More than 50% of the gas stations in seven metropolitan areas in Florida were without fuel, according to data published Tuesday from GasBuddy, a consequence of the disruptive force of Hurricane Irma, which swept over Florida this past weekend.
Irma, a Category 4 hurricane when it hit the peninsula on Saturday after battering the Florida Keys and various islands in the Caribbean last week, traveled up the west coast of Florida before extending its destructive power into Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee.
In its wake, Irma left motorists without gasoline in many parts of Florida, as well as in sections of other states in the Southeast.
GasBuddy, which gathers fuel data from motorists, reported 60.3% of stations in Gainesville were without fuel. More than 59% of gas stations in Miami-Fort Lauderdale, which at one point was in the crosshairs of the storm before it shifted west, were without fuel.
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Other Florida metro areas where at least 50% of the gas stations were without fuel were: Tampa-St. Petersburg (Sarasota), Tallahassee-Thomasville, West Palm Beach-Fort Pierce, Orlando-Daytona Beach-Melbourne and Jacksonville.
Elsewhere in the Southeast, Irma made its presence felt. In Jacksonville, Georgia, 45.1% of gas stations were without fuel, the hardest-hit metro area outside of Florida. Savannah gas stations received the worst blows from Irma in South Carolina, with 35.2% of them without fuel.
A smaller percentage of gas stations were without fuel in North Carolina and Tennessee, where Irma dissipated to a tropical depression and then became a tropical rainstorm.
This is the first time two Category 4 landfalls occurred in the continental United States in the same hurricane season. Hurricane Harvey made landfall in Texas in August.
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