HOLLYWOOD, Fla. – From long lines, to bagged pumps, to signs that read “no gas,” South Florida drivers found themselves in a similar situation to many gas stations Monday: empty and with no fuel.
“It is very stressful trying to find gas on empty,” driver Eddy Mourani said.
The fuel shortages arose from the fact that Port Everglades was also affected by the historic rainfall that flooded east Broward.
“All the gas, all the diesel, all the jet fuel to the four South Florida counties comes through Port Everglades,” Port Everglades CEO Jonathan Daniels said.
The flood waters damaged several fuel pumps of the 12 private companies that operate there, Daniels said.
Port officials said the issue was not supply, but distribution.
Port Everglades officials speak:
Broward County Mayor Lamar Fisher said for close to 36 hours the 1,200 trucks that transport fuel from port daily were halted because of the storm.
“Normally we do 7 million gallons a day out of here,” Fisher said. “We are at 50%, about 3 1/2 million gallons, coming out of here right now.”
But while there are only seven of 12 terminals available to supply fuel to trucks, who will then transport it to local gas stations, that fuel may not arrive as quickly as drivers would like.
That frustrated gas hunters like Paul Soto.
“There is no gas here,” Soto said. “I went everywhere. Everywhere. There was nothing.”
The shortage has even stranded some drivers, like Althea Butler Neal.
“None of these gas stations have gas,” she said.
At one Broward gas station, driver Oren Abit found himself stranded.
Friend Yehuda Benarroch came to the rescue.
“He got stuck, as soon as he call(ed) me, I had a jerry-can gallon in my car and (came) right away to rescue him,” Benarroch said.
Gas ⛽️ deliveries are becoming a familiar sight at this station in Hollywood. When Oren Abit found himself stranded here, at yet another Broward station waiting on a fuel delivery, he called his friend Yehuda Benarroch for help. #SoundOn ▶️ pic.twitter.com/DWNleiY8JR
— Christina Boomer Vazquez, M.S. (@CBoomerVazquez) April 17, 2023
Neal was on her way to pick up her granddaughter from kindergarten before running out of fuel. Her brother planned to drive up from Miami to bring her gas.
That frustration is spilling into the gas stations themselves, according to one Hollywood station owner.
Prokash Majumder, who owns the Marathon station at Hollywood Boulevard and Entrada Drive, said the only deliveries he had received since Saturday night were of snacks and drinks.
“The customer(s) come and they are fighting,” Majumder said. “(They are saying) ‘where is the gas, close the gas station, why are you standing here like that?’ And even though it is out of our hands, it is like that.”
Fisher said there may be a lesson in all of this.
“I think that the private companies are now going to learn too that they have to get these pumps a little more above ground,” Fisher said.