I've lived through a fuel shortage that started by an idiot radio dj spreading rumors that we wouldn't be getting any fuel because a refinery a thousand miles away went offline in a hurricane. In under 2 hours every gas station within a 4 hour drive were completely empty. As they got deliveries, they'd be empty again in just a couple hours. It fucking sucked. I had to miss a few days work from not having any fuel.

All it takes is just a bit of panic from a few to start the snowball rolling. Took over 2 weeks for things to return to normal.