LEXINGTON, S.C. -- Long lines greeted people trying to gas up their vehicles or get more fuel for their generators at stations near the town of Lexington following the destruction left by Tropical Storm Helene.

The situation got to a point Saturday afternoon where the Town of Lexington posted on social media asking people to consider looking for gas somewhere outside the town if possible.

News19 saw backups at stations that went out into the roadway. That led to backups along Interstate 20, Longs Pond Road, and Sunset Boulevard. The town said the backups were slowing the response of first responders and power company crews who are trying to get utilities back online.

"They're coming from three hours away in Georgia," said a woman who worked at one of the gas stations News19 visited. "We've went through 9,000 gallons of gas since early this morning. We're out of ice, water, gas cans, and people are buying canned goods and, you know, meat and chips because they have no food, no electricity."

The town even said they got reports of criminal behavior from those who were getting frustrated.

"It's just a madhouse down there, " said one person who'd been in the lines. "Miles long to get gas anywhere else. Half the pumps aren't even working, just waiting hours for anything. So, just coming out here just trying to figure it out, trying to get something. Yeah. I mean, every, every time you pass anywhere, you know, people are honking each other yelling, cussing. I mean, it, it's crazy, man."

Lexington County was one of the hardest hit areas by Tropical Storm Helene as it passed by South Carolina early Friday morning. At the peak, over 122,000 homes and businesses were without power, according to PowerOutage.US, a site that tracks outages across the country. Around 7:20 p.m. Sunday, that number had dwindled down to 49,000, but that still meant 31 percent of the county was without electricity.

Utility officials with both the local electric cooperatives and Dominion Energy--the two main providers of service in the county--said it could take several days to restore power to everyone.