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It’s been 10 years since a six week assault on the state from four hurricanes which caused problems with the ability for Floridians to get gas at fuel stations. As Matt Galka tells us, the state vowed to make sure that wouldn’t happen again, and he looks into whether or not the promise was kept as we move into peak hurricane season.

10 years ago, four hurricanes slammed into Florida over a six week period. The storms crippled the state and caused billions of dollars worth of damage.

Long lines formed at gas stations that couldn’t run their pumps without power.  State officials vowed to fix that. The state’s Department of Agriculture is tasked with enforcing that gas stations on evacuation routes have generators.

There were about one thousand stations that had to upgrade to have the capability to have alternate power, those were stations in large counties by population that were on evacuation routes,” said Erin Gillespie with the state’s Department of Agriculture.

All newly built gas stations since 2007 have to follow the rule as well. The department of Agriculture says that every gas station in the state is currently in compliance.

The Florida Petroleum Council says that generators will help if the situation happens again today, but it’s not a be all end all solution. Executive Director David Mica says that while electricity was a problem, so was supply and demand.

“Had we had power 10 years ago, it really wouldn’t have helped the situation much because we would have just sucked that supply out of the ground even quicker,” Mica said.

The council agrees that the state is better off today than in 2004, but they warn that Floridians still need to prepare themselves for the next storm and have a plan in place at all times.

The Department of Agriculture says every station is inspected every year and complaints about non-compliance are investigated immediately. Penalties for violating the rule could include up to a $250,000 thousand dollar fine.