The fuel shortage might spoil my travel plans this week — and it could affect yours, too

It's supposed to be road trip season at the Sloan household. At least, that was the plan until yesterday.

That’s when concerns about gas availability started to hit my hometown — Weaverville, North Carolina. First, the Ingles station ran dry. Then, the Shell station followed suit. By the afternoon, the remaining gas stations in the area had lines stretching 50 cars long.

Now, there's nothing left.

Due to the Colonial Pipeline shutdown, Weaverville is completely out of gas and, from what I’ve heard, the situation isn’t much better in Asheville. Additionally, several other Southeastern states, including Virginia, Georgia, and South Carolina, are facing rising gas shortages, according to industry experts like oil analyst Patrick De Haan of GasBuddy.

If conditions don't get better in the next 72 hours, my road trip — a 695-mile trek north to New York City for my daughter's graduation from Fordham University on Monday — could be in jeopardy. If you have plans for a road trip in this region soon, yours might be at risk as well.

Experts like De Haan are advising Americans to stay calm about gas shortages and to avoid panic buying, which only exacerbates the issue by depleting supplies at the pumps temporarily. They emphasize that most stations still have fuel, and those that don't will receive fresh shipments shortly.

However, the concern for me and many other would-be travelers on the East Coast this week is whether we can reliably refuel during our trips. We don’t want to venture a few hundred miles from home only to discover we’re in an area (like my small part of North Carolina) that has no gas available.

The 5,500-mile Colonial Pipeline transports fuel from Texas to several Southeastern states and up to New Jersey, supplying nearly half of the total fuel for the East Coast — a significant amount.

The pipeline has been out of operation since Friday due to a cyberattack.

Travelers with upcoming flights to or from the area may also face disruptions. For instance, American Airlines has had to make adjustments to some of its long-haul flights departing from Charlotte (CLT) to accommodate refueling needs.

Additional stops: American Airlines is implementing refueling stops on select flights as the fuel pipeline hack disrupts supplies

If the pipeline remains down in the days ahead, there’s a possibility that some gas stations along my route could run dry. While it’s unlikely that all stations will be out of fuel, experts are cautious. How much can we rely on that assurance before we set off?

At the moment, this concern is theoretical for me. My Toyota RAV4 currently has just a tiny amount of fuel left, enough for only 60 miles according to the dashboard. Until gas supplies return to Weaverville — a mountain town in Western North Carolina close to the Tennessee border — my world feels quite limited.

Earlier today, I had a range of 75 miles in my RAV4. However, I used up 15 miles of that searching unsuccessfully in multiple directions for a station that didn’t have an "out of fuel" notice or bags over its pumps.

I find myself down a mountain road a few miles from the nearest gas station, contemplating my strategy for the coming days. I plan to venture back to civilization tomorrow to check if gas trucks have arrived with relief. However, I can only afford to make this trip a few times with my limited fuel.

Fortunately, I work remotely for TPG (where I usually write about cruising). I have an ample supply of food in the fridge, and the satellite internet is functioning well. I can hold out just fine until the pipeline is back online and fuel starts flowing into this area again.

The company managing the Colonial Pipeline has announced that it might be able to resume a significant portion of operations by the end of the week. Even if the pipeline doesn’t come back online swiftly, experts say that some fuel can still be transported to the Southeast by truck and rail.

However, until that occurs, my road trip this weekend remains uncertain.