In the wake of what must be viewed as an effective response to Hurricane Ian, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis graciously shared the stage during a press conference today in Florida…with Biden, who is probably desperate to be success adjacent.
President Biden said he was in “complete lock step” with Gov. Ron DeSantis during a visit to southwest Florida that amounted to a moment of détente between political rivals to pledge federal resources for those seeking to rebuild from the devastation wrought by Hurricane Ian.After surveilling by helicopter the destruction that is expected to total billions of dollars, Mr. Biden and his wife, Jill, joined Mr. DeSantis and his wife, Casey, to speak to residents and emergency workers in Fisherman’s Wharf. The president and Mr. DeSantis, a potential presidential candidate for the Republican Party, then stood side-by-side as they committed to working together to support families who had homes damaged or washed away by the hurricane.
During the presser, Biden claimed that the storm “finally ended the debate about climate change.” The statement directly contradicted his acting director of the National Hurricane Center.
…[E]xperts, including the Biden administration’s top hurricane expert, have since pushed back against such claims, saying there wasn’t enough evidence to tie the storm to climate change.”We can come back and talk about climate change at a later time. I want to focus on the here and now. We think the rapid intensification is probably almost done,” Jamie Rhome, the acting director of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) National Hurricane Center, told CNN in an interview on Sept. 27.
The elite media and progressive media minions wanted to give Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis the “Hurricane Katrina Treatment” to damage his national-level political aspirations as they did to former President George W. Bush.
Instead, DeSantis is giving a Master Class on how to deal with natural disasters in his Hurricane Ian response.
To begin with, over 2 million homes have already had power restored, as the response teams were organized ahead of the storm. Full power should be restored by this weekend, despite the level of destruction.
Water and electricity could be restored by Sunday to all the homes, businesses, schools and hospitals in Southwest Florida that are structurally sound after the devastation of Hurricane Ian, authorities said Monday.“We’ve laid out a very good plan,” Florida Emergency Management Director Kevin Guthrie said.About 520,000 homes and businesses remained in the dark Monday evening, five days after the storm tore through the state’s Gulf Coast.
Because of Florida’s wise policy limiting taxes and promoting businesses, Florida has the funds to do repairs and construct temporary bridges to Pine Island and Sanibel Islands.
He vowed to use state resources to subsidize the cost of out-of-state utility crews to help rebuild the broken energy grid and restore power to customers whose homes can receive it. He said the state has hired an engineering firm to work on repairing the broken water main in Lee County.And he announced that in addition to a temporary slow-speed bridge to restore vehicle traffic to the battered community of Pine Island, the state will also build a temporary bridge to reach Sanibel Island, where a section of the causeway was washed away.“Part of the reason we’re able to do this is, yes, we have the record budget surplus, but since I’ve been governor, I worked with the Legislature to establish a Disaster Response Fund for the state of Florida — so we have $500 million budgeted for disasters,’‘ DeSantis said.
The funds will also be directed to out-of-state utility crews, who will help rebuild the state’s power grid.
He acknowledged that the “more difficult restoration” will be to rebuild the electric grid to the barrier islands and coastal communities whose electricity infrastructure was wiped out to an unknown number of homeowners and businesses.The Florida Electric Cooperatives Association has agreed to work with the Lee County Electric Utility to rebuild the infrastructure that has been damaged, he said. And DeSantis announced that the state will provide any extra subsidy needed to reimburse utility crews outside of the state to work as long as needed to repair the grid.“I want Lee County to be the lineman capital of the world for the next, however many, days,’’ he said. “… Florida has the largest budget surplus in the history of the state by far. I can pick up the cost share, I just want the power back on so we’ll pay for it. That’s fine.”
It’s been a week since Hurricane Ian hit Florida. The death toll now stands at 106 (102 in Florida and another 4 in North Carolina), which is a far cry from Katrina’s numbers (1833). Between DeSatntis’ robust response and success, little wonder news of Ian has rapidly disappeared from the media radar.
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