Hurricane Milton recovery: More gas distribution centers to open

CNN
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Surrounded by the damage left by hurricanes Helene and Milton, people across Florida are faced with the daunting task of cleaning up, but many lack the power and fuel to do so.

With roads clogged by fallen trees and flooding, fuel suppliers and energy providers are working to get daily life infrastructure back online, and police are supporting recovery efforts by escorting tanker trucks trying to reach those most in need.

President Joe Biden will visit Florida to survey damage from the storm, the White House announced. He will take a scenic flight to visit some of the most damaged areas, meet with first responders and speak in St. Petersburg on Sunday morning.

Here’s the latest:

• Gas stations are still waiting for fuel: Nearly 30% of the state’s gas stations were out of fuel early Sunday, according to monitoring website GasBuddy.com. In severely affected Tampa-St. In the Petersburg area, more than three quarters of gas stations (77%) are out of gasoline. In the Sarasota area, 62%. About Ft. In the Myers and Naples area it is 42%, in the Orlando area it is 35%. More than 37.3 million gallons of fuel were dumped at Florida ports, according to Kevin Guthrie, director of the state’s Division of Emergency Management. “We currently have 25 Florida Highway Patrol escorts moving the fuel tankers from the port, and so those will be utilized to fill the gas stations,” said Gov. Ron DeSantis. Three public gas stations have opened in Plant City, Bradenton and St. Petersburg, each offering customers 10 gallons of free gas. The governor said more will open Sunday in Charlotte, Pinellas and Hillsborough counties.

• Power will be restored gradually: As of early Sunday, just over a million people across the state were still without power, while the peak number was nearly three million. Teams across the country are working to reconnect homes and businesses to the power grid. Energy suppliers expect most people to have electricity by mid-week.

• St. Petersburg offers refueling and charging stations: The city of St. Petersburg has set up temporary stations to help residents in need, with a place to charge their phones and pick up essentials like bottled water, batteries and tarps. A boil water notice remains in effect in the city due to multiple water main breaks, and 25 emergency responders are on the streets collecting debris. “We weathered two storms in less than two weeks. This is unprecedented from a debris perspective, but it is still our top priority to clean up our city and return to some sort of normalcy,” said Mike Jefferis, city enrichment manager.

• President Biden agrees to major disaster declaration: According to FEMA, President Joe Biden approved a major disaster declaration for the state on Saturday. “As of October 5, federal disaster assistance is available to the state of Florida to supplement recovery efforts in areas affected by Hurricane Milton,” a FEMA press release said. According to the press release, Biden’s endorsement provides funding to people in more than 30 counties affected by Milton. The funds include grants for temporary housing and home repairs.

Ongoing flooding problems after Milton dumped 16 inches of rain on Hillsborough County hampered the area’s recovery from the storm, Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister said Saturday.

“The water isn’t going away as quickly as we would all like, so this healing, this recovery is taking a lot longer,” Chronister said.

Meanwhile, the National Weather Service’s Tampa Bay office continued its flood warnings Saturday for rivers in Hillsborough, Sarasota and Manatee counties and several other locations, with some expected to remain in effect “until further notice,” according to the weather service.

The Alafia River in Lithia, Florida, and the Hillsborough River, both in the Tampa area, remained at flood stage through early Sunday.

A CNN team that toured the Valrico neighborhood of Hillsborough County with the sheriff’s office on Saturday observed widespread flooding on several city blocks, with front yards and garages covered in water. Some residents told them they had never seen such severe flooding in the decades they had lived there.

Chronister said Hillsborough County crews conducted more than 300 rescues in 48 hours on Saturday, adding that teams were working around the clock.

Dozens of drivers in Florida, likely out of fuel for days, waited in long lines at gas stations on Saturday hoping to refill their tanks and jerry cans as shortages continued in the state’s hardest-hit areas.

Some people told CNN they had to use word of mouth to find out which gas stations had gas. Drone footage Saturday morning showed long lines of drivers hugging on either side of a Thorntons gas station in Oldsmar in Pinellas County.

One of those lines of at least 20 drivers stretched across the intersection, letting other drivers through, video showed. But relief was on the way at some stations Saturday, including at a Wawa in Valrico, Florida, where Hillsborough County sheriff’s deputies escorted a tanker truck as several drivers waited for a chance to use the gas pumps.

A man standing in front of his parked white pickup truck gave a grateful thumbs-up in the air as the tanker truck pulled away, video showed. Paula Cast told CNN her family visited four or five different gas stations on Friday, but everything was closed.

Then on Saturday they received a call from one of their friends telling them there was gas at a Wawa gas station. “So my son and I ran here right away, and we stood in line for about an hour and a half, literally steaming,” Cast said.

CNN’s Sam Fossum contributed to this report.