Gas stations in many areas of Florida are running out of gasoline, as residents prepare for Hurricane Milton.
Demand for gas has surged as some residents in Milton’s path are trying to fuel up before they evacuate. Others who plan to stay put are trying to fill gas tanks so they’ll be able to power their generators should they lose electricity for an extended period.
Gas price tracking service GasBuddy reported that as of 2 pm Tuesday afternoon, 17.4% of gas stations statewide were without fuel, a dramatic spike from just 3% on Monday. With about 7,500 stations in the state, that estimate means there are about 1,300 currently without gasoline.
The situation was far worse in areas facing mandatory evacuation orders. In Fort Myers, on the state’s Gulf Coast, 70% of stations were without gas as of Monday night.
“It’s a testament to how fast the storm is moving and how intense it is,” said Patrick De Haan, an energy analyst at GasBuddy. “It’s a game changer.”
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis tried to tamp down panic buying and drivers topping off tanks, which can make shortages worse. DeSantis in a press conference Tuesday morning assured residents that the state is working to bring emergency supplies of gasoline to stations that have run out of gas.
He said the state’s reserves include 110,000 gallons of gasoline and 268,000 gallons of diesel fuel. And he said while those reserves are falling because of distribution that has already taken place, there are 1.2 million gallons of both fuels currently in route to the state.
DeSantis said 27 fuel trucks were escorted by the Florida Highway Patrol to deliver fuel to stations in the anticipated impact area of the storm.
“We have been dispatching fuel over the past 24 hours as gas stations have run out,” he said at a press conference early Tuesday. “There is no fuel shortage. Fuel continues to arrive to the state of Florida. But lines at gas stations have been long and gas stations are running out quicker than they otherwise would.”
Once the storm passes, problems getting gasoline into the state could persist if there is damage to the Port of Tampa from the hurricane, said gasoline market experts. That’s because that port is a key entry point for much of the gasoline that arrives in the state, via tanker or barge.
From there, it is distributed the rest of the state by tanker trucks and by a pipeline leading to the Orlando area. But there are no pipelines bringing gasoline from refineries on the Gulf Coast or northern states as fuel is moved around much of the rest of the country.
