LIVE: DeSantis Speaks in Steinhatchee About Idalia Response

Cedar Key this morning and then we just got back from Horseshoe Beach and now here in Steen Hatchy, surveying the damage, talking to some of the local folks about what they need to be able to get back on their feet. I'm seeing a lot of damage and I'm also seeing a lot of resiliency. It's tough when you go in, we were just in Horseshoe Beach. You have an old First Baptist Church there and I had four and a half feet of water, so the place is basically ruined. People losing homes, losing businesses, really, a lot of work that needs to be done. So we're, State of Florida is gonna be there to help out, get people back on their feet. We have been doing a lot with respect to the initial response. Fortunately, we have not had the same type of loss of life that we've had with something like a Hurricane Ian. There is one, so far there's been one confirmed fatality and that was a traffic fatality in Alachua County. So in terms of this big storm surge that we've seen and you see the remnants of it here with the waterline. We have not yet had a confirmed fatality as a result of that. I think part of that is because people really made good decisions, protected themselves. Also, this forecast turned out to be accurate. It had been eyeing the Big Bend many days ago and that's what ended up happening. So I think people particularly in this area who were in the way of a potential significant storm surge, they did take the proper precautions. We're also working hard to assist with power restoration. As of today, as of most recent numbers, 135,000 outages remain across the state. There have been 430,000 restorations since the storm first arrived in Florida yesterday. So it's been a lot of great work with these linemen and the companies really putting an effort on rapid power restoration. As you'd expect, most of the outstanding power outages are in these Big Bend counties, mostly the rural counties. So you've got a lot of rural electrical co-ops. You do have Duke Energy is involved in some of these counties. I think everyone's working together. All those linemen are still here to be able to provide mutual aid so that we can get the lights on as quickly as possible. We are going to be requesting, because we understand particularly in this area, fishing is very important. We are gonna request from the US Secretary of Commerce, a federal fisheries disaster to be able to help our fisheries rebuild. This is an important part of the economy here. This has obviously been interrupted and it is going to be a blow to a lot of folks who are involved in that industry. We did not get that after Hurricane Ian, but we think it's clearly warranted in this situation. We're continuing to make sure that the roads are clear. FDOT's done a great job with that. I mean, the fact that Cedar Key Bridge was cleared within 12 hours of the landfall shows that they were on the ball with all that. So we're appreciative of all those efforts, as well as all the first responders that have been doing a lot of important stuff. We've mentioned the schools. You're gonna have, most of the schools are gonna be open by tomorrow. Clearly, the big bend area, they gotta get the power on, they gotta get other stuff. So I know they're working with Secretary Diaz to figure out when they can do that. We all want that to be done as soon as possible. We are going to be helping people with this Florida disaster fund, and I'm gonna have the First Lady say a few words about that. But these are situations where some of these communities are relatively small. There's gonna be discrete needs. And having something like the Florida Disaster Fund gives us the ability to be able to meet needs that a government bureaucracy may not be able to meet. And there are certain things that federal government can do. There's certain things they won't do. There's certain things state may be able to do. There's certain things state has not been authorized to do. So having this is very important. And that's floridadasasterfund.org if you wanna help. I know there have been millions of dollars raised already. A lot of these folks are gonna need some help, particularly in these next weeks and months. And we wanna be there to be able to do that. So I'm gonna let the First Lady come up and say a few words about that. Being an honor to be able to work private sector, to be able to free up these resources, to help folks in need. And there were some tears earlier from folks who have lost everything. They had the water come into their home. They're not sure where to turn. And so that's where the Florida Disaster Fund comes in. One of the things we are working at and working with, we're very appreciative of, is the FEMA director working with Kevin Guthrie to be able to work with the IRS to get a special tax status. So that way we can get the funds directly to individuals. We raised $63 million with Hurricane Ian. We were able to deploy all of those resources and utilize those to work with non-profits on the ground. But what we're working on this time is to be able to use the Department of Emergency Management to be able to get those funds into an entity to go right directly to the individuals and the homeowners. And that will be a game changer to cut through the red tape. So floridadasasterfund.org, anything you can do to help out good folks in need, we greatly appreciate it. God bless. Okay, Ian. Thank you, Governor, and good afternoon, everybody. As the governor said, I had an opportunity to join him in three different stops today to assess the damage. And what I saw from the land is a significant amount of flooding damage. But we're also doing our damage assessments from the air by using the Civil Air Patrol as well as space and using a satellite imagery to compare the before and after so we can get a true impact of the overall damage to the area. And so we'll use all of that information to help determine what additional programs potentially need to be added. As the president this morning contacted the governor, he did approve and sign the major presidential disaster declaration that includes individual assistance for several counties. You can find those counties at disasterassistance.gov. And then if you are in one of those counties, I encourage you now to register for assistance with FEMA. First contact your insurance company, but then register for assistance. You can go to disasterassistance.gov. You can do it from a FEMA app. And you can begin that process where we can help you jumpstart your recovery efforts and get some funding flowing to help you with those immediate needs that you're having right now. And then work with the state, the governor and his team to help identify what the longer term solutions might need to be. Thank