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Gasoline stations in coastal areas of North Carolina and South Carolina are rapidly running out of fuel as locals flee from Hurricane Florence.
About 52 percent of stations in Wilmington, North Carolina, were out of gas Thursday morning, according to fuel-station finding app GasBuddy.
In North Carolina's Greenville-New Bern-Washington region, 48.2 percent of stations were out. In the Raleigh-Durham area, 35.5 percent were out.
In Charleston, South Carolina, outages were affecting 25.3 percent of stations.
While the majority of stations in both states still have fuel, some are running out and long lines have formed at others as supplies dry up. As people evacuate or hunker down, they are flocking to stations, which can't get shipments fast enough to keep up.
GasBuddy, which has been tracking the outages this week, said the updated numbers spiked from previous estimates due to a glitch in the data.
When "more of the purchases are condensed" into a small window, "gas stations are not able to keep up," said Patrick DeHaan, senior petroleum analyst for GasBuddy.
More:Hurricane Florence weakened but far from weak: What to know about storm's power
More:Gas shortages, long lines worsen in North, South Carolina as Hurricane Florence nears
More:How to protect your financial life ahead of a natural disaster like Hurricane Florence
Drivers are on high alert after hurricanes caused temporary outages at stations in parts of Florida and Texas in 2017.
"You are seeing panic behavior by motorists," said Tom Kloza, analyst at Oil Price Information Service. "You’re going to see stations that are out of gas because they’re not used to seeing everyone looking to fill up."
Stations in Georgia, which is now expected to get hit as Florence's projected path shifted, still have solid supplies of gas. None of the major Georgia markets tracked by GasBuddy had more than 1 percent of stations out as of Thursday morning.
In Virginia, which is not expected to get hit as hard as originally expected, the Norfolk-Portsmouth-Newport News market had the least fuel with 12.4 percent of stations out.
One positive for the area in Florence's path is that average prices have barely budged.
In North Carolina, prices averaged $2.69 as of Thursday, up 2 cents from a week ago, according to AAA. In South Carolina, prices averaged $2.60, up 2 cents over the last week.
Follow USA TODAY reporter Nathan Bomey on Twitter @NathanBomey.
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