Where to find gas: GasBuddy back online after outage as drivers fill up after Colonial Pipeline cyberattack
As drivers line up at gas stations on the East Coast in the aftermath of a cyberattack on a vital fuel pipeline, GasBuddy has been a go-to app for finding the nearest spot to fill up.
Earlier Wednesday, it appeared GasBuddy might be down, according to a message that had posted on its website.
“We will keep checking in the background and, as soon as the site comes back, you will automatically be served the live version,” reads a message on the site.
That message has since been removed from the site as of Wednesday afternoon.
GasBuddy allows users to find the cheapest prices for gas but has risen in popularity due to a crowdsourced fuel availability tracker where users can find which stations still have gas. Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at the fuel-savings app, said users can go directly to tracker.gasbuddy.com to find more information on fuel availability.
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Several states in the Southeastern U.S. are experiencing issues with gas stations running out of fuel. As of Wednesday afternoon, De Haan said 28% of gas stations in North Carolina are out of gas, while more than 17% have run out in Virginia and Georgia.
Operators of the Colonial Pipeline, a major system that delivers fuel across the East Coast, had to shut it down Saturday following a ransomware attack.
The Colonial Pipeline says it’s aiming to “substantially” restore service by the end of the week, which would likely limit most of the fallout.
Nathan Bomey contributed to this report. Follow Brett Molina on Twitter: @brettmolina23.