As Hurricane Milton barrels toward Tampa Bay, some residents say the resources needed to evacuate — especially gasoline — are in short supply, despite a mandate to leave the area.
Ashley Khrais, a resident of Holiday, Florida, just inland from the coast about an hour northwest of Tampa, is among those stuck.
Khrais, a registered nurse, said despite the severity of the coming storm, she is eager to help other residents who are even worse off.
From what she’s seen and heard, there’s probably a lot.
“It seems very, very scary, but there is no way to leave,” Khrais said around noon Tuesday.
Faced with tough traffic and seemingly no gas, she said she realized she would have to “hunker down” and try to weather the storm with her 10-month-old son and mother.
National Hurricane Center forecasters say Milton “has the potential to be one of the most destructive hurricanes ever to hit west-central Florida.”
Much of that area, including northwest Florida, is still recovering from the aftermath of Hurricane Helene less than two weeks ago. Debris from Helene also poses a risk as Milton approaches, as the objects can turn into dangerous projectiles. FEMA is helping to remove debris, according to a statement from the White House on Monday.
Tampa Mayor Jane Castor warned that Milton would be different from other storms. “I can say this without any dramatization: If you choose to stay in one of those evacuation areas, you will die,” Castor said in an interview with CNN on Monday.
However, numerous Tampa-area residents have created posts and videos sharing how difficult evacuating can be. Locals complained of petrol shortages, gridlocked roads, few hotels to shelter in and no flights out of the area. Some said their cars were too damaged by Helene to get them out of the affected areas.
By Tuesday, airlines had canceled hundreds of flights, theme parks were preparing to close some areas and cruise lines were changing their itineraries as Floridians braced for Hurricane Milton’s landfall.
The cyclone has top sustained winds of nearly 155 miles per hour and is expected to hit the west coast of Florida late Wednesday, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. More than fifty Florida counties are under a state of emergency.
A spokesperson for the Florida Division of Emergency Management said Tuesday that more than 1 million gallons of gasoline would arrive today, “with another 6 million gallons on their way to the state in the coming days.”
It has shared a list of shelters residents can go to, as well as Uber vouchers to help them get there.
Social media showed lines around the block at the few gas stations in the greater Tampa Bay area that still had fuel. About 16% of gas stations in Florida were out of gas before noon Tuesday, and about 43% in the Tampa Bay area, according to data from gas station tracking company GasBuddy.
Unlike many other states in the Southeast, Florida gets its gasoline supplies by boat. That has caused problems in the past: When Fort Lauderdale’s Port Everglades terminal flooded in the spring of 2023, drivers across Southeast Florida were stranded for days.
Governor Ron DeSantis acknowledged supply problems in comments Tuesday, but did not directly address whether maritime shipping issues played a role. In an appearance on “Fox and Friends,” he said “distribution issues” were hampering the delivery of fuel supplies the state had ordered.
“The stations are going through faster than normal,” DeSantis said. “We have Florida Highway Patrol escorting these tankers to the gas stations.”
He said 1.2 million gallons of diesel and gasoline were currently en route to the state, adding that Florida Highway Patrol had escorted 27 fuel trucks Monday evening to replenish supplies.
Tampa resident Lindsey Carlson considers herself lucky. Thanks to a gas-tracking app, she said she and her family were able to fill up at a gas station in Plant City, about a half-hour east of Tampa.
Carlson said she has now been successfully evacuated to Lakeland, in the state’s interior, about an hour east of Tampa, while her parents made it to the Jacksonville area. Hurricane Helene had already damaged her family home and she assumes Milton will cause even more, if not total, damage.
“What’s really sad is seeing people driving at gas stations and just staring at pumps that are out of gas,” she said. “People don’t know what to do.”
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
