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GasBuddy and Waze tracking gas stations with and without fuel in Florida, but they need your help

 
GasBuddy's tracker map showed stations without gas in the Tampa Bay area on Thursday morning, though the data isn't always accurate.
GasBuddy's tracker map showed stations without gas in the Tampa Bay area on Thursday morning, though the data isn't always accurate.
Published Sept. 7, 2017

Looking for stations with gas in the Tampa Bay area or anywhere else across Florida? As Hurricane Irma approaches, prompting long car lines and outages at some stations, there are apps for that.

GasBuddy, an app normally aimed at helping people find the cheapest gas prices in their area, has shifted gears and activated its emergency Gas Tracker feature to help with preparation and evacuation. The GPS navigation app Waze sent out an alert this morning that it wants users to "help your community find gas."

If you have the GasBuddy app on your phone and select "Find Gas Near You," stations that have been reported as being out of gas or experiencing a power outage will display a "No Gas" or "No Power" icon. If you're on your computer, you can look at the Gasoline Availability Tracker at tracker.gasbuddy.com/search and click "search" to see a real-time map of reported outages.

When searching for gas stations in Waze, those that are out of gas or closed will show "N/A" in the spot where the price of gas would normally be.

"The number of stations without gas has been rising generally across Florida," Patrick DeHaan, senior petroleum analyst with GasBuddy, said Thursday morning. "Miami is the hotspot right now. South florida, obviously more people are trying to leave there. So Miami is at 40 percent of stations without gas and rising, Tampa is at 30 percent, Orlando at 20 percent."

But there is a disclaimer: GasBuddy, while useful, isn't always accurate. It relies on a mix of user-submitted data and reports from the stations themselves, which means that accuracy depends on users reporting what they've seen through the app and website.

Waze also works through a combination of users reporting on gas stations, and info from the gas stations themselves.

"With this data, just because 40 percent of stations being reported may not have fuel, that doesn't mean the other 60 percent do," DeHaan said. "And between 20 and 30 percent of stations we don't have any data on. This is people-driven, and for it to be reliable we really need the community to partner with us. If you use the app to find gas, use it to report who does and doesn't have it as well."

DeHaan said the app's developers are currently working to get more information directly from the gas stations, which should increase accuracy in the coming hours.

Waze also works through a combination of users reporting on gas stations, and info from the gas stations themselves. That app also updates with info on road closures,

Those searching for gas should also remember that stations that were previously out of gas, and may have been reported at that time, could have received another tanker shipment since then.

"We are seeing some stations flip flop back and forth between being out and having gas," DeHaan said. "Sometimes these tankers aren't doing a full re-supply at the station. They may be only dropping off a few thousand gallons at each, and making several stops. So just because a station recently got more gas, doesn't mean it will last long."

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