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CNN
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Hurricane Milton passed through Florida a few days ago, but the devastating storm is still causing chaos at gas stations.
Hundreds of gas stations in Florida remain without gas, including about half of the stations in the hard-hit Tampa area.
Floridians who are lucky enough to have access to an open gas station often find themselves waiting in long lines. And tensions are high, with fights reportedly breaking out over access to gas.
The good news is that help is on the way, with a ship carrying gas expected to arrive in Tampa within the next few days. Meanwhile, the number of gas stations without gasoline has sharply decreased.
The bad news is that experts say it could still be days before things return to normal.
“We expect the headaches to subside significantly in Tampa over the next two to five days, but power outages remain for another seven to 10 days as power plants are restored,” said Patrick de Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy. It could last a long time.”
De Haan said the rest of the state should see “very noticeable” improvements in the coming days and that the situation should return to normal within five to 10 days.
As of 1 p.m. ET Monday, 17.3% of Florida gas stations were out of fuel, down from 33.2% Sunday afternoon, according to GasBuddy.
While this represents a significant improvement, it also means that more than 1,300 gas stations in Florida remain empty five days after Hurricane Milton made landfall.
Of the 1,801 gas stations in the Tampa metropolitan area, nearly half (49.9%) were out of fuel as of Monday afternoon, GasBuddy reported. This is a significant drop from 87.5% on Sunday afternoon and the first time it has fallen below 50% since Wednesday.
The problem is that Florida relies heavily on Port Tampa Bay to transport fuel from refineries on the Gulf Coast. More than 43% of Florida’s gasoline, diesel and jet fuel passes through critical infrastructure.
There are no pipelines delivering gas to the region to meet Florida’s 20 million gallons per day gas needs.
FEMA says 70 million gallons of gas and other petroleum products will flow into Tampa over the next seven days.
Port Tampa Bay avoided catastrophic flooding that some had feared and reopened Saturday morning, but it is not yet at full capacity. Vessel movement is restricted to one-way sailings during the day, reducing the port’s ability to receive fuel.
Another issue is that analysts say some fuel terminals near the ports of Tampa Bay and Manatee have not reopened. This limits the amount of fuel these terminals can receive from ships and prepare to load onto trucks for delivery.
As a result, some fuel destined for Tampa gas stations will no longer be able to be shipped by ship.
“Things are looking up,” said Andy Lipow, president of consulting firm Lipow Oil Associates. “There’s over 30 million gallons of fuel sitting outside of Tampa Bay waiting to be brought in, and one of these issues prevents it from being brought in.”
Lipow expects fuel conditions to return to normal by the end of the week. The key, he said, is when Port Tampa Bay can fully reopen.
Concerned drivers in the Tampa area are facing long lines, and the frustration sometimes turns ugly.
The Pasco Sheriff’s Office said Friday that it had received “numerous calls of disputes and altercations” at a gas station in Pasco County, just north of Tampa.
In a statement, the Pasco Sheriff’s Office said: “We know demand is high and frustrations may be high while fuel companies work to replenish essential supplies, but please be patient and be respectful of others. I strongly urge you to do so.”
A security guard at a Wawa store in Tampa Bay told Fox 13 that a physical fight broke out between customers.
“One girl hit another girl with her car. They were really fighting for gas…we had to call the police because they were really crazy,” the guard said.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said authorities are doing everything possible to get fuel where it’s needed, including providing highway patrol escorts for fuel tanker trucks.
The state has opened multiple public filling stations where customers can each receive 10 gallons of gasoline for free.
However, these free gas sites are sometimes crowded.
The line for gas at the St. Petersburg site grew several blocks long Sunday and had to be briefly blocked off by police, according to the Tampa Bay Times. One woman told the paper she waited more than four hours for gas and advised others to bring food and water if they planned to go.
“This line is slow. Really slow,” she said.
The gas station outage highlights how vulnerable the region is to supply disruptions and surges in demand.
Demand for gas surged last week as millions of Florida residents followed evacuation orders and filled up tanks for generators.
While the Gulf Coast maintains an adequate surplus supply of fuel, rural areas often lack it. They typically operate on what is known as “just-in-time inventory” and typically only receive what they need.
“For the most part, it operates like a well-oiled machine,” said Tom Kloza, global head of energy analysis at Oil Price Information Services. “But when interruptions occur, ‘just in time’ can become untenable. That’s what we’ve seen over the past few days. ”
Kloza said this is especially true in the Tampa area because the region relies heavily on Port Tampa Bay for fuel deliveries.
“I think this will pretty much go away,” Kloza said. “By Wednesday or Thursday, gasoline will be everywhere and there will be no more fights breaking out at the pumps.”
