JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Tuesday before noon, gas was flowing at a Mobile gas station on St. Augustine Road ahead of Hurricane Milton.
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It was a mixed bag in Jacksonville for most of the morning and early afternoon.
“Yes, we have gas,” gas station manager Michael Kane said.
News4JAX went to several different gas stations to see who had gas and how many people were at the pump.
The Shell on Atlantic Boulevard had ethanol-free and diesel only. Another Shell had bags on pumps as well. The Mobile on St. Augustine Road had gas and no line. The same could be said for a Mobile on Phillips Highway. Gate on Hendricks Avenue had gas but long lines.
Patrick De Haan is a Petroleum Analyst with GasBuddy and said there should not be as many outages associated with Jacksonville.
Further south where lines of cars are fleeing the Tampa Bay area, fuel and safety are top of mind. Those areas are seeing shortages. GasBuddy called them outages.
“The outages are really prevalent in Tampa, areas like Cape coral, Fort Myers are seeing, in some instances, up to 50% of stations out. It could be higher than that,” De Hann said.
Traffic coming from those areas on I-95 are likely to stop and fill up in Jacksonville or nearby communities.
Mayor Donna Deegan stepped to the podium at the Emergency Operations Center to address fuel supply in the city.
“I want to be very velar there is no shortage of gas in Jacksonville. In fact, there is no shortage of gas in the state of Florida,” she said.
Governor Ron DeSantis spoke on the issue Tuesday as well.
“Lines at gas stations have been long. Gas stations are running out quicker than they normally would and so that is causing the state of Florida to assist with the mission to get fuel to the gas stations,” he said.
For this reason, AAA officials are asking people not to be gas guzzlers.
“Gasoline deliveries will continue in the run-up to the storm and then will resume after the storm passes. Do not hoard gasoline. Just take what you need,” Mike Jenkins of AAA said.
Kane says at his Mobile location on St. Augustine Road no matter what you need, he has it, gas included.
“We work during the hurricanes. We keep the store open in case somebody needs something,” he said.
Monday night, DeSantis said 27 fuel trucks were escorted to Florida by the Florida Highway Patrol to stations needing fuel.
If you want to look at the gas outages across the state, you can visit GasBuddy.