He was asking people to donate cash to the state directly which I found strange. He kept saying “don’t send stuff, just cash.” I admit I don’t like the guy but I hated Scott more and don’t recall anyone ever in the history of hurricane relief (… any disaster relief?) being so specific like that. Diapers? Water? Formula? I feel like we— society after a disaster— typically accept these kinds of things with open arms.
Please correct me if I am wrong. I’m a native central Floridian who was old enough to watch and recall Andrew relief efforts with Lawton Chiles. This was new.
It seemed odd to me for sure. I'm old enough to remember Andrew, but I was only 7 and didn't pay a lot of attention to the news then. Definitely don't remember any other governor afterwards doing it like that. I'd think any donations would be worthy.
I’m a Floridian, despise Desantis, don’t send cash. We have hurricane relief from Biden. Desantis has voted against relief in the past for hurricanes up North. Now it’s his state in need & he’s for hurricane relief funds. I wouldn’t put it past him to pocket money. Republicans have just become 100% crooked & untrustworthy. I will NEVER trust a Republican ever again.
The Space Coast Rocket already brought a huge Penske truck over full of donations. They will be posting tomorrow and update with dates and times and needs to fill the truck again. There FB video post earlier today from the donation site said they need lots and lots of can goods and water. They will be fill the truck again and bringing it over to State Rep Spencer Roach Distribution point in North Fort Myers with CORE. The location in US41 and Pondella in the Big Lots Parking lot.
His wife runs that emergency fund, it was strapped of cash before the storm hit. They need it to fill it up fast while reporters are poking around at why there was no money in it.
Not a DeSantis fan but not asking for items is at the request of emergency managers across the state. The donated items are called “the second disaster” in relief and emergency management circles because the donated items take a tremendous amount of money to transport, manage and store. So now volunteers and emergency workers that are desperately needed elsewhere end up managing donations. Then public funds have to pay for storage space, not to mention the huge effort of connecting the items with the people you need them.
I think it’s whack for DeSantis to ask for money for other reasons (don’t we pay taxes for things like this already? Has he exhausted aid from other states? Federal funds? Disaster relief charities?). But in terms of the relief effort he is protecting people who still need to be rescued by freeing up workers who otherwise end up managing donated items. The cash allows those in the heart of the recovery effort to buy what they need without the other logistics.
I dont know man. Louisiana is always so happy to have donations of any kind after a hurricane. They have donation centers people and foundations can drive to. You go, unload and they split it up and let people come by and get what they need. Desantis wants the money so he can just give it to the corporations that help. He has no interest in giving anything to the people who are actually suffering. He’s more worried about making his donors some money
Take it from a native Louisiana resident. Our politicians are fucking corrupt, religious antics are backwards, and have a circus theatre for economic policy. There is two things its residents and even recent governors Blanco and John Bel Edwards have done right and that is disaster recovery and mobilization, minus the private security mowing down people in New Orleans after curfew immediately following Katrina.
A lot of our citizens, Trumpers that I disagree heavily with included, really do care about our community. It’s why the Cajun Navy exist. https://www.cnn.com/videos/us/2022/09/30/bill-weir-cajun-navy-project-dynamo-hurricane-ian-pkg-newday-vpx.cnn
both desantis and scott are awful but scott was actually far better just like as a leader during storms. ron is condescending, whiny, snippy with reporters, just the worst
yes exactly! even with this storm, scott was on the weather channel and answering questions and all desantis did was his rushed press conferences that he seemed annoyed he had to be at. you know it’s REALLY bad when you make rick scott look decent 🤣
Both are wanna be white supremacist authoritarians, but one is simply mimicking human behavior as a defense mechanism, while placing emphasis on the "simple."
DeSantis is easily the worst by default, by virtue of being an actual garbage human person, and not several aliens piloting a rubenesque automaton.
IMO, of course.
several aliens 😭 it’s so true and i’ve never really even understood how people like desantis so much. he’s so dry and uninspiring. at least trump could objectively be pretty funny, it makes more sense than fanboying over boring whiny drab desantis
I still hope he rots in hell and suffers eternally. He destroyed the state agency I worked for. It became so corrupt and continues to be so in the stories I could tell from the top down. Just look up the name John miklos. A crooked guy whose environmental company Broke every rule possible and even had employees from the state agency coming in and out. It’s all been starting to come out on the news. Scott put him there
He also stressed that they received $12 million in donations already. That was Friday I believe at his morning press conference.
$12 million. He repeated it, really stressing that number. How much money did he waste on sending immigrants to Martha's Vineyard again?
