Marco Rubio Blasts Florida Gas Shortage as Drivers Panic: 'This is Crazy'

Florida Senator Marco Rubio released a video voicing his frustration at the state's ongoing gas shortage, insisting more needs to be done and as soon as possible.

The clip, posted on his Twitter page on Wednesday evening, has so far been viewed more than 930,000 times.

Southern Florida has been affected by gas shortages after last week's extreme weather—including flooding—disrupted the regular distribution and delivery of the precious liquid.

Heavy rain in eastern Broward County last week caused floods in Port Everglades roads, preventing truck drivers from making fuel deliveries.

Since the disruption, drivers have complained that when they are at gas stations they may end up waiting in queues for hours to get any fuel.

Rubio captioned his clip: "FOUR DAYS and they still can't figure out how to get enough gasoline to South Florida."

In the video he said: "What is happening right now in Miami and Fort Lauderdale with gasoline is crazy.

"You can't find gasoline anywhere, this has been going on since Sunday and they are blaming it on floods that impacted the port and I know that was a factor but it has been four days.

"This should have been figured out by now."

Rubio went on to defend drivers who were wary of the situation and concerned this gas shortage could impact their ability to get to work.

He continued: "They are blaming it on consumer panic. Yeah, people are panicked because they have got to get to work.

"They have got places to go and you either can't find gas or you have to wait in line for like two hours down the street.

"This is where you are probably going to run out of gas while you are waiting.

"So yeah people are panicked, of course they are filling up, saying 'don't fill up,' of course you are going to fill up.

"This is because you don't know the next time you are going to have to wait in a 2 hour line. They keep saying it is going to get better but it is not. They have got to get this thing fixed, this is crazy."

Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, a travel and navigation app, previously told Newsweek that part of the reason for the shortage is panic buying.

He said: "Most of this is being brought on by panicked buy now.

"The system even in normal times keeps up with this. Now, the problem is pumps at Port Everglades are damaged, so trucks are having to pull product from hours away, reducing how quickly stations are getting supply, driving the issues."

De Haan also took to Twitter to address Rubio's video.

He tweeted: "Glad there's no denial here that there's a *lot* of stations without gasoline in SE FL. yes, pumps should have been put back in order by now and facilities brought back. but unfortunately that hasn't happened yet. we have data and insights, but no one in Florida has asked for it."

De Haan told Newsweek: "There has been no information that I can obtain on why all pumps have not been fixed at Port Everglades just yet (some have), but much of the problem is not that, but how people responded in a panic."

Kiara Kearney, press secretary for Marco Rubio, spoke to Newsweek and said: "Unfortunately, [Rubio] won't be able to accommodate Newsweek's request [for comment] due to the senator's schedule."

Update 4/21/23, 2:25 a.m. ET: This article was updated with comment from Patrick De Haan and a response from Marco Rubio's press secretary.