Drivers in Florida waited in long lines and, in some cases, ran dry trying to refuel their cars as they evacuated during Hurricane Milton.
As of Friday morning, nearly 29% of gas stations in Florida were sold out, said Patrick de Haan, a gas analyst with GasBuddy. That means about 2,320 of the state’s roughly 8,000 stations were out of fuel as of Friday morning.
“It may get a little worse before it starts to get better,” he said on social media site X.
According to GasBuddy, 73% of gas stations in the Tampa and St. Petersburg area were without gas. Sarasota had 54% of its stations empty, followed by stations in Fort Myers and Naples with 42%, Gainesville with 40% and Orlando and Daytona Beach with 34%, according to the site’s fuel tracker. .
Fuel supplies have begun, but experts still say motorists who don’t need petrol should wait to visit gas stations.
“If you don’t need to go to a gas station, don’t go,” Andrew Lipow, president of Lipow Oil Associates, told CBS MoneyWatch. “Don’t run out to get your fill.”
How long does it take to refuel?
The majority of Orlando’s gas supply is delivered through the Port of Tampa, which has 10 operational terminals. Gas from major oil companies will be transported to Orlando through pipelines. Lipow said the port is still working to restore power to the terminal.
“Workers, terminal operators and truck drivers need to be brought home, and the Coast Guard needs to inspect the Channel for debris and replace navigational buoys. All that is happening,” he said. He expects the gas to be delivered by tanker until Sunday at the earliest.
Ports serving the rest of Florida remain open, he noted.
“Things are going to get better. They’re going to get gas,” he said. “There’s a lot of gas going to Florida, but the biggest obstacle to resupply right now is getting power back to the Port of Tampa.”
Tom Kloza, global head of energy analysis at Oil Price Information Service (OPIS), said he expects the gas crisis to be fully resolved within 72 hours.
“We’ll be back to normal by Tuesday or Wednesday,” he told CBS MoneyWatch.
