LUMBERTON — Gasoline could still be found at some stations here Tuesday afternoon, as people lined up to fill their tanks, while some gas companies ran out and began the search for fuel to offer their customers.

The Colonial Pipeline, which delivers about 45% of the fuel consumed on the East Coast, was hit by a cyberattack on Friday. The attack raised concerns, once again, about the vulnerability of the nation’s critical infrastructure. Ransomware attacks are typically carried out by criminal hackers who scramble data to paralyze their target’s networks. Large payments are demanded to decrypt it.

There were reports of gas stations in the Southeast running out of gasoline, according to Gasbuddy.com, which tracks outages and prices. In Virginia, 7.5% of the state’s 3,880 gas stations reported running out of fuel. In North Carolina, 5.4% of 5,372 stations were out, the company said.

Colonial Pipeline, headquartered in Alpharetta, Georgia, had restored some fuel delivery Tuesday, but the main artery of the pipeline remained shut down. Colonial said Monday that it anticipates the majority of its service will be restored by the end of the week.

The BP gas station on Fayetteville Road in Lumberton had not run out of gas as of late Tuesday afternoon but lines were steady at the gas station less than a mile from Exit 22 on Interstate 95. Regular unleaded gas at the station was priced at $2.79 a gallon.

Tina Finley drove to several gas stations on Monday looking for regular gasoline before finally settling on premium grade.

“I said I better get it because I didn’t know when I would be able to get it,” Finley said.

She was able to find gas Tuesday at the BP on Fayetteville Road, but not before stopping at several gas stations.

“The lines are still long everywhere, and a couple of gas stations I’ve been to don’t have gas,” Finley said Tuesday.

Finley said the problem isn’t a gas shortage.

“I think it’s more people freaking out because it’s never like this,” Finley said. “They said that there’s more gas coming but people are just freaking out.”

Dan Vaitinis, who works for a concrete company in Raeford, also took the opportunity to fill up on gasoline at the BP while in Lumberton on Tuesday. He said he was unaware of the gasoline shortage until he began noticing long lines at the stations.

“I thought ‘Oh, this could be a problem,’” Vaitinis said.

The situation in Raeford is similar to that in Lumberton.

The Sun-Do Kwik Shop on N.C. 41, across from Sanderson Farms, ran out of regular gasoline about 11:30 a.m., store clerk Leketcia Butler said. The station continued to offer non-ethanol gasoline at one pump and diesel fuel just after 3 p.m. Starting Monday, the station was limiting gasoline purchases to $20.

Butler said she hoped things would get back to normal soon, and was unsure when more fuel would arrive for customers.

“It’s the unknown,” she said.

An Ed F. Hodges, Inc. representative told The Robesonian on Tuesday afternoon that its Lumberton and Dillon, South Carolina, gas station locations were out of fuel. The two Fairmont locations also were out of gas, he said.

The representative, who did not wish to be named, said the Fairmont-based company is hoping the day it can resume normal operations comes soon. He was unsure when a truck would arrive with fuel.

“We’re out of it,” said Paul Hunt, manager of Campbell Oil Gas Services in Lumberton.

There are four stations in Lumberton managed by Campbell Oil, he said.

“Don’t panic,” he said.

“Everybody just needs to be safe and stay at home as much as you can until we can get over this,” Hunt added.

The North Carolina Department of Transportation did not see impacts to its projects, or a loss of access to fuel on Tuesday, said Andrew Barksdale, an NCDOT spokesman.

“We buy diesel and gasoline on a state contract, and we have storage tanks — the one at the Lumberton maintenance yard is a newly built above-ground storage tank, so we keep fuel on supply naturally,” he said.

“We have enough fuel to continue normal operations for at least a month even if no new supplies would come in. And if there would be any type of long-term supply interruption, providers can ship fuel into the Port of Wilmington where it can be picked up and distributed,” Barksdale added.

U.S. officials sought to ease concerns about rising prices, stressing that widespread disruptions have not yet occurred. The White House said late Monday that it was monitoring supply in parts of the Southeast and that President Joe Biden had directed federal agencies to bring their resources to bear.

There is action at the state level as well. Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp suspended state taxes on motor fuels through Saturday. Georgia collects a gasoline tax of 28.7 cents per gallon and a diesel tax of 32.2 cents per gallon.

“It will probably help level the price at the pump off for a little while,” Kemp told reporters at DeKalb-Peachtree Airport in Chamblee, an Atlanta suburb.

However, Kemp urged people not to hoard gasoline, saying he expected the situation to be resolved soon.

“You don’t need to go out and fill up every 5-gallon can you’ve got,” Kemp said.

Scattered gas stations in metro Atlanta were out of fuel Monday and Tuesday, but most were operating normally. In Georgia, nearly 4% of 6,368 stations had run out of fuel, Gasbuddy.com said.

In Florida, just 2% of the gas stations had run out of fuel.

Citgo’s Fairfax, Virginia, terminal ran out of premium grade reformulated gasoline and its Richmond, Virginia, terminal was out of unleaded regular, according to the American Automobile Association, citing a shipper bulletin.

The Colonial Pipeline carries jet fuel as well, and planes at the busy suburban airport where Kemp spoke Tuesday were being fueled and taking off.

American Airlines rerouted two long-haul flights from Charlotte due to possible fuel shortages, but said overall impact has been minimal. Passengers flying to Honolulu will have to change planes in Dallas, and those heading to London will stop in Boston to refuel.

To help alleviate potential shortages, the Environmental Protection Agency waved some fuel quality requirements on an emergency basis in parts of Washington D.C., Maryland, Pennsylvania and Virginia.

The cyberattack on the Colonial Pipeline struck as the Biden administration, still grappling with its response to massive breaches by Russia of federal agencies and private corporations, works on an executive order intended to strengthen cybersecurity defenses. The Justice Department, meanwhile, has formed a ransomware task force designed for such situations. The Energy Department on April 20 announced a 100-day initiative focused on protecting energy infrastructure from cyber threats. Similar actions are planned for other critical industries, such as water and natural gas.

The challenge facing the government and the private sector is immense.

The FBI assigned blame Monday in the Colonial attack to DarkSide, a criminal syndicate whose ransomware was used to snarl pipeline operations. The group’s members are Russian speakers, and the syndicate’s malware is coded not to attack networks using Russian-language keyboards. Russia has denied any involvement in the attack.

Asked Monday whether Russia was involved, Biden said, “I’m going to be meeting with President (Vladimir) Putin, and so far there is no evidence based on, from our intelligence people, that Russia is involved, although there is evidence that the actors, ransomware, is in Russia.”

“They have some responsibility to deal with this,” he said.

The Kremlin on Tuesday rejected any suggestion it was involved in the attack.

“Russia didn’t have anything to do with hacking attacks that had taken place earlier,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in a conference call with reporters. “We categorically don’t accept any accusations against us in this regard.”