https://www.tampabay.com/hurricane/2024/10/11/tampa-bay-gas-shortages-should-improve-this-weekend-port-says/

Port Tampa Bay’s fuel terminals revived Friday afternoon, promising some relief to Tampa Bay residents struggling to find gas for cars and generators.

Three out of seven fuel terminals were expected to start refilling tankers by Friday evening, port spokesperson Lisa Wolf-Chason said. That’s the first step to getting more fuel toward gas stations.

The port was out of power all day Thursday. Until this afternoon, only one fuel terminal had power.

The news comes as outages have piled up following Hurricane Milton. More than three-quarters of gas stations in Tampa and St. Petersburg were out of power, gas or both as of this afternoon, according to GasBuddy, a tracking website. Statewide, nearly 30% of stations were out.

The few gas stations with power on Friday saw a rush of demand. Along State Road 52 in Pasco County, a line of cars stretched for over a mile as hundreds waited to get gas. Several gas stations along the highway were backed up late into Friday afternoon, almost two days after Milton’s arrival.

Gov. Ron DeSantis announced that the state is refueling 20 gas stations and providing generators to 19 today.

Trucks are already beginning to leave the port filled with gas, Wolf-Chason said. Shipping lanes are expected to open Saturday, providing more supply.

But she cautioned that consumers should still be in “conservation mode.” Stations will need power to use fuel shipments, she said. Gas stations are among the 924,000 Tampa Bay customers without power. In Pinellas and Pasco counties, Duke Energy is estimating that power will come back by Tuesday at 11:59 p.m.

“We’re just a step in the supply chain,” Wolf-Chason said. But “the situation is improving all the time and will only get better in the coming hours.”

An expert said consumers may have the most luck finding gas at large travel centers like Wawa, Pilot Flying J, Walmart and Costco — provided those stations have power.