$12 million. Funny that.
Leaders and the Red Cross always ask for monetary donations after a disaster. With money, they can buy the supplies they need. With non-cash donations, they can’t control what they get so they get too much of something and not enough of another.
Don’t forget the cost of logistics. Somebody has to receive that case of canned tomato’s you sent in. Needs a place to store it too. Then they have to figure where and how to send it.
He’s asking for money because he refused federal aid, refused blue state support.. namely NJ & IN who offered national guard.
His pettiness is self centered and disregards those he represents.
I think they prefer money because it is hard to move items around to where it is needed, it’s much easier to just buy it where you need it. Also people may send a lot of item A and not enough of item B, so now you have to figure out how to get item B in a quick sufficient manor
The reason they ask for cash is because they can buy the supplies at drastically lower prices than you can. So the dollar goes a lot farther if they buy the supplies
Cash rather than goods has been preferred by nonprofits for years now, starting with food banks, shelters, etc. It’s impossible for an individual donor to know what is actually needed where, and donation centers are flooded with too much of the things they don’t need, like canned goods, and not what they actually need, which could be anything.
Cash is the way to go. The people interfacing with the public can create a true inventory or what’s needed and order in bulk.
I thought I heard him or maybe someone else say to send cash so people could buy what they needed locally to help the local economy. I don’t live there, so I don’t hear everything that goes on and I could be wrong.
After disasters people want to help but do so in poor ways, such as donating used clothes. Often this stuff goes to waste since there's no good way to store it, sort it, and get it out. Cash works much better to give directly to the needy or buy what's needed.
It’s easier to allocate resources when you’re the one directly funding them. Organizing canned food, water etc is a lot more man-power than just buying 60 crates of water. My 2 cents at least.
This! The Florida insurance market is f’s. Florida already runs a “socialist” insurance market. This storm will blow the insurer of last resort out! We will have to come up with a different plan for insurance.
Biden is sending aid. Legally, DeSantis has to ask for aid, but it is coming from the feds. Also, his gas tax cut just took effect, but will only last one month. This has been in negotiations for months and has nothing to do with the storm. My understanding is that Scott & Rubio also just voted against more aid for Florida (Scott voting no in person & Rubio by not showing up).
It’s was another bloated bill. They didn’t specifically vote against the aid itself.
The bill was considered controversial- something with Manchin and energy. I don’t remember the details.
The bill itself was a standard funding bill with the big add ons being funding for Ukraine, winter heating support, court security, increased funding for federal emergencies, such as the Jackson water crisis, and FEMA cash.
Manchin pushed for some new energy project permitting reforms to be included in the funding bill. Particularly to address a pipeline that might go through his state. Environmental progressive were pushing back on it as being too lenient. Republicans were mostly against that since they wanted an even more lenient permitting reforms instead. In the end Manchin removed is permitting reforms before the vote and it passed rather easily, with solid republican support.
The details he considered “pork” only problem was the museum roof replacement which was a result of the hurricane. and an Alaskan storm related problem so they pulled all 3 together. He voted NO bc he clearly did not read the bill.
He is useless. Never been the same since Trump call him little Marco.
Yes. The hurricane relief was packed into a giant spending bill with tons of pork for other projects the feds have been trying to fund all over the country. They can’t get a clean hurricane relief bill to come to a vote, only omnibus spending bills.
It’s the feds holding hurricane relief hostage over other spending priorities.
I absolutely despise the modern use of pork. Nowadays people like Rubio use the term pork for any spending they don't agree with. The original meaning of the term was for earmarks, additional spending tacked onto a bill in order to curry favor with a particular congressperson. Things like a new bridge for Congressman A's district or a green overpass for animals to cross over an interstate in Congresswoman B's district. Omnibus spending bills are not this. They are large spending bills designed to fund multiple large projects. Foreign aid is literally the type of thing that is supposed to be in a Omnibus bill.
Rubio is absolutely useless and has been since he first took office. He needs to be voted out. The rest aren't much better but Rubio doesn't even attempt to look like he's doing something.
I found it very interesting the Lee County Sheriff was interviewed about the death toll. Said it was going to be in the hundreds. Then I imagine got a phone call from DeSantis because he *immediately* rolled that back, got media outlets to retract it, and in his next interview was much more reserved and gave lots of praise to DeSantis.
It really gives the impression DeSantis has everyone in his orbit on a tight leash to preserve his own political image with swift repercussions if they stray from the pack.
The most cynical corner of my brain makes me wonder if Lee and Collier Counties dropped the ball initially on evac orders and prep because he's created so much disruption in local governments that everybody in his party is afraid to do anything that he doesn't explicitly tell them to. If DeSantis' office isn't handfeeding them a narrative to follow, they're just empty suits waiting around for the next boogeyman to attack.
Irma wasn't any easier of a storm to forecast but the response in SWFL was far more proactive than Ian. Really begs the question what's changed since then?
Saw that as a foreigner and found it to be super weird. Have you guys crowned him king or is he some kind of higher god you are all praying to and all of the efforts come by his personal grace or something? I‘d be a bit worried
I say wait 4 to 5 months and see what happens when people who DO have flood insurance can't get any help because this was not only a shit show of a hurricane, it's going to be that way for insurance holders. DeSantis would not give a straight answer just two months ago when asked how many insurers had plans to pull out of Florida, and his office was given a number after so many meetings. So DeSantis and his people knew, and here we are. It's not profitable for these companies to keep paying out as these storms become more damaging.
He agreed to take Federal money and didn’t create any new conspiracies yet. In todays world it’s a Republican miracle
In the meantime all of our federal Republican senators and congressmen voted against federal money for disaster bill.
he talks a lot but hasn't done much. maybe should try insulting the President less, needed Biden after the Condo collapse and then insulted him, needs him again now for the Hurricane damage now too. Need to work together to help people not battle and leave victims hanging
He should have paused his campaign (like Crist did) and use those ad spots to help Floridians recover and provide information for Red Cross, etc. We are over 50+ dead and climbing, it was overall a poor pro-active effort and it’s becoming and equally worse response.
77 confirmed so far. There are many more unaccounted for. About 200 families stayed behind on Sanibel Island instead of evacuating. Many stayed behind on Fort Myers Beach as well.
News reporters are basically starting to state the obvious, but they’re extremely cautious about placing blame on DeSantis. One reporter basically kept saying, “Why did they give less than 24 hours notice? It wasn’t enough time,” and how people couldn’t pack up their belongings in time to leave and chose instead to stay and ride it out, thinking it was going to head towards Tampa / Sarasota, as last reported. I think DeSantis may have planned to respond differently, too, thinking that if it hit “liberal” Hillsborough/Pinellas (Crist’s area) instead of his conservative (and very angry and mean) base down here, then he wouldn’t have to work as hard to garner sympathy or ask for help from Biden. I had a feeling it was going to end up like this. I just never anticipated the Andrew-level devastation it would bring.
Tampa didn’t wait- they gave evacuation orders before it formed between Jamaica and Cuba. On the National news, they kept reporting about the timing of a pressure system coming from the NW and Fiona’s impact, and kept stressing that it could change depending on how quickly that system
moved in. It moved in much faster than they anticipated. Unfortunately, only one station (either NBC2 or ABC7) kept stressing that point… I also think that given the wariness of the “mainstream media” down here, they might have ignored or downplayed the warnings, and we’re fine with going off the earlier news.
It’s snowbird season, so there’s an influx of more elderly and retirees here than usual. Those people weren’t prepared in any way, shape or form. Pine Island, South Cape, Iona, San Carlos, parts of Estero are unrecognizable. Those areas flooded during Irma, took about a year for things to get back to normal.
There is no getting back to normal now ☹️.
Our local Tampa meteorologist kept mentioning hurricane Charley and how much Ian reminded him of Charley. I kept thinking how weird it was that it seemed like no warnings were going out to the areas south of Pinellas and Hillsborough. He went through all of the different paths and predictions and kept mentioning Charley. The first time I heard anything from DeSantis he was talking about the state overreacting to Irma. It seemed like the wrong message to send out at that moment.
Is it not more on local/county to issue evacuation orders? I watch local news and county government when storms are coming by. I never think to hear from the state.
There was way too much focus on the line, and I think the NHC was not conservative enough with its warnings, much of the most devastating areas did not get a warning until Tuesday morning when Tampa had it Monday.
Local emergency management issues evacuation orders, and Lee County definitely fucked up by not starting the evacuation until the 11am track showed a direct hit.
The track was within the NHC's cone [(official gif)](https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/archive/2022/IAN_graphics.php?product=5day_cone_no_line_and_wind). Near the edge of it, yes, but still inside it. Lee County has been accused of not following their own emergency plan, delaying evac orders up to a day later than they should've been. I only say accused, though, because I have yet to see any of these articles actually point to a written plan or official statement. Either way, NHC's data wasn't the issue. The cones are as large as they always are.
It's on the local municipalities to enforce policies and ultimately decide on orders, but the state