"Mainly because of panic buying". Is there a credible source on that?

The average person has a pretty small abilility to store gas, even in NC.

But there are a lot of average persons. If a whole bunch of average persons starts buying up gas, toilet paper or withdraw money from the bank all at the same time ( the key point being at the same time relatively speaking ), the gas station, store or bank will be out of product/service very soon. I'd imagine, on a given day, only a small fraction of car owners in a particular vicinity fill their tanks.

Supposing that the average person has half a tank of gas, is there enough supply for everyone to fill up on the same day? It doesn't seem unreasonable for the situation to be a combination of reduced supply and increased demand.

The pipeline has been out of action for six days now, though.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonial_Pipeline_cyberattack

About 45% of all fuel consumed on the East Coast arrives via the pipeline system.

According to Wikipedia the system has significant buffer capacity:

> Fifteen associated tank farms... provide a 45-day supply for local communities.

Such buffer capacity makes sense considering how long deliveries actually take:

> It generally takes from 14 to 24 days for a batch to get from Houston, Texas to the New York harbor, with 18.5 days the average time.

See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonial_Pipeline

Also consider where the shortages are occurring: in sprawling, rural and exurban areas where the last-mile infrastructure is likely exceptionally thin; that is, much less able to handle surges. It's not just computer and car manufacturers that optimize for "on-demand inventory"--i.e. cut carry costs to the bone, sacrificing volatility resilience.