REPLAY: DeSantis Holds Media Briefing in Bradenton

Afternoon, obviously we're here in Bradenton in front of the hospital and I'll talk a little bit more about that in a minute. But just in terms of Manatee County, I was just at Two Rivers Mobile Home Park. We walked the streets there, talked to some of the residents. They're actually working really hard to fix up their places, but giving them information on some of the things that are going to be done. I know the city's going to be working on some stuff. FEMA has approved us for individual assistance. We're also working on the transitional housing, which hopefully will be will be approved very soon. We have 100% power restored in Manatee County for accounts that can receive power. So if you don't have power, it may be because you had a lot of water damage, the underlying electrical infrastructure was damaged, and it may not be safe to receive power. In fact, they were in that mobile home park at Two Rivers, people would try to crank AC, smoke, this and that. So there's just going to be some issues with receiving power, but the availability of power in Manatee County is now 100%. We also will, by the end of today, have all state roads cleared and open. We did reopen the section in Sarasota on Gulf Drive there with with Longboat Key. That'll also extend all the way through here in Manatee with Anna Maria Island. Massive amounts of sand dumped on the shore, the roads, and the other places there in the Barrier Island. So they had to bulldoze four or five feet of sand off the roads and some of there. We also had structural damage in portions of the road. Our guys went in there and are fixing that very, very quickly, and we're happy for that to be the case. We have pods set up now, and we have 33 different pods. We're probably going to be retrenching some of those because fortunately we put pods in areas that didn't get hit as bad like Leon County and some of the others, but for the areas that are in need of that, we do have them in Manatee, we have them in Pinellas, we have them in other areas, other counties around this area. We'll keep doing that mission as long as it's needed, and we're happy to do that mission. Before I get to why we're here, because we had a very robust rescue mission as soon as the storm hit, you had Sheriff, Police here in Manatee, Sarasota, Pinellas, Hillsborough, Pasco, all the way through the Big Bend, and then our state assets, State Guard, National Guard, Fish and Wildlife, all the different highway patrol, everything that we have to bring to bear came in, and there were thousands of rescue missions that were successfully completed. That was great. A place like Taylor County, which was ground zero, 15 plus feet of storm surge, they had zero fatalities for a surge that was monumental. So hats off to everybody involved with that, but because there wasn't a demand for rescue operations pretty shortly after the storm, we quickly recognized that there was a demand for ongoing rescue operations in western North Carolina. So we launched Operation Blue Ridge, we have State Guard, we have National Guard, we have Fish and Wildlife, they are on the ground, we have a way for people to sign up, just like we did when we rescued people out of Israel, just like we did when we rescued people out of Haiti, you can sign up and we potentially can bring a Chinook helicopter, or a smaller bird, to come lift you out. I don't think you're going to be able to get very many people out on cars right now. A lot of the roads have been destroyed in that part of the state of North Carolina, so it's a really serious issue. There's a lot of people that still need to be rescued. You know, some people may want to hunker down and just want some supplies, but you're going to have to airlift in the supplies too. So that mission is ongoing, we're happy to be able to do, to be able to assist. I know a lot of Floridians have already signed up, I think a lot of people in Florida know, but if you don't, in the summertime, western North Carolina is like Florida North. I mean, you can't, you throw a dart anywhere, you're going to run into a Floridian, and a lot of them come home probably by the beginning of September, but as we're out here, this is scorching hot still, when you're up in those mountains, it's a lot cooler, and sometimes people stay. So I know there's some Floridians that have stayed, so we're conscious of that, and we want to be helpful for them, to be able to bring them to safety, and it's just going to be like we did in Israel. We had Floridians sign up, we had the planes. If people from New Jersey, or wherever, wanted to get on the plane to leave Israel during the Hamas-Israel war, of course we're going to rescue them. So same thing that'll happen with North Carolina. We have some Floridians sign up, you go, if there's other residents, if there are North Carolinians, whoever, of course we're going to let you get on the helicopter and bring you to safety. So our folks are working there, we do got guys on the ground in that part of the state already helping. You know, when you land a helicopter, you got to have an LZ, you got to have a place to land it. The Chinooks are big, they can fit probably 40 packs to bring them to safety, but you got to have a place to land. So we're working through all that, and very much want to be involved in that mission. And again, these are rescue assets that are not being used in Florida, partially because we had such a robust response immediately after the storm. Now we're here in Manatee at the hospital, partially to highlight that, you know, there are things we can do to help mitigate the effects of a major storm and weather event. And so we were