If you're trying to gas up your car or generator in Baton Rouge, good luck.

Most of the gas stations are without fuel due to an increase in demand driven by Hurricane Ida.

As of 5 p.m. Wednesday, 62.4% of gas stations in Baton Rouge did not have gasoline for sale, according to information from Gas Buddy, a crowdsourced mobile app. That's an increase from roughly 50% in the morning.

About 38% of stations were out of diesel in Baton Rouge.

For Joe Heck, who lives in Walker, it's been hit or miss to find gas.

"It has really turned into a scavenger hunt," said Heck, who was waiting in line Wednesday morning at a Shell station on Siegen Lane. At 8 a.m., the line at the station stretched into the busy road.

Heck brought gas cans to fill up for his generator because he's been without power since Sunday night.

Tuesday night, he waited for about an hour for gas at the RaceTrac on Perkins Road before heading home.

"The lines are horrific," he said. "It seems to me like there should be an alternate plan. But here's the thing, I'm bitching a little bit about waiting for gas, but when I get home I've got my generator. It's inconvenient, but I'm not displaced."

O'Neal Smith said he spent Tuesday night at the Shell station, waiting for gas.

Smith, who lives in Jennings, had driven to New Orleans to drop off some generators and searched for a gas station as his truck ran low. He ran out of fuel at 6:30 p.m., while he was waiting in line.

"When we turned into the parking lot, that's when they said they were out of gas," Smith said.

Dozens of vehicles were waiting for the station Wednesday morning for the pumps to get turned on. Nearly all of the pumps had plastic bags over the nozzle.

"They say they have gas (now), but I don't know," Smith said.

At some gas stations, the situation became tense between customers.

Livingston Parish officials said a person had been shot in the arm during a confrontation at a truck stop over who was next in line to buy gasoline.

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"That's just two people being impatient, one decided to get a gun and shoot the other one, Livingston Parish Sheriff Jason Ard said in a radio interview this week. I know everybody wants gas, I know everybody's going through hard times and tensions are high, but at the end of the day, we've got to be patient and work together. We can't have that type of thing happening."

And in Clinton, a convenience store was shut down on Tuesday after a gas-related confrontation that involved a weapon.

Clinton Police Chief Ned Davis Jr. said officers were on duty at another convenience store late Wednesday afternoon that still had gas, to make sure it doesnt happen again.

The average price of gas in Louisiana is $2.83, and in Baton Rouge, it was $2.80, according to AAA.

"There's not a gas shortage but ample supply to go around," said Nick Chabarria, spokesperson for AAA. "What we're seeing are temporary outages and logistical issues getting gas to some of the impacted areas. Many roads have debris which prevents traffic. Gas stations aren't able to fuel and have a limited amount on hand."

Gas prices have increased by a few cents compared with last week, but AAA expects a temporary spike in prices as demand has surged.

"It just depends how long those refineries stay offline; typically with a Category 4 storm in the past, it took three weeks," Chabarria said. "We can't stress enough that panic buying is going to exacerbate the issue even more."

Unlike the cybersecurity attack which brought down the Colonial Pipeline for several days recently, the issue after a hurricane is largely lack of power.

"There's a lot more layers. The lack of power is holding up refineries from being able to get the chemicals they need to make the gas," said Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at Gas Buddy. "There's a temporary supply bottleneck. ExxonMobil has plenty of gasoline in storage but the issue is getting it out on trucks, The other issue is hoarding."

On average, gas stations nationwide have enough fuel to fill up the tank of roughly 10% of the population on any given day, but when 50% of residents look to fill up that's when they run out.

In Ascension Parish, local officials are considering a fuel convoy to bring gasoline for emergency services and local residents alike.

The region has become a magnet for nearby parishes hard hit by Ida such as Livingston, St. James, St. John the Baptist and St. Charles.

The 911 Center is running on generators and received enough diesel for 48 hours on Tuesday but it's been a challenge, said Ascension Sheriff Bobby Webre.

"We just cant get the answers (about fuel) and there are long lines at the fuel stations," he said.

Webre said his deputies would drive to Houston, if necessary to get fuel for the 911 center.

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Upwards of 62% of gas stations in Baton Rouge are empty; Ascension wants to truck in fuel - The Advocate