Gov. DeSantis rolls out ‘public fuel sites’ in areas where gas is in short supply

He calls it a “major fuel effort.” And for Floridians searching for gas, it’s right on time.

As recovery continues from Hurricane Milton, Gov. Ron DeSantis is rolling out a resolution to persistent fuel distribution problems.

During a visit to Plant City Saturday, the Governor rolled out 3 fuel depots, and said more of these “public fuel sites” will be up in the coming days, something he said has “never been done before on this scale” and will be available “until this entire fuel situation is resolved.”

The Plant City location, said DeSantis, is “one of the three sites that opened this morning,” with two more in St. Petersburg and more to come.

“We’re going to do another one closer to the heart of Tampa in Hillsborough County. We’re going to do another one in a different part of Pinellas County and we’re going to do at least one in Sarasota County and perhaps some more depending on the demand that we have,” DeSantis said, noting people can get up to 10 gallons at a time.

DeSantis said that often gas stations that are out just “don’t have power,” meaning they can’t “run the pumps.”

“Now, a lot of these gas stations quite frankly, are supposed to have generators, very few of them have used them that I’ve seen, especially in the areas that were the hardest hit,” DeSantis said, noting that in situations where power restoration may take “48 hours or more” the Florida Division of Emergency Management is “bringing generators to those service stations.”

DeSantis is “optimistic that you’re gonna see a lot of these stations end up getting power relatively short order in the coming days.”

While major highways and bridges are open, and most major airports are the same, Sarasota-Bradenton is still dealing with repairs and won’t be open until Wednesday.

Florida Division of Emergency Management head Kevin Guthrie said 37.3 million gallons of fuel are coming into the Port of Tampa on Saturday, which should help resolve the supply issue.

And apparently the distribution problem is on its way to a solution as well.

Guthrie and DeSantis mentioned that President Joe Biden has greenlighted their federal funding requests, meaning fully funded debris removal and individual assistance for people in 34 counties are available: Brevard, Charlotte, Citrus, Clay, Collier, DeSoto, Duval, Flagler, Glades, Hardee, Hendry, Hernando, Highlands, Hillsborough, Indian River, Lake, Lee, Manatee, Marion, Martin, Okeechobee, Orange, Osceola, Palm Beach, Pasco, Pinellas, Polk, Putnam, Sarasota, Seminole, St. Johns, St. Lucie, Sumter and Volusia.

Guthrie also mentioned more FEMA programs, including transitional shelters and cleaning and sanitizing and transitional housing, are on their way to approval.

DeSantis said FEMA and Florida were “singing from the same sheet of music” and that the federal government was being “admirably flexible” about meeting Florida’s requests and circumventing burdensome “bureaucracy” that can slow up recovery.