Parts of South Florida are already experiencing significant gasoline supply problems as thousands evacuate the state in anticipation of Hurricane Milton's expected landfall on Wednesday night. GasBuddy, a service that monitors retail prices nationwide, reported that as of 11 a.m. EDT on Tuesday, approximately 16.5% of Florida's gas stations were out of gasoline. In the Tampa-St. Petersburg region, nearly 44% of gas stations are without fuel. "You have millions of people heading north on I-75 or I-95 trying to leave the state before Milton makes landfall," Patrick De Haan, an energy analyst at GasBuddy, told FreightWaves. "The supply chain issue is that the system isn't designed for millions of Floridians filling up simultaneously, so naturally, stations are falling behind. That's why we're starting to see fuel outages." Ned Bowman, executive director of the Florida Petroleum Marketers Association, informed FreightWaves via a brief phone call that truck stops in the state were "fine" and operating without supply disruptions. Hurricane Milton is projected to strike the Tampa area on Wednesday night as a Category 3 storm, with maximum wind speeds around 155 mph, less than two weeks after Hurricane Helene hit the state. The National Hurricane Center (NHC) has also warned of potential rainfall of up to 15 inches in parts of western Florida through Thursday, with Milton capable of generating "considerable flash flooding."