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Gov. Ron DeSantis Issues State Of Emergency Over Colonial Pipeline Shutdown

TALLAHASSEE (CBSMiami) – Gov. Ron DeSantis issued a state of Emergency Tuesday, in light of the Colonial Pipeline shutdown.

On May 7, the major fuel operator was the target of a cyberattack. As a result, Colonial Pipeline temporarily stopped all operations to respond to the attack.

The pipeline delivers about 45% of the fuel consumed on the East Coast.

On Fox News, DeSantis said the shutdown posed a potential threat to the delivery of fuel to the state.

"This is something that's a very serious attack on critical infrastructure in our country," he said. "This pipeline doesn't actually touch Florida, but it does feed into many of our gas stations, so we've declared a state of emergency. We started lifting restrictions to be able to get more fuel into pumps."

The key takeaway is not to panic, because that only makes the problem worse. AAA says Americans should not head out to the pumps in droves. Rather, they should try to conserve gas by combining errands into one trip. In fact, they say panic-buying is the biggest threat to supply.

Florida's supply should not be as affected as other states, since most of Florida's fuel is delivered by ship, according to AAA.

Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried, whose office oversees gas stations, says at the moment Florida is fine.

The U.S. Department of Transportation announced additional help for 10 states affected by the cyberattack – Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, New Jersey, North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia.

The average price of gas in Florida is $2.88 right now. Colonial said they hope to have the issues resolved by the end of the week.

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