saying days before the storm, we had all these flood protection devices, they call them tiger dams, that we wanted to deploy at the request of local communities. And so Manatee reached out to us about bringing some stuff here in areas that had been prone to flood. Look, there's nice water right there. I mean, it's a beautiful, beautiful view, but when you have surge, you're going to end up getting it here. So I think they requested it, and three hours later it was here, and actually they had to figure out exactly where they wanted it, and so they were able to put it up. But the result is, and you can see how they were stacking this, the result is where those tiger dams were placed around this hospital, there was not any water damage. So this worked. We also did it at one of the fire stations in Tampa, and it worked there with no water damage. And so I think this is something that not only can be applied to critical infrastructure and things like hospitals and first responders, but it could be used in residential communities. I mean, if you had these, if you had the tiger dams in some of these areas that were low-lying, like we were in Pasco right on the water, you know, the water went up three, four feet. You have the tiger dam and you don't get any intrusion into your home, or very minimal, that is a huge, huge difference. So I appreciate the folks that helped make this happen. It has been effective. Anywhere it was done was basically effective. We know, look, we don't know if we're going to get any more storms this season. There's some stuff brewing right now. There's nothing to we thought maybe it would form. It hasn't formed. It kind of got pushed back, I guess, 24 hours to where maybe it doesn't impact Florida at all. Maybe it doesn't form at all, but maybe it does. So we'll be ready for that. But we do want to make sure people know that we have an ability to mitigate some of the effects of these things. And look, this was a big surge. It came, it just was bubbling up right as high tide was. So there's a lot of factors involved to make this really significant. But the fact that you could do that here and have no real water damage where those devices were deployed, that's a big, big deal. So we are going to continue to, with our relief efforts, we do have stabilization. Thankfully, there's not a need for ongoing rescues. Our rescues are basically focused on the Floridians that sign up in Western North Carolina. But we're also watching the weather. And if we have to do preparations for another storm, we hope not. We hope not. People are saying prayers, pray that we don't have to do that. But if we have to, we'll be ready to get that job done. Okay, Kevin Guthrie, do you want to come up? I'll just talk briefly, Governor, about, you know, just again about the Tiger Dams. At the Governor's point, we have over seven miles of this sitting on the shelves in our central warehouse inside of Orlando. Again, I want to appreciate, I want to thank Manatee Hospital for taking us up on the offer. And I know Secretary Weida helped out with that. I believe this is actually your second time deploying it here. You were the very first piece of critical infrastructure that ever deployed it. And again, we had to save then, we got to save now. So I really, really appreciate that. The forward-leaning efforts of Manatee County Emergency Management, Public Safety, and the hospital. The fire rescue station in the Hillsborough area, fire station number 29, that was a save. Again, I know you guys are going to want to know what fire station it was. You can go look at it. But it's fire station number 29 in the Hillsborough County area. I want to just take just a couple of minutes. If you've been a victim of this, you're a disaster survivor, you've had some type of a flood inundation, you've had some costs that you've had to pay out, you can go ahead. Individual assistance is turned on in Manatee County, also Sarasota. Just about everything in the Tampa Bay media market is turned on with the exception of Polk County. But you guys can go and apply at disasterassistance.gov at the FEMA website. You can also go to the FEMA app and call in on their 1-800 number. The second thing is, if you're in need of a temporary travel trailer to put on your property while you need some help with home repairs, Hope Florida. Go to the Hope Florida website, fill out the information there, and then that'll route over to the Florida Division of Emergency Management. We have over 1,700 travel trailers ready to go in the state right now and ready to do more if we should need to do that. So again, Governor, thank you for your leadership. Thank you for everything you're doing to help Floridians. You want to give an update? Okay. Well, we appreciate everyone's hard work. You know, there's a lot more that's going to be done. I know I talked to the mayor here. They're going to be meeting tomorrow about doing some stuff to maybe help some of the folks that had storm damage. Of course, we do have individual assistance with FEMA. We do think we're going to get the transitional housing approved. So if you have damage to your home and you have to muck and gut it, you can stay in a hotel and get reimbursed from that. That's a live option in a place like the Tampa Bay area because you got a lot of hotels. It may not be as good of an option for people in Taylor County, which is more rural, and they just don't have a lot of hotel capacity there. That's why you have the travel trailer option where you can put that on your property. So we're really sensitive about the folks that are in this period of displacement, either because they have to rehab their home or potentially completely rebuild it. And