South Florida facing gas shortage after storms, floods

South Florida is facing gas shortages across the region after it was pummeled with severe storms last week that brought historic rainfall and widespread flooding.

About 55 percent of gas stations in Miami and Fort Lauderdale are without fuel as of Thursday morning, according to GasBuddy’s Southeast Florida Live Gas Station Outage Tracker. Another about 34 percent of gas stations are also without fuel in West Palm Beach as demand for gasoline increased after the storms.

Intense storms dropped a historic range of 15 inches to 26 inches of rain in the Fort Lauderdale region last week, with much of the rain falling on Wednesday. The Fort Lauderdale airport closed for nearly two days due to flooding from the rain, and schools closed after the storms.

The demand for fuel rose largely from panic buying among South Florida residents, Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis for GasBuddy, said on Twitter.

“[T]here’s plenty of supply, but amidst intense panic buying, there’s no way to make much progress, especially since there’s a limited amount of capacity at the Port right now due to pump failure,” he tweeted.

Fort Lauderdale said in an update to the storms Tuesday that the Florida Division of Emergency Management deployed fuel trucks to re-fuel stations in the area. The city said that the first delivery of 62,000 gallons arrived Tuesday evening and an additional 500,000 gallons would be delivered over Wednesday and Thursday.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) has been met with scrutiny for his response to the Florida storms last week as he was promoting his book in Ohio when the flooding occurred. Critics have taken to social media platforms to slam the governor’s response, with some of them posting photos of long lines outside fueling stations.

DeSantis announced a State of Emergency for Broward County in response to the flooding last Thursday on Twitter.

“Fort Lauderdale is under water and DeSantis is campaigning in Ohio right now instead of taking care of the people suffering in his state,” Donald Trump Jr. wrote on Twitter last week.

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) said Wednesday that consumer panic is not to blame for the gas issue in the state. He said if there is a panic, “it’s because for FOUR days now you either can’t find gas or have to wait hours in line.”

“What’s happening in South #Florida right now with gas is crazy,” he tweeted. “Stop blaming a ‘consumer panic.'”

The Hill has reached out to DeSantis’s office for comment.