ATLANTA (AP) — Gas prices spiked and drivers found “out of service” bags covering pumps as the gas shortage in the South rolled into the work week, raising fears that the scattered disruptions could become more widespread.

The shortage is blamed on a pipeline rupture and leak of at least 252,000 gallons (954,000 litres) of gas in Alabama. The pipeline company has two main lines and said Monday that it is shipping “significant volumes” on the second of the two lines to limit the impact of the interruption on the other line.

Colonial Pipeline said supplies have either been delivered or are on their way to locations in Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, South Carolina, and North Carolina.

Still, some motorists discovered bone-dry pumps.

Lindsey Paluka, 28, stopped at a Shell gas station in the East Atlanta neighbourhood only to find a gas pump handle covered by a black garbage bag.

“I’m definitely on empty, so I’m going to have to figure something out,” she said.

Alpharetta, Georgia-based Colonial, has acknowledged that between 252,000 gallons (954,000 litres) and 336,000 gallons (1,272,000 litres) of gasoline leaked from a pipeline near Helena, Alabama, since the spill was first detected September 9. It’s unclear when the spill actually began.

According to a preliminary report, it wasn’t possible to immediately pinpoint the leak, partly because highly flammable benzene and gasoline vapours hung in the air and prevented firefighters, company officials and anyone else from being near the site for more than three days.

State workers discovered the leak when they noticed a strong gasoline odour and sheen on a man-made retention pond, along with dead vegetation nearby, the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration said in the report.

The report does not identify the cause of the leak. The agency, part of the US Department of Transportation, is investigating the leak in a section of the pipeline constructed in 1963, it said.

Environmentalist David Butler said no fuel made it into the nearby Cahaba River.

From an ecological standpoint, the spill couldn’t have happened at a better place or time because the terrain funneled the fuel into the pond and the water was low enough in the small lake to enable it to hold the gas, said Butler, of Cahaba Riverkeeper.

“We averted a disaster this time,” said Butler, who has been to the spill site and is monitoring the response.

Colonial Pipeline said over the weekend that it was beginning construction of a temporary pipeline that will bypass a leaking section of its main gasoline pipeline in Shelby County, Alabama. In a statement Monday evening it said it expects the temporary pipeline to be running by the end of the week with no specific day given.