so we're going to use the tools at our disposal to be able to provide relief for folks. Okay, with that, any questions? You gave a story last night about heritage insurance and you talked about offering payouts way below what it takes to repair the home. I did not. I have a history with 60 Minutes. I think, as you know, they did a smear piece on me that was debunked. It was really embarrassing for them. So I am very, very much not a fan of them and don't feel incredible. However, I will say this. If you're talking about the adjusters that do the report, we now have protections in Florida law that you can't just disregard what the adjuster does. You actually have to have a clear, valid reason to be able to depart downward. That may not have been in place when Ian happened, but I know that particular company has faced fines in excess of seven figures from the state of Florida. And look, if they're identifying potential criminal activity, we have a Department of Justice in this country and they focus a lot on their political enemies. Why not hold the wrongdoer accountable? So if that's the case, then they should do it. But we have, working with the legislature, provided, I think, the consumer protections that would address that particular issue of not following through on what the adjuster's claim is. Well, that's not, you know, mother nature. But what I would say is, look back on this storm, look at the preparations, look at the response from the people. The fact that you could have storm surge of this magnitude and have, in Taylor County, no fatalities. If you tell somebody there's 15 feet or more, you assume fatalities. So they worked hard. People in this region worked hard. I think a lot of the citizens were very responsive. So there was a lot of things that were done right. Here's a good lesson, though. Take steps to mitigate. Kevin and I were very much out front on this saying, take it, take it. We did have some people take us up on the ability. But if you have things like hospitals, if you have things like police, fire, electrical substations, all those things, that's something that you can protect. And honestly, that probably is something that could work for residential homes as well. You know, we may look to see, is there something we can do to provide some incentives for that? Because my sense would be, if you do do something like that, you are probably not going to file a flood insurance claim if you don't have water damage in your house. And that would be good for the, it's not a state program, it's a national program. But maybe there should be in some incentives for people to be able to do it. Now, that won't happen for this hurricane season, but maybe for next one. So I would just tell people, keep an eye on the weather. Keep an eye on what's going on. I think there's some stuff off the coast of Africa as well. Who knows? We have a hurricane that just went out. It's a fish storm. It's out in there now. And we think some of these others may turn up. In the Caribbean, similar things to what we just faced. Potentially, potentially not. Too soon to tell. But just know that it is a possibility. We know it's a possibility. And if it comes to the point where we have to mobilize, we will mobilize. That's just what we do. It's not really a process. I think if you have a, you know, if a fire station just calls Kevin or calls Florida DEM and says, hey, we want one, we'll work to get it. I mean, you guys got it, I think, in three hours from the request till it brought here on the front doorstep. It was three hours. I mean, that's pretty remarkable that that was begun. So yes, there's not a formal process. If you have critical infrastructure, we want to do it. We are also, and I don't know if we'll be able to do it for this hurricane season. I do think at a minimum, we are talking about piloting something in maybe a low-lying residential area and seeing that how that would work around some of those homes. Because, you know, we were just in Pasco County. I can tell you if they had that, I don't think they would have had water damage in those homes. You know, that's, I don't know how much it would cost to outfit a house or put that in. Maybe it's cost prohibitive, although I kind of think it would be cost effective because you'd avoid so much more damage. So these are things I think we're going to be thinking about. And if there's ways we can do, you know, we do My Safe Florida Home. You make the hardening. You get a rebate, you know, on the insurance. And that's fine. But this would be something where it would potentially preempt you from even having to file a claim to preempt the damage entirely. And that's, I think, would be a good thing for everybody. So we'll, I think this is, this shows a lot of promise. I think you're going to see a lot of use of this in the future. Not completely because if you look, the tide was rising as the storm was passing, and it was not a good set of circumstances. So, you know, and it was a big storm. It wasn't as powerful as Michael or Ian or Andrew or some of the ones we've had in the past, but it was powerful and it was big. And I think that's the difference. Some of these storms are very small. Hurricane Michael was very small. Where it hit was devastating, but it didn't have the reach to be able to do. This storm, the wind stretched out hundreds of miles and that churns up stuff here. Tampa Bay is very low lying. Anytime you do hurricane scenarios, you look at Tampa Bay and the surge as being potentially our worst case scenario just because of how vulnerable it is. There's so many areas that are vulnerable to storm surge here. Okay, thanks so much. We'll have more tomorrow. All right. Oh, thank you.