On Friday, there are massive lines of cars waiting to fill up with gas just before 8:00 local time.
We’re in the town of Estero, about 15 miles east of Fort Myers, in a sizable retail center with just one gas station.
Dozens of cars are approaching the gas station from each end – all barely moving. We’ve seen similar scenes at two other stations as we approach Fort Myers.
Sixty-year-old Dean Perfetti – who was waiting to fill up multiple jerry cans – told us he’d already been there over an hour.
Perfetti considers himself lucky: he only had “landscape” damage to his house.
Many of the stores in the complex are still without water. The shortages have prompted Publix – an enormous grocery store – to put yellow caution tape around its washrooms to ward off customers in need of a working toilet.
At a store next door, school textbook vendor Kamal said the storm was by far the worst he’s seen in 10 years living in the area.
“It was crazy,” he said. “Thankfully my house just has cosmetic damage. It could have been a lot worse.”