MIAMI -- Tropical Storm Ernesto fizzled out over Florida on Wednesday, coming ashore as a rainstorm instead of a hurricane, said Reuters. The storm was weakening steadily over southern Florida on Wednesday and could be downgraded to a tropical depression, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said. Although some gas stations had empty tanks, motorists had little problem finding fuel Wednesday morning amid the remnants of Ernesto, reported The Miami Herald.
But Ernesto, the 2006 Atlantic hurricane season's fifth storm, could regain some strength after it [image-nocss] emerges off northeast Florida and curves back into land between North and South Carolina later this week, forecasters cautioned.
Ernesto failed to revive as expected over the warm waters of the Florida Straits after hitting Cuba. It came as a weak storm into Miami and the Florida Keys, where residents had lined up at gas stations, emptied stores of batteries and filled sandbags in anticipation of a more powerful storm.
State officials had declared a state of emergency in Florida as the storm approached. Tourists were ordered out of the low-lying Florida Keys, courts and schools were closed, some airlines canceled flights and ports were shut. There were no immediate reports Wednesday of serious damage or injuries, although local media at least one traffic death on a rain-slicked Miami road as the storm came ashore.
It was a far cry from encounters with hurricanes Wilma and Katrina last year, the latter of which killed about 1,500 people and caused $80 billion in damage on the U.S. Gulf Coast.
Along North Federal Highway in Fort Lauderdale, gasoline pumps were wrapped in cellophane at three stations, it said. But farther south, Shell and Exxon stations that had sold out of gasoline Tuesday morning were once again running their pumps. And there was no wait to fillup, said the report.
Though Ernesto's approach caused a minor fuel crisis on Mondaywith motorists waiting nearly an hour for fuelit appeared to ease significantly Tuesday, the Herald added. A Chevron owner in Kendall told the paper that drivers could have speed up the lines by pumping plus or premium grades. On Monday, most motorists were pumping regular, which slowed down the process to 10 or 15 minutes per car, he said.
And with very few electrical outages after the storm, a significant number of stations were open for business this morning. Even with only three of seven stations open along Biscayne Boulevard, motorists were able to pull right up to the pumps.
The supply situation is fine, Jim Smith, president and CEO of the Florida Petroleum Marketers & Convenience Store Association told the paper. The panic situation is what is out of line. Based on what I've seen, there can't be anybody else who needs gas out there.
Fearful drivers, many who remembered hours of wait at the few stations that had electricity after Hurricane Wilma last year, crowded gas stations Monday to fill up cars and portable containers to power generators.
Sales in South Florida were about six times the normal rate on Monday, he said. Smith, who represents 5,300 stations and convenience stores throughout the state, said this year about 20% had portable generators should the electricity go out.
Port Everglades, where much of South Florida gets its fuel supply, closed to vessels Monday evening, Smith said, but added that trucks were still able to go in and out of the port and fill up on fuel that already stored there.
The state had 200 million gallons of fuel on Mondayequal to a 10-day supply.
And fuel distributors said they were not having a problem getting enough gasoline; the squeeze came from a huge spike in demand Monday as the trucks couldn't refill the stations quickly enough.
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