TAMPA, Fla — If you were trying to buy gas in Tampa on Tuesday, you likely encountered many stations without fuel or ran into long lines at places that still had it.
The line to fuel up at the Wawa on North Dale Mabry Highway and Waters Avenue stretched almost a block long.
That added even more stress to residents weary from Hurricane Helene.
“I've probably gone to six stations that are empty. I already fled South Tampa because my house got destroyed in the first storm,” said Laura Noyes.
Evelyn Dorta is evacuating to Georgia with her family.
“My parents, my mother-in-law, my husband and me,” she said.
Dorta was glad to finally be able to fill up her tank for the journey.
Some staying need fuel to power chain saws and generators after the storm.
“I saw this was open on social media, so hopefully I can get a gas can at least for the generator. That's all I'm trying to get,” Leo Travino said.
People we encountered found out which locations still had gas using apps like Gas Buddy, including electrician Nataniel Houle.
“Another place I was in line at earlier and they ran out of gas,” Houle said.
He said he could not serve his customer until he could refuel.
“Obviously there’s a lot of panic buying, so people are buying gas in excess and continuously topping off their tanks,” Houle said.
The shortage is fueled by a mass evacuation, as hundreds of thousands of residents are ordered out their homes ahead of Hurricane Milton.
About 1.5 million gallons of fuel daily arrives and is distributed through the Port of Tampa.
But that doesn’t go far when so many drivers are all trying to fill up at the same time.
The port announced its shipping channels were closed Tuesday morning, meaning the next fuel tankers won’t be offloaded until after the storm and after the port is safe for normal operations.
In the meantime, trucks will continue to deliver fuel already in storage.
Governor DeSantis says gas stations should be able to open soon after the storm, even in areas that lose power.
“We have 130 generators that are at various gas stations. So we may lose power, but most of the new gas stations or the larger gas stations have generators per Florida law,” DeSantis said.
A state report says hundreds of frail elderly nursing home residents were stacked side by side, head to toe in a small church with no working air conditioning or refrigerator during Hurricane Helene.