As Hurricane Milton hurtles toward Tampa Bay, some locals say they can’t get the supplies they need to leave, especially gasoline, even though they are required to do so.
Ashley Khrais is one of the people who are stuck. She lives in Holiday, Florida, which is just inland from the coast and about an hour northwest of Tampa.
Khrais, a registered nurse, said she was excited to help other locals who are in even worse shape than she is because of how bad the storm is going to be.
She thinks there are a lot based on what she has seen and heard.
Khrais said around noon on Tuesday, “It looks really scary, but there’s no way out.”
She said she knew she had to “hunker down” and try to ride out the storm with her 10-month-old son and her mother because of the terrible traffic and what seemed like a lack of gas.
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Based on what the National Hurricane Center says, Milton “has the potential to be one of the most destructive hurricanes on record for west-central Florida.”
A lot of that area, like northwest Florida, is still getting back on its feet after Hurricane Helene hit less than two weeks ago. As Milton gets closer, Helene’s trash can also be dangerous because it can turn into dangerous missiles. A message from the White House on Monday said that FEMA is helping to get rid of the debris.
Jane Castor, the mayor of Tampa, said that Milton would be different from other storms. CASTOR told CNN on Monday, “If you choose to stay in one of those evacuation areas, you are going to die.” He said this without adding any drama to it.
However, many people from the Tampa area have shared in posts and videos how hard it can be to evacuate. People in the area were upset that there wasn’t enough gas, the roads were backed up, there weren’t many places to stay in, and there were no flights leaving the area. Some people said their cars were damaged enough by Helene that they couldn’t get them out of the places that she hit.
As Floridians got ready for Hurricane Milton to hit land on Tuesday, hundreds of flights were delayed, some theme parks were planning to close, and cruise lines changed their routes.
READ MORE: Following The Destruction Caused By Hurricane Helene, Two More Storms Strengthen In The Atlantic
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says the cyclone’s top sustained winds are close to 155 miles per hour. It is due to hit the west coast of Florida late Wednesday. There is a state of emergency in more than 50 counties in Florida.
On Tuesday, a representative for the Florida Division of Emergency Management said that more than a million gallons of oil would be delivered today and that another six million gallons would be sent to the state in the next few days.
It gave people a list of places they could go to and Uber vouchers to help them get there.
On social media, people could see lines going around the block at the few gas stores in the Tampa Bay area that still had gas. GasBuddy, a company that tracks gas stations, says that about 16% of stations in Florida were out of gas before noon on Tuesday. In the Tampa Bay area, 43% of stations were out.
Florida gets its fuel by boat, which is different from many other southeast states. That has caused problems in the past. In the spring of 2023, when Fort Lauderdale’s Port Everglades terminal flooded, cars all over Southeast Florida were stuck for days.
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In comments Tuesday, Gov. Ron DeSantis said that there were problems with delivery, but he didn’t say directly if problems with shipping by sea were to blame. He said on “Fox and Friends” that “distribution problems” were making it hard for the state to get the fuel it had bought.
“The trains are going through it faster than usual,” DeSantis said. “These fuel trucks are being led into the gas stations by the Florida Highway Patrol.”
He said that 1.2 million gallons of oil and gasoline were on their way to the state and that the Florida Highway Patrol had accompanied 27 fuel trucks on Monday night to make sure there was enough.
Lindsey Carlson, who lives in Tampa, thinks she’s lucky. She said that she and her family were able to get gas at a stop in Plant City, which is about 30 minutes east of Tampa, thanks to an app that tracks gas prices.
Carlson said that she was able to get to Lakeland, which is in the middle of the state and about an hour east of Tampa. Her parents, on the other hand, made it to the Jacksonville area. Helene had already done damage to her family’s home, and she thinks Milton will do even more, if not more damage altogether.
She said, “It’s really sad to see people pull up to gas stations and just stare at pumps that are empty.” “Everyone is lost.”
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