Some rural areas in East run short of gasoline from panic buying after cyberattack on major pipeline

The Clinton County News in Albany, Ky., ran these photos of lines at local gas pumps.

Rural areas, which are more likely to be at or near the end of fuel-truck routes and have many long commuters who fill their tanks more than once a week, have seen panic buying due to the shutdown of a major fuel pipeline from a Russian cyberattack, and some are running short.

"More than 1,000 gas stations in the Southeast reported running out of fuel," The Associated Press reports. "Government officials acted swiftly to waive safety and environmental rules to speed the delivery of fuel by truck, ship or rail to motorists and airports, even as they sought to assure the public that there was no cause for alarm."

"Gasoline has been in short supply at stations in several Southern Kentucky towns," reports Lexington's WKYT. "It started Monday in Clinton County, then spread to Wayne County." Both are on the Tennessee border and get most if not all of their wholesale fuel from Tennessee. The Clinton County News headlined, "Out of gas: Monday's run at local pumps leaves tanks empty."

Recent problems may have made motorists more wary of supplies. Darrell Smith of Priceless Gas in Monticello said that in recent weeks his station has "had rolling outages because there’s no drivers to drive the trucks to bring the gas in. It’s a two-fold problem right now."