CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory said more gas is on the way, and it'll likely hit town by mid-week. Eyewitness News spoke with McCrory as he campaigned across the state this weekend. He said in his latest conversation with the Department of Energy, he was told more gas would reach Charlotte by mid-week.

Late last week, McCrory told the public not to panic, and promised a large shipment would arrive by Friday. It did, but the gas slowly made it's way to local stations throughout the weekend, and most drivers didn't even notice a difference. Most gas stations are taped off, and when the gas is delivered, there are long lines.

McCrory said drivers need to be patient.

"It's going to take a little bit of time to get out of this cycle as everyone plays catch-up from refinery to the consumer," said McCrory, who spoke on the phone from Asheville.

He said that across North Carolina, Charlotte is still seeing some of the worst of it.

"Chapel Hill and Raleigh, there are no lines whatsoever; in Greensboro, there's periodically no gas, but no lines; and in Asheville, where I am now, there are some lines but there are some gas stations closed," said McCrory.

The biggest reason for the problems: the main pipeline that feeds fuel to the Charlotte area is still running at 75 percent. There's no timetable when it'll be back to 100 percent.

Extra Gas Supplies Slow Getting Into Charlotte

Gas relief to Charlotte is coming slower than expected. AAA officials said the new flow of gas coming into the city is more like a trickle.

The new batch of fuel began arriving Friday and original estimates from the Department of Energy showed it would take two days to fully come down the pipeline. Officials said stations are getting gas, but not full loads.

"We're still in a pinch," Tom Crosby of AAA Carolinas said. "We still need people to conserve. There's a lot of gas in the pipeline. It just takes a while to get here."

Crosby said the gas is coming from Texas and Louisiana, and moving at 100 miles per day. He's urging drivers with a half-tank of gas or more to hold off until Tuesday or Wednesday to refuel.

Several gas stations across the Charlotte region received gas deliveries late Friday night and early Saturday morning, just like U.S. Department of Energy officials had promised.

But by Saturday night most of those same stations had already run out of gas.

"We figured everything was getting better," said driver Iris Davis.

Several gas stations managers told Eyewitness News they were expecting more deliveries on Sunday, but with the way things are right now, it's impossible to figure out exact delivery schedules.

On Thursday, city officials promised the gas situation would return to normal by early next week.

"I'm just worried that other people are not going to be able to get gas they'll need to get to work," said Davis.

Tanker Trucks Make Mass Deliveries

Drivers of tanker trucks at Paw Creek said they were loading up to take fuel to Mooresville and Hickory. One driver delivering to Charlotte said it’s often the high-volume stores that get the gas first – the stores with the most customers.

Until the new batch of fuel comes fully down the pipeline, tanker drivers said they may go elsewhere to find gas.

“Once we run out of allocation here, we're going to Charleston and Wilmington and bringing it back this way because they're not serviced off the pipeline, they're serviced right off the ships,” said Ken Kiesznowski, who delivers gas to Wilco-Hess stations.

Kiesznowski picked up nearly 10,000 gallons of fuel from Paw Creek early Friday. He said he’s delivering full loads, just fewer of them for now.

“Normally, say you were allocated to 20 loads of regular a day, well now you're down to four, so we've got to stretch all that out,” he said.

One of his loads Friday went to a station on U.S. 29, and anxious drivers saw him coming.

“I saw the tanker pull in and I pulled in behind him. I wouldn't miss that for anything. I was first,” said Peggy Taylor, who drove into Charlotte from Mint Hill to find gas.

Taylor waited for Kiesznowski to put all the fuel in the ground and then quickly ripped the plastic bag off the gas pump.

Within minutes, cars were lined up down the street.

Kiesznowski said the governor lifted certain restrictions on tanker drivers earlier this month, which means they can carry heavier loads and work longer hours to deliver gas.

“Those lesser restrictions are in effect until early October in an effort to get gas out as quickly as possible,” he said.

Early Friday, AAA Carolinas spokesman Tom Crosby said only one in five Charlotte area stations had gas, but he predicted the situation will continue to improve through the weekend. He said Charlotte had been getting just 30 percent of its regular shipment of fuel, but now the distribution center is getting 50 to 60 percent.

“It appears that we are slowly getting the extra shipments that we need in order to handle this crisis,” he said. “For today, I think it’s still going to be a little bit tight. And I think people who have anything more than a quarter of a tank can wait until tomorrow unless they’re going on a long trip, of course.”