TAMPA, Fla. — As long lines continue at gas stations throughout the region after Hurricane Ian resulted in power outages, closures and low fuel availability, there's a tool that can help you find which stations currently have gasoline available.
While many gas stations are reporting limited fuel options, GasBuddy’s Fuel Availability Tracker shows there are many locations that have gasoline and electricity.
You can access that tool HERE to check for gasoline availability in your area.
The tracker is crowd-sourced, which means the updates rely on GasBuddy’s users to provide the information using the following categories:
- Has fuel and power
- Has no power
- Limited fuel options
- Has no fuel and power
RELATED: LIVE UPDATES: Hurricane Ian
Patrick De Haan, the head of petroleum analysis for GasBuddy, gave some updates about the gas situation on Thursday afternoon.
“In regards to Florida fuel challenges, I don’t expect them to worsen much in Tampa, which was somewhat hard it, but Orlando may be the place you see outages rise due to Port Tampa remaining closed, and thus no incoming gasoline supply,” De Haan tweeted at 1:44 p.m. “Try to avoid filling your tank completely!”
De Haan said once Port of Tampa reopens and barges resume offloading there, the Central Florida pipeline “will start delivering back to Orlando, so it’s only a matter of time.”
To update gasoline availability using the GasBuddy tool, you can press the "Quick Report Button" on the app -- but only if you're in the area of the station itself. Users can also report shortages and outages by using the "suggest station edits" at the bottom of the station detail page.