Drivers in Florida waited in long lines and in some cases ran out of fuel as they tried to refuel their vehicles evacuated during Hurricane Milton.

According to GasBuddy gas analyst Patrick De Haan, nearly 29% of Florida gas stations were sold out as of Friday morning. That means about 2,320 of the state’s nearly 8,000 gas stations were out of fuel as of Friday morning.

“It may get a little worse before it gets better,” he said on the social media site X.

According to GasBuddy, 73 percent of gas stations in the Tampa and St. Petersburg areas were without gas. In Sarasota, 54% of gas stations were empty, followed by 42% of gas stations in Fort Myers and Naples, 40% of gas stations in Gainesville and 34% of gas stations in Orlando and Daytona Beach, according to the website’s fuel tracker.

Fuel deliveries are coming, but experts still say motorists who don’t need gas should wait to visit a gas station.

“If you don’t have to go to the gas station, then don’t do it,” Andrew Lipow, president of Lipow Oil Associates, told CBS MoneyWatch. “You shouldn’t run out of gas to fill up with.”

How long does refueling take?

The majority of Orlando’s gas supply is delivered through the Port of Tampa, where there are ten operating terminals. The gas from the major oil companies is then transported to Orlando via a pipeline. The port is still working on getting power back to the terminals so they can be supplied, Lipow said.

“They need to bring back workers, terminal operators and truck drivers, and the Coast Guard needs to inspect the channel for debris and replace all navigation buoys. All these things are happening as we speak,” he said. According to his estimate, gas deliveries by tanker will not take place until Sunday at the earliest.

Ports serving the rest of Florida are open, he noted.

“It will get better. They will get gas,” he said. “There is a lot of gas being transported to Florida, but the biggest obstacle to resupply right now is the return of electricity to the Port of Tampa.”

Tom Kloza, global head of energy analysis at the Oil Price Information Service (OPIS), said he expects the “gas crisis” to be fully resolved within 72 hours.

“It will be back to normal by Tuesday or Wednesday,” he told CBS MoneyWatch.