you. Great, Kevin Guthrie. Thank you, Governor. Thank you again for your leadership. So as we started to focus on recovery, I look around here, we look at the last two stops that we're at. There's a lot of good people doing a lot of good things, neighbors helping neighbors, etc. The one thing that I would just remind homeowners and business owners to do, take pictures before you start the cleanup, all right? Please take those pictures. We need that photographic documentation as we move forward, going forward. High water marks, you wanna take pictures of those high water marks outside the home and inside the home. Typically, there is a discrepancy between the two, the internal usually happens to be a little bit lower than the external. So please make sure you take pictures of those high water marks, external to your home, internal to your home. When you take your debris to the roadside, please separate it. There's basically four or five different categories. What we want you to do on that debris is we want you to put the vegetation in one section. We want you to put all your household furniture and goods in another section, appliances in a separate section, and then household hazardous waste. This is insecticides, bleach, ammonia, that type of stuff, perhaps even gasoline, put that in a separate section as well. So make sure you have distinct piles, separate them, it makes it a lot easier, and the debris removal process goes much, much quicker. The third thing that I wanna talk about is mitigation. We have seen the Florida Building Code all throughout this area works. It definitely works. Homes that are elevated, homes that have the metal roofs on them, did not lose their roofs, we did not have inundation into the homes that were elevated. Mitigation works. It will not be immediate, but in the coming months and years, there will be mitigation money available to raise homes, to elevate homes. I encourage, as I look at this direction, all these homeowners, if you have not elevated your home and you're interested in elevating your home, please get with your Taylor County Emergency Management Agencies to make sure you learn about the mitigation elevation program from FEMA. It is one of the best programs that we have in our toolkit. And again, I appreciate the administrator. I tell her every time I see her, I'm gonna try to make the mitigation fund bankrupt of FEMA trying to get all that money coming to Florida. So we're certainly gonna continue to do that here. So please be safe as you operate. That's the last thing I say. I said I have three things, I got one more thing. Be safe as you clean up. Make sure you're wearing goggles, make sure you're wearing hard hats. Don't stand on the top rung of a ladder reaching way out to the side to try to cut something one-handed with a chainsaw. We have more and more deaths that are happening after landfall that are completely preventable. Bring the ladder down, set it back up, get closer, use the hard hat, use gloves, use long pants. Don't be out there in shorts and flip flops cutting stuff down. Make sure you're looking for electrical lines. Make sure you keep those generators 20 feet from your house. You will start to see more and more state resources come into the area. You'll see folks like volunteer organizations, Team Rubicon, Southern Baptist Disaster Relief, a host of individuals coming in from Volunteer Florida. They will help you guys on your path to recovery. Again, Governor, First Lady, thank you for your leadership. I appreciate all you do for the division. Okay, so we're gonna continue to be working with these communities, particularly the ones that were the hardest hit. I wanna thank everybody that's pitched in. I mean, I've got guys from Miami, the Servant Search and Rescue teams are out there helping. We've got other parts of the state. We've got Sheriff Ivy from Brevard. We were just with Grady Judd from Polk County. So you've had a lot of people come in to be able to help folks at a difficult time. So thank you and we look forward to continue to work with everybody to get everyone back on their feet. Okay, any questions? Well, I've seen a lot of really heartbreaking damage. I think when people lose a church, when they lose their home, when they lose a business, you know, you could see, I mean, this was really the day after the impact. A lot of these folks in like Horseshoe Beach, they came this morning to see. And so it was all very raw when you have your whole life's work into say like a business, it ends up under five feet of water. I mean, that's a lot of work that you've got to do going forward. So I think that it was something that was really difficult for a lot of people for me to see, for Casey to see, but we're gonna come back and we're gonna get everybody back and that's gonna happen. So I know it's not easy now. I know it's gonna be a lot of work, but we will get everyone back on their feet. So after every storm, there are mitigation grants and funds available. We anticipate that that will happen this year as well for this storm. And people can use that to do some of those things. We also have been funding the My Safe Florida Home program that has allowed people to get grants to do hardening for them, particularly to be able to get lower insurance rates as a result of that. But the mitigation funds that are used, this stuff does work. I think if you look at what happened with Hurricane Ian, they had had Charlie in 2004. It was not as big as Ian, but it was a really mean category for a smaller storm. But it tore up a lot of stuff. The stuff that was built in a way to withstand that going forward did much better during Ian. And you've seen it in after Hurricane Michael. Some of that newer construction built to code did very well. Now, it's hard to deal with the storm surge, so that's why they say elevate the home. But in terms of the wind and stuff, they held up remarkably well. You look at Horseshoe Beach, most of these homes are very elevated. And so, yeah, there was a lot of damage, but there was also homes that weathered it because of how they were built. And so they got massive storm surge, but it all went underneath the living area. And so their homes are gonna be fine. There may be minor things they have to do, but they did not lose their home as a result of that type of mitigation. It'll be done on a district by district basis. The Department of Education is obviously gonna work with these areas that got hit hard. We understand that, and we're gonna do work together. We wanna get the kids back as soon as possible. We understand that's a lot easier in some parts of the state right now than it may be in some place like Taylor County. So we'll be working with them to get the job done. All right, thanks, everybody. Appreciate it.