Maybe in Atlanta the folks panicked about fuel shortages because so many of them reportedly commute long distances in cars. I read that they don't have much in the way of public transportation from the outlying towns.

When you're running in a rat race, it's easy to assume the supply network will always be there like it usually is (as BobS notes above). It's easy to get lulled into complacency, to think "there's time for that later," or to not even realize you're slowly being boiled alive.

I've noticed at the grocer and at the fuel pump that some people become not only angry but offended during shortages. This may come from a sense of entitlement or maybe just a general cluelessness that, as the saying goes, "the world owes you nothing."