Gas Shortage in Western North Carolina

Western North Carolina is one of the hardest hit area's of the nation when it comes to the gas shortage, but you would not know it if you watch the national news. City services are being scaled back, schools are closing, business's can't run because people cannot come to work, activities and school meetings are being postponed because parents and teachers can't find gas to attend, there have even been fights and shots fired in gas lines that have been reported over two miles long in some parts of the mountains. Store managers are having to direct traffic and on some highways, the traffic jams are so bad that cars have to pass in the oncoming lanes to get around them which is creating a public hazard.
Last week, some stations started charging over five dollars a gallon before the Governor's of South Carolina and North Carolina warned that the state's would prosecute anyone caught price gouging.
Local officials have tried to contact the major oil companies to step up shipments but they are not returning phone calls. Some leaders are even talking about a State of Emergency because even the police and fire departments are going to have to cut back on non essential services such as training, non-emergencies and public services.
Anytime that there is a gas truck at a filling station, word gets out and the lines form and the gas is gone in hours. The gas that Western North Carolina receives comes from Spartanburg, SC and that is where the shortage begins but Tennessee, South Carolina and Georgia are also seeing mass shortages.
Mid-State shortages are now being reported in Charlotte but officials say that shipments will not be diverted.
This shortage affected a small percentage of the population, but what if this had happened further north like Washington, DC, New York, Boston or Detroit? Or further south affecting Jacksonville, Orlando, Miami, Tampa, Houston, Dallas...? This was a small hiccup in the supply line and was caused by two hurricanes hundreds of miles away. This kind of shortage was not even seen after Katrina or other more powerful storms that did even more damage.