Thousands of Florida gas stations are out of fuel. Here's how long it might take to resupply.

Florida drivers waited in long lines and in some cases were stranded trying to evacuate their vehicles during Hurricane Milton.

As of Friday morning, about 29% of Florida's gas stations were sold out, according to GasBuddy gas analyst Patrick DeHaan. That means about 2,320 of the state's nearly 8,000 stations were out of fuel Friday morning.

“It might get a little worse before it starts getting better,” he said on social media site X.

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

Fuel supplies are coming, but experts still say motorists who don't need gas should wait to get to the station.

“If you don't need to go to the gas station, don't,” Andrew Lippo, president of Lippo Oil Associates, told CBS MoneyWatch. “You should not run to meet.”

How long will it take to fuel?

Most of Orlando's gas supply is delivered through the Port of Tampa, which has 10 operating terminals. Gas from major oil companies is then sent to Orlando through a pipeline. The port is still working to restore power to terminals so they can receive supplies, Lipo explained.

“You have to bring back workers, terminal operators and truck drivers, and the Coast Guard has to inspect the channel for debris and replace any navigational buoys. Everything is happening as we speak,” he said. In his estimation, gas delivery by tankers will not happen until Sunday at the earliest.

The rest of Florida's ports remain open, he noted.

“It's getting better. They'll get gas,” he said. “There's a lot of gas going to Florida, but the biggest obstacle to resupply right now is getting power back 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.

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