Yellow Warning Light

I ran out of gas on the freeway yesterday. The low fuel light has been on for about 2 days but since I didn't drive anywhere far, I thought I had enough gas to get to Brea for a NewSong CAM BBQ. Everything went well until I got on the 57 freeway. Suddenly, the car started losing power and the tachometer needle dropped towards zero. The engine was still running so I quickly crossed 5 lanes of traffic and took the Katella exit. There was a Tim McGraw/Faith Hill concert at the Honda Center but since it was still early (5pm), there was not too much traffic. Not being familiar to the area, I gambled and took a right turn off the exit and headed east on Katella Avenue. After about 4-5 blocks without seeing a gas station, my 4Runner stalls out. Since the car was designed with power steering and power brakes, it was really hard to drive. I managed to pull into a parking lot but since I effectively had no brakes, I "drove" over a concrete barrier and almost hit a tree. At this point, I was resigned into calling AAA for help, and being really late to the BBQ. I though I would give it one try before giving up and to my surprise, the car started. I got on to Katella again and luckily found a Shell station on the next block. I now know that the 4Runner gas tank holds 17.054 gallons of fuel.