(WSVN) - Trying to find fuel created a lot of stress on South Floridians after the historic flooding in Broward County, so how is Port Everglades trying to make sure we stay gassed up if something similar happens again? Karen Hensel takes us inside the port for tonight’s 7 Investigates.
Patience — like fuel — was in short supply last week.
Now, with gas stations mostly back to normal, the lines are gone, but the frustration still feels fresh.
Jonathan Daniels, director Port Everglades: “People needed to be certainly patient. We saw some patience lacking towards the end. We understand that. We are part of the consumers as well. There was frustration.”
But Daniels says there was never a shortage of gas.
Jonathan Daniels: “People need to understand that the fuel was here.”
Fuel brought in by big oil tankers like this one.
So what caused the delivery delays?
Jonathan Daniels: “Where the problem did occur was in the containment systems in and around the tanks.”
Moat-like structures, called berms, are built around the tanks as a safety precaution to contain fuel in case of a leak.
But after the relentless rain, you can see the areas around the tanks quickly filled up with water.
So the petroleum companies that own the tanks needed to be careful.
Jonathan Daniels: “The first thing that they have to do is evaluate to make sure that there’s been no contamination of the water. You can’t just pump that out into the environment without understanding whether it’s water or whether there’s any type of petroleum product in.”
After getting the water out, teams then assessed the damage to the pumping equipment, which moves fuel from the tanks to trucks.
Jonathan Daniels: “Some of those got wet. Some of those essentially just fried, literally fried down there. Some of the terminals really had no damage whatsoever.”
Daniels says newer systems, where the pumps are higher, fared better.
Jonathan Daniels: “It takes into consideration sea level rise and the long term impacts associated with climate change.”
Karen Hensel: “Is there any talks about getting everyone else to change and perhaps upgrade their system?”
Jonathan Daniels: “You know, that’s going to be up to the industry. Again, those are private terminal operators, private companies. We can’t come in and force them to do that.”
Broward County tells us the “… petroleum companies at Port Everglades are assessing what happened…” and trying to figure out “… what can be done to minimize fuel interruptions…”
Daniels says it will take public and private entities working together.
Jonathan Daniels: “If not, there will be failure and there are always lessons to be learned, and I think we’ll see those lessons that will come out and hopefully be able to implement those in the near future. I also want to make sure that we understand this was an unprecedented storm event. Very few of any areas are set to handle 26 inches of water in a seven-hour period.”
As we approach another hurricane season, the port director makes a distinction with what happened here two weeks ago. For one, there is preparation time when a tropical system comes ashore, and those rains are more likely to be spread out over a longer period of time.
Karen Hensel, 7News.
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