Love’s Travel Stops & Country Stores and the Pilot Company have temporarily closed convenience stores in Florida after Hurricane Ian swept throughout the region and left a path of destruction in its wake, according to emailed statements from both companies.
As of Friday morning, the Love’s locations in Ormond Beach and North Fort Myers are closed. In stores that remain open or have reopened, Love’s has paused a number of services because of the hurricane, including its roadside assistance, truck care centers and quick-service restaurants.
“We have team members in place ready to reopen locations as soon as it’s safe to do so,” said Caitlin Campbell-Jensen, external communications manager for Love’s.
Love’s is updating the public on its closures and service pauses during Hurricane Ian through its website.
Meanwhile, Pilot had closed seven locations as of Thursday evening: Fort Myers, Punta Gorda, Seffner, Haines City, Bartow, Ocala and St. Augustine. Earlier in the day, the company had closed 10 stores.
All other stores in Pilot’s Florida network are open and fueling as usual, the company said.
“We have activated our emergency response team to proactively prepare and support our operations for the impacts of Hurricane Ian,” Pilot said in an email. “We are mobilizing generators to impacted stores and our teams are prepared to restore service as quickly as safely possible to serve professional drivers, emergency crews and the community.”
Like Love’s, Pilot is also updating its community on the status of its closed stores via its website.
7-Eleven, Circle K and EG America also operate a large network of c-stores in Florida. They did not respond by press time to a request for details on whether or not they’re closing stores amid the hurricane.
Hurricane Ian — which first made landfall along the southwestern coast of Florida as a Category 4 hurricane Wednesday — has been downgraded from a Category 4 to a Category 1 hurricane, and at least 15 people have been reported dead from its impact.