Gas stations in Flordia are running out of gas as residents attempt to flee the state during Hurricane Milton

Question

Florida residents are attempting to flee the state while deadly hurricane Milton is on its way but are running into major issues when looking for gas on their way out.

Answer 1

This seems to be coming from a source named GasBuddy which keeps a pulse on gas prices around the country so they probably have a decent general idea of the state of gas stations near the hurricane impact zone in Florida. There also seems to be a lot of local news publications reporting on the disturbed state of gas stations on the ground (for example: Tampa Bay Station 10). Note: much of the live coverage like the helpful map the station provided has ended.

Comments

CNBC has also done a report on this, using the same information provided by GasBuddy. All of these major news sources using statistics from GasBuddy leads me to belive that it is a reliable and credible source. Another supporting article I found published by Reuters states that "over 17% of Florida's gas stations out of fuel". This number is likely to only rise as the evacuation continues.

https://www.cnn.com/2024/10/08/business/hurricane-milton-florida-gasoline-shortages/index.html

https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/gas-stations-run-empty-panic-grips-florida-ahead-hurricane-milton-2024-10-08/

Answer 2

Yes, this is real and happening. According to USA Today (Hurricane Milton update: See where gasoline shortages are in Florida (usatoday.com) ) there are 3 in 5 gas stations in the Tampa area left without gas. Outages have been reported since Monday. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has stated "We have an additional 1.2 million gallons of both diesel and gasoline that is currently en route to the state of Florida."