Florida Residents Struggle to Find Fuel in Irma Aftermath

09/13/2017 01:42 pm EDT

In the aftermath of Hurricane Irma, Florida residents are lining up for miles at the gas stations only to learn that there is no more fuel.

There is a massive gas shortage in the Sunshine State at this time. Even two or three days before Irma made landfall, gas stations were beginning to run dry, according to Yahoo! News.

"We're trying to encourage people to stay off the roads," Florida Highway Patrol spokesperson Frady told the Miami Herald. "Conditions are just now being assessed."

As of late Monday, more than half of the gas stations in Tallahassee, Jacksonville, Tampa/St. Petersburg, West Palm Beach and Miami/Fort Lauderdale were completely out of gas, GasBuddy reports.

The gas shortages are making life even more difficult for Florida residents trying to return home to see if their property has sustained serious damage from the powerful winds and storm surge.

One of the biggest keys to fixing the issue is when Florida's ports will receive fuel shipments. The state is heavily reliant on tankers and barges to meet the demand for fuel given that there are only a few refineries in Florida.

"Without the ports, there's no fuel flowing. It's likely the number of gas outages will rise before they start falling," Patrick DeHaan, the senior petroleum analyst at GasBuddy said.

Fortunately, the gas situation could be returning back to normal availability in the near future according to Tom Kloza, the global head of energy analysis at the Oil Price Information Service.

"My hunch is those gasoline outage numbers are going to drop very, very fast. By next week, things should be very close to normal," Kloza said, according to CNN Money.

The state's largest port, Port Tampa Bay, only suffered "very minimal" damage. The port was expected to reopen on Tuesday with three petroleum vessels scheduled to deliver fuel.

"It's a small miracle," Paul Anderson, the port's president, said in an interview. "I can't tell you how relieved we are that we're not in a full-blown recovery. It could have been weeks of repairs."

The overarching problem that the state is facing is the power outage.

"We need to get their power restored in order for the fuel to begin running in their pumps," said James Miller, director of communications for the Florida Petroleum Marketers and Convenience Store Association said.

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