Gas shortages grow in Florida ahead of Milton. Gas Buddy maps show areas most affected

Three of every five gas stations are without fuel in the Tampa-St. Petersburg area just hours before the projected landfall of Hurricane Milton .

Gas Buddy , a gas station location and savings app, started tracking outages on Monday night. Since then nearly a quarter of the state's gas stations were without fuel. Most of the stations that provide power for electric cars were still operating.

The National Hurricane Center expects Milton will make landfall on Florida's west coast late Wednesday into early Thursday. The storm has been rapidly upgraded and downgraded in the past few days as meteorologists grapple with the storm's destructive potential .

Percentage of gas stations without fuel on Wednesday morning in these major Florida cities

Unable to view our graphics? Click here to see them .

During a Tuesday morning press conference, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis promised more fuel was on the way. It appears the precipitous decline of available fuel has slowed but not stopped.

"We have been dispatching fuel over the past 24 hours as gas stations have run out," DeSantis said. "We have an additional 1.2 million gallons of both diesel and gasoline that is currently en route to the state of Florida."

Percentage of gas stations with fuel continues to fall in Florida

Roads leaving Tampa area jammed with cars on Tuesday, Oct. 8

Perhaps drivers will put less of a drain on the gas stations in the Tampa area during the coming days and hours, considering how many residents on Tuesday morning were filing roads to evacuate the area.

HERE Tec hnologies , a location data and technology platform, created a visual comparison of the traffic congestion on Tuesday morning compared to Monday. What is usually a relatively free-flowing set of roads turned into a traffic jam Tuesday. The most of the congestion appeared to abate by afternoon.

According to the hurricane center, Milton’s tropical-storm-force winds extended roughly 125 miles from the center as of Wednesday morning and could be as far as 200 miles from the center by the time Milton makes landfall.

Milton will be a surge event unlike any hurricane in living memory for west-central Florida, with only major hurricane strikes in 1848 and 1921 comparable in scope and height of the coastal flooding, WeatherTiger meteorologist Ryan Truchelut said on his blog Tuesday afternoon.

Contributing: Doyle Rice

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Gas shortages grow in Florida ahead of Milton. Gas Buddy maps show areas most affected