Gasoline distribution in Miami-Dade County has not yet returned to normal. Heavy downpours last week left an impressive trail of flooding in Broward County to the north, and further south as well.
Today the situation has not changed. The Ft. Lauderdale fuel distribution center is still surrounded by water; most of the tankers are paralyzed. In Miami, a large number of gas stations no longer have lines of cars waiting to be filled. They are just closed.
Gasoline distributors hoped to be able to normalize distribution at the beginning of the week, but it was not possible, mainly because when customers find gasoline, they not only buy what they need but as much as they can to save it for better times or waiting for the crisis to continue. Result: On average, a gas station sold about 3,000 gallons a day, many started to sell 10 times that amount.
According to local media, there were gas stations that received an average of 7,000 gallons and these were sold out in a few hours.
The mayor of Miami-Dade, Daniela Levine Cava, who announced on Sunday the 16th that she was taking steps with state and federal entities in order to resolve the problem, was able to say on Wednesday the 19th: “with the improved weather, the distribution will also continue to improve. We do not anticipate additional gasoline shortages.”
He then added: “While this is good news, we ask that you only buy gasoline when you need it to help stabilize supplies.”
But they ignored him.
People fear that gasoline will run out and refill the tanks daily. The mayor argued that if they stop stockpiling excess gasoline, service stations could get back to normal faster. She said the Shell station from which she was speaking to the press received 5,000 gallons of gasoline on Tuesday and had run out of fuel within hours.
“There is no real shortage of gasoline,” but rather a “wave of panic” among vehicle drivers, who “are buying fuel they don’t need for the sake of it,” he told the Newspaper Las Americas Máximo Álvarez, owner of Sunshine Gasoline Distributors, the largest fuel distributor in South Florida.
Alvarez explained that although the company has enough gasoline to meet the demand, it is having “difficulties” to keep the service stations stocked due to the “massive purchase”.
In a mostly Hispanic residential neighborhood in north Kendall, in the southwest of the city, all four gas stations in the area were closed on Friday, residents said by phone. This reporter from OnCuba You’re stuck at home with little chance to move except for an emergency. The tank has less than 10 gallons left.
The case is not unique. In condominium parking lots, in a work week the majority of the spaces are occupied. A resident accountant in the area revealed that since he did not have gasoline, his company had organized a system to pick up key employees at their homes.
After a few days of splendid sunshine and acceptable heat, so much so that people have returned to the condominium pools, this Thursday the rains have returned to South Florida. Hopefully it won’t be for long. People will continue to buy more gasoline than they need. Let’s hope the crisis doesn’t last forever.
For now, the police are escorting the few trucks that go to the gas stations followed by drivers to find out where they are going.
The police objective is clear, said the Local10 channel: to prevent assaults on the highways and bring order to the gas stations.
