Hurricane Milton has caused widespread gasoline shortages across Florida after making landfall Wednesday evening and sweeping across the state. The damage worsened fuel outages that began before the storm arrived, as millions of people fled its path.

Nearly a quarter of the state's roughly 7,900 gas stations are empty, petroleum data firm GasBuddy reported Thursday. The Oil Price Information Service (OPIS), another company that tracks the sector, has found that half of the state's gas stations are out of fuel, Denton Cinquegrana, chief oil analyst at OPIS, told ABC News.

In Tampa Bay and St. Petersburg, nearly two-thirds of gas stations are out of fuel, according to GasBuddy.

Experts expect the gas shortage to last for days, impacting businesses and everyday people as Florida begins to recover from Hurricane Milton.

The delayed return of gasoline to the region is due to disruptions at Port Tampa Bay, which says it handles more than 43% of the state's petroleum imports. Widespread power outages will also affect gas supplies as gas stations rely on electricity to pump fuel from storage tanks and deliver it to vehicles, experts say.

“A situation like this cannot be resolved overnight,” Jon Davis, chief meteorologist at Everstream Analytics, told ABC News. “It will take many days for the situation to return to normal.”

Port Tampa Bay, which remains closed, appears to have averted serious damage from the storm, the port said in a statement Thursday morning. However, the port also noted that the area continues to struggle with road closures and flooding.

“Some damage to buildings has been noted, but so far there has been no significant damage to the docks,” the statement said. “We are working with gas station operators to assess their facilities and determine when they can return to service.”

Port Tampa Bay did not respond to an ABC News request for comment on the extent of damage caused by the storm.

While the port was spared from a disaster that could have hampered fuel supplies in the state for weeks, the ongoing disruption still poses significant challenges to gas delivery in the short term, Jason Miller, a professor of supply chain management at Michigan State University, told ABC News.

“It appears we have avoided a worst-case scenario,” Miller said.

Depending on the extent of the damage at the port, gas stations could rely on truck deliveries to transport fuel, Miller said. In that case, it would take time to build the necessary capacity to overcome the state's gas outages, he added.

“It’s not a solution that can be implemented tomorrow,” Miller said.

Experts noted that both the possible resumption of port operations and additional fuel from trucks would depend on the state's roads, some of which were damaged by the storm. Such infrastructure may require repairs before gasoline transportation companies can safely deliver fuel to gas stations.

“The road issue can be resolved in the next day or two,” Davis said.

Even if Port Tampa Bay comes back online and trucks pitch in to help rebuild, there is a significant additional problem that must first be addressed: power shortages. Gas stations need electricity to pump fuel from storage tanks into customers' vehicles, and more than 3.4 million customers in Florida are currently without power, according to tracking site poweroutage.us.

Port Tampa Bay said Thursday that it remains without the power it needs to operate oil terminals, which are a critical step in the supply chain.

More than 50,000 linemen have been pre-deployed across Florida to restore power, Gov. Ron DeSantis said Thursday.

“In a perfect world, power comes back quickly,” said Cinquegrana of OPIS. “I think by early next week we may see a few more stations out of service, but overall we will be getting closer to normality.”