I pass a gas station with 4 pumps. There’s four vehicles at the pumps and one or two lined up waiting. There’s normally somewhere between 0 and 1 vehicle there. First thing I do is look at my fuel gauge. Next I turn on the radio. I start wondering how much fuel I have at home.
how many people would it take hitting the grocery stores buying all the water to cause a panic? In a small city, not many imho. If it did cause a panic buy, it would spread to surrounding areas.
I actually have the answer to that. It happened here in North Texas not too long ago thanks to that abomination Facebook.
There was a big storm down south, and on Facebook the rumours started spreading like crazy one afternoon that there was going to be a fuel shortage. Despite the government saying it had not disrupted supplies and they could see all the fuel transport was running on schedule.
Mid afternoon all was good.... By evening it was a madhouse with lines at gas stations all over.
For the first time in like 25 years I saw our local city police having to be at the gas stations to keep order....
By the morning there was no fuel to be had pretty much anywhere.
There was not much the government could do, they were like.... you idiots... gas supplies are coming in as usual, but you know if everybody wants to fill up their car and every plastic jug in their house all at once........
It took about 3 days for the panic to subside and gas to be being back to plentiful again, by the time a week had gone by all was back to normal with no lines at the gas stations.
I was rather happy I had just bought a hybrid with a large gas tank that got 50 mpg so I didn't really have to worry about filling up for a week or more.
You don't need any actual event to cause crazy.
Sheeple are fully capable of causing problems just on their own phones.