Florida residents picked the shelves clean of bottled water and lined up at gas stations Thursday as an increasingly menacing-looking Hurricane Dorian threatened to broadside the state.
Along Florida's east coast, local governments began distributing sandbags, shoppers rushed to stock up on food, plywood and other emergency supplies at supermarkets and hardware stores, and motorists topped off their tanks and filled gasoline cans. Some gas stations around the Duval-St. Johns county line were without fuel Thursday night.
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About 8:15 p.m., there was a Mobil gas station on San Jose Boulevard in Mandarin where all 14 pumps had bags over them. An employee said the station was supposed to get a new shipment later that night.Â
Just after 9 p.m., News4Jax found a Mobil and a Gate off San Jose Boulevard near the county line that were without gas. Both told News4Jax that gas should be there sometime later in the evening.
The Circle K, Daily's and Shell gas stations on County Road 210 closest to Interstate 95 were also without gas about 8:30 p.m.Â
The Gate station at Racetrack Road in Fruit Cove had fuel, but was very busy.
On Friday night, the RaceTrac gas station on Philips Highway received a new shipment of fuel after running dry.
The store clerk told News4Jax the hurricane has many people rushing to fill up their cars and containers to run generators should they lose power.
One thing drivers can download to help them is the GasBuddy app.
Some fuel shortages were also reported in the Cape Canaveral area.