Gas outages spread further across the US even after the hacked Colonial Pipeline began pumping again

• The Colonial Pipeline said it resumed operations on Wednesday following a cyberattack last week.
• Colonial said it will take several days for the supplies to get back to normal.
• Outages spread late Wednesday, with 71% of stations in NC, and 51% in SC, out of fuel.

Gasoline outages continued to spread across the US into Wednesday night as the hacked Colonial Pipeline began to restart operations.

The pipeline, which runs from Texas to New York and supplies 45% of the East Coast's fuel, was taken offline last Friday by the attack.

As a result, more than 1,000 gas stations in eastern US states ran dry, the price of gas surged, and some people resorted to panic-buying.

As of Wednesday night, the shortages were worst in southern states, with 71% of gas stations in North Carolina, 51% in South Carolina, and 49% in Georgia reporting outages, according to GasBuddy analyst Patrick De Haan:

He added that 71% of gas stations in the Atlanta metro area had run out of fuel.

Colonial Pipeline said it resumed operations around 5 p.m. ET on Wednesday, and warned that it could take several days for supply-chain issues to return to normal.

"Following this restart, it will take several days for the product delivery supply chain to return to normal. Some markets served by Colonial Pipeline may experience, or continue to experience, intermittent service interruptions during the start-up period," the company said.