MIAMI, Fla. — Long lines and a long wait at gas stations began the week in South Florida as dozens of tankers lined up to enter Port Everglades for fuel.
During a press conference, the port authorities confirmed that fuel delivery operations are at 50%, they explain that they usually work with 12 shipping areas and that currently only 7 have reopened.
El presidente del puerto, Jonathan Daniels, CEO of Port Everglades, commented that in a regular day, 1200 cisterna trucks were carried and that the inundaciones llevated al cierre de esas operations dure 36 horas entre miércoles y Viernes, lo que generó a retraso de 2600 entregas , approximately.
André Khouri, spokesperson for the American Automobile Association (AAA) explains that “we must first manage safety… you must first assess the risk at the port and the best way to do this is in an orderly manner. and secure so that trucks can leave the port quickly”.
Florida receives fuel only through ships that arrive at four ports in the state from refineries in the Gulf of Mexico or on the east coast of the United States. Port Everglades in Broward supplies fuel to twelve southern sector counties, including Monroe, Miami-Dade and Broward.
“There is no shortage. Gasoline stocks are quite strong. What exists is a logistical problem which means that the trucks cannot enter to stock up on fuel,” explains the AAA spokesperson.
Those who went out to fill up this morning found themselves in one of two situations: queues and a long wait to enter the gas station or empty stations but no gas.
Port authorities insist they receive shipments from Tampa and Port Canaveral and urge not to panic to refuel.
“You have the logistical problem, plus the panic…which causes crowds at gas stations,” said AAA spokesperson Khouri.
It’s been a tough weekend for drivers in South Florida after gas delivery was affected by bad weather last week. Severe flooding eventually prevented regular fuel delivery to stations in Miami-Dade and Broward counties.
The Port Everglades spokeswoman told Telemundo 51 that for now we need to be very patient as there is a large supply in the port that needs to be distributed as soon as possible.
“Oil company recovery efforts in Port Everglades continue following Wednesday’s extraordinary storm,” Broward County Mayor Lamar P. Fisher said in a news release.
Officials said there was an ample supply of stored fuel, with several tankers in port and offshore waiting to unload more fuel.
The public may experience delivery delays, which is typical after natural disasters, Broward officials said.
WHAT DRIVERS SAY
Daniel Herrera is one of many people who had to travel a long way to get gas in Miami-Dade, but their trip was not successful. “I’m worried because if I can’t find gas, how can I go home (…) I can’t take the car on my shoulder”, asks the man who says he went to four gas stations, alarmed, “people must be informed so that he does not throw himself into the street without knowing that there will be no gas”.
The manager of a gas station on West 49th Street in Hialeah says he doesn’t know when the fuel will arrive, at his gas station all gas stations are out of service.
“So far, we don’t know when the deliveries gas, they don’t give us an explanation yet. Only that we turn off the engines because there is no more gasoline, ”explains Daniela Cerda, who works at a Mobil gas station which has been without supplies since Friday and which made the impact felt at the ‘business.
“They come to consume both gasoline and products from the store, so sales have dropped a lot,” said Daniela Cerda, a worker at a Mobil service station.
Affected drivers continue to fear that this shortage will turn into a crisis.
“I’m running out of gas…let’s see if a downpour of gas comes and stops the rain,” joked Daniel Herrera, one of the drivers affected by the fuel shortage.
Many gas stations in Miami do not have a date to receive fuel, which is odd to some.
The authorities -for their part- have encouraged the public to be patient and not to rush to the pumps as they assure that there is enough fuel in the port and in the ships that are at sea and arrive in the south of Florida, so it will be distributed very soon.
AAA, The Auto Club Group, which monitors the price of gasoline, points out in its weekly report on fuel prices and the situation in the region that operations have been restored in Port Everglades and that the supply of gasoline in the region should return to normal in the coming days. “It’s just filling the trucks with gasoline at the terminals and delivering the fuel to the gas stations that need it,” he says.