Where To Find Gas In Orlando: Hurricane Irma Evacuation

Tens of thousands of Floridians fleeing homes in the path of Hurricane Irma have packed their cars and taken to the roads only to find a huge problem with their getaway plans: they can’t find gas to fill their tanks for the drive to safety.

By 5 p.m. Thursday, from 30 percent to more than 40 percent of gas stations were without fuel in West Palm Beach, Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Fort Myers, Naples, Gainesville and Tampa/St. Pete. (For more hurricane news or local news from Florida, click here to sign up for real-time news alerts and newsletters from your local Florida Patch. If you have an iPhone, click here to get the free Patch iPhone app.)

State officials have encouraged motorists to use the website and app gasbuddy.com to locate stations that still have gas, which has proved useful for motorists across Florida.

Getting the information from the website requires a bit of navigation to find the map that shows which stations have gas and which ones don’t. You can click here, though, to take you directly to the information about which stations in our area and throughout Florida still have gas.

If you want to use gasbuddy on the road, click here to get a link sent to your cell phone to download the gasbuddy.com app. When you drive while monitoring the app, a map of the surrounding areas will provide the latest available information on where to find fuel nearby.

As more gas arrives at Port Tampa Bay and other facilities, tankers are being filled and dispatched to stations around the state, delivering it with Florida Highway Patrol escorts.

Story by Patch's Todd Richissin

Photo of a fuel tanker unloading at Port Tampa Bay on Thursday courtesy of Port Tampa Bay