. No word yet whether they will allow us to reuse one more time, but I'll bet there are quite a few who are in our shoes.

On the bright side, even if we lose out on our $300 or so investment in this festival, we'll save that much in fuel costs by NOT going! lol

[jcanavera]

Lead story on tonight's news is showing lines with stations running out of gas. Demand in the east is up 40% so everyone is running to fill up. This is a repeat of the toilet paper run we all saw last March. I don't believe any part of the country, even those with adequate supplies can't survive a run on any product once hoarding starts.

Jack

[Daquenzer]

Originally Posted by jcanavera

Lead story on tonight's news is showing lines with stations running out of gas. Demand in the east is up 40% so everyone is running to fill up. This is a repeat of the toilet paper run we all saw last March. I don't believe any part of the country, even those with adequate supplies can't survive a run on any product once hoarding starts.

Jack

I couldn’t agree more. In a few days this will all be a very bad lesson about how hoarding doesn’t really work well. The old FDR saying, “We have nothing to fear but fear itself” is so so true.

ironically now there is a surplus of toilet paper.

Reminds me of all the Y2K hysteria.

[kscherzi]

You can always drive on over to California. We have plenty of gasoline at an average of about $4.00/gallon! [emoji44] [emoji50]

[Jim & Susan]

I enlisted in the United States Army right out of High School in 1975. A few years later, the Army decided I was Officer Material. And so promoted me with all of the traditional pomp and circumstance afforded a young fella being seated on such an exalted throne.

Once installed, I asked another Officer, much senior to me but having a similar background, a few questions. “Pete”, I says, “What does it all mean? How am I to act now?” “Young Jimmy, the first thing you must do is clean up your language! And you must begin to see the Army for what it really is! Pat attention my boy.”

Pete went on to explain that my manner of speaking was too rough, too unrefined. It needed some polish. He told me that I needed to learn how to substitute new, smoother, more soothing words in place of my brutish, earthy, lowbrow vernacular.

He suggested that in place of the rather vulgar “BS” (which I cleaned up here for more refined eyes), I substitute the phrase “Incredible” instead. Further, he explained that my attitude needed to reflect the old adage, the “Army is never wrong, but sometimes it can be a little short on bein' right.”

There's a lot of really incredible stuff in this thread. And lots of actual gas shortages in central and north Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina. Regardless of who's right or wrong.

Said Mr. Jim

[OTRA15]

FYI a new Colonial PR [which required completing a new Captcha screening tool to see the page]:

https://www.colpipe.com/news/press-r...tem-disruption

[DKB_SATX]

This is *NOT* an inherently political issue. Refrain from politicizing it on AIRForums.

[Daquenzer]

Panic buying always causes shortages. People have been warned not to panic and fill their tanks unnecessarily. Which of course hasn't happened in some places. The result is a shortage.

As of mid-morning Tuesday, Virginia was in the worst shape with about 7.5% of stations out, according to GasBuddy. North Carolina was the next worst at 5.4%, while 3.8% of Georgia stations were out, and 1.7% of South Carolina stations were down.

From what I read the severe shortages tend to be in certain localities that have a problem being supplied by other means. Also it does appear they are manually opening up some arteries to supply gas along with taking other measures.

"We are taking action to relieve some of the cost burden from Georgians as Colonial recovers by suspending fuel taxes, increasing the weight limit for supply trucks, and prohibiting price gouging," Kemp said in a statement. "We expect these measures to be temporary as Colonial plans to be fully up and running later this week. He added: "There is no need to rush to the gas station to fill up every tank you have and hoard gas. With the measures we have taken today, I am hopeful we can get more supply to stations and get through to this weekend when we hope Colonial will return to normal."

So if this ends by the end of the week (which is a few days away), it's business as usual.

[OTRA15]

FYI the company website is online this morning, and yesterday's press release linked below is the latest one.

Originally Posted by OTRA15

FYI a new Colonial PR [which required completing a new Captcha screening tool to see the page]:

https://www.colpipe.com/news/press-r...tem-disruption

[ZOZ]

There's no need to panic. I just ordered four cases of toilet paper.


zoz

[OTRA15]

That Charlotte Observer article was just updated:

https://www.charlotteobserver.com/ne...251316998.html

FYI

[Silvr_Bullet]

Originally Posted by OTRA15

Colonial site is back up . . . press release from last night:
https://www.colpipe.com/news/press-r...tem-disruption

I wouldn’t click this link.

[gamakai]

Any real time information about gas availability on I-77 and I-81 through South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia? We are set to leave tomorrow and now are undecided. Actual real time information is needed for planning.