AAA Roadside Calls Rise As Florida Evacuees Return

PINECREST, FL — As thousands of Floridians head back to the Sunshine State now that Hurricane Irma has spun its fury, AAA is seeing an increase in the number of roadside assistance calls. The organization's Josh Carrasco told Patch that AAA received 13 percent more calls on Tuesday than on the same date last year. He offered a number of tips to help motorists avoid problems along the way home.

"If you're traveling down I-75 to get back home, be sure to pack your patience," he said, noting that the 70 mile per hour speed limit has been cut in half at times this week because of congestion.

"When you stop for a break or when you stop to use the restroom, I would just recommend looking for a gas station to fill up your tank every time you get the opportunity," he explained. "If you are caught in those slower traffic patterns, you are able to continue on and don't have to worry about running out of gas or anything like that."

Watch: Hurricane Irma's Destructive Journey By The Numbers

Carrasco said that many evacuees will be taking the Florida Turnpike, I-95, I-75 or all three of those major highways. (For more hurricane news or local news from Florida, click here to sign up for real-time news alerts and newsletters from Pinecrest Patch, and click here to find your local Florida Patch. If you have an iPhone, click here to get the free Patch iPhone app.)

He also found that people don't instinctively know what to do when they encounter a traffic light outage.

"If you see a traffic light that's out, that is a four-way stop," he said. "Make sure that when you see those out traffic lights, that you're stopping, looking for other cars and then simply making your way through that intersection."

While motorists aren't required to stop at a blinking amber light, they need to approach with caution.

"Realize there is cross traffic. Use caution when going through those lights," he said. "That means slow down. Don't barrel through at the speed limit, or above the speed limit. Make sure you slow down, look for other traffic and be courteous of other drivers."

He said that people will understandably be in a hurry to get back to their homes, but they should not put their safety at risk.

"One of the dangerous things in all this is driving through standing water," he said. "Not only are you at risk for damaging your vehicle by getting water in the engine, but also you have to think about things like there could be down power lines or all sorts of hazards just waiting under the water."

The Florida state average for gasoline is $2.72 per gallon, according to Carrasco.

"As we see more refineries come on line in the Gulf Coast from Hurricane Harvey, and once we get past the next week or so with getting gasoline out to the gas stations that need to be resupplied, in the next month or so, we should start to see those gas prices start to tick down again."

He suggested that returning evacuees pay attention to the local news on their trip back so they can stay informed on warnings and possible road closures.

While state officials have recommended the GasBuddy app for finding gas stations that have fuel, he cautioned that not all of the information is up to date.

"We were noticing that even through a lot of people were using it, that's a crowd-sourced app so that information is not the most up to date," he explained. "I was having my passenger, as we were driving, calling up some of these gas stations and just saying 'hey do you have gas?'"

Some gas stations reported having gas when the app said that they did not and vice a versa.

"That's something to think about when you are going to be planning your route," he said. "Where are we going to be stopping? How many miles can my car make it before I need to fill up."

AAA has also been monitoring fuel shipments at three major Florida ports, — Port of Tampa, Port Everglades and Port Canaveral — which account for a significant amount of gasoline in the state.

"The great thing is they are all getting in new shipments in of gasoline, and since the storm was lifted,, gasoline has been leaving the ports in tanker trucks," he said. "We would hope that as we see more shipments coming in, and more gas trucks leaving the ports, that we should see the amount of gas stations without gas start to go down, hopefully in the next few days here."

Traffic camera image along I-95 at US-17/Georgia Highway 25 courtesy Florida 511 taken Thursday.