Florida gas flowing again 1 week after Hurricane Milton

Police escorted fuel trucks to gas stations in Florida over the past week as people waited in long lines at the pump. But experts say the headache is almost over.

It has been a week since Hurricane Milton slammed into Florida as a Category 3 storm, and some residents are still having trouble finding a reliable source of gas, including those still relying on generators for electricity.

The number of gas stations in Florida without fuel peaked at nearly 30% on Friday but had dropped to 17% by Monday, GasBuddy reported. Despite this improvement, around half of all gas stations in the Tampa area have run dry.

"The good news is the fuel is flowing, and the numbers are coming down," Patrick De Haan, the Head of Petroleum Analysis for Gas Buddy, told AccuWeather in an interview on Tuesday.

De Haan said it will take another three to five days for most of the gas station outages to end and that they are seeing "vast improvements," especially in the Tampa area.

Is there a fuel shortage in Florida after Hurricane Milton?

The soaring demand for fuel has sparked rumors of gas shortages across Florida. However, officials are emphasizing that there is no shortage of gas; the issue is that stations cannot keep up with the extraordinary demand.

"It wasn't a fuel supply disruption. It was just millions of Floridians trying to get out of harm's way for Milton filling up at the same time," De Haan said.

Additionally, several ports along Florida's Gulf Coast were shut down due to Milton, temporarily cutting off the gas supply from ships carrying fuel across the Gulf of Mexico.

Port Tampa Bay reopened earlier this week, allowing gas to flow directly into the hardest-hit areas once again. "Buying fuel shouldn't be a headache really anymore over the next week or so," De Haan said.

Over the weekend, cars were lined up for blocks as people waited for their turn at the gas pump. Police even escorted fuel trucks to gas stations and helped to direct traffic amid the crowds.

One reason for the persistently high demand for fuel is the ongoing power outages, as using a generator has been the only way for some families to have electricity in their homes. However, the number of outages is coming down, falling from over 180,000 on Tuesday to around 75,000 by Wednesday morning, according to PowerOutage.us.

The long lines at the pump will continue to decrease through the end of the week as the number of power outages decreases and the flow of gas across Florida returns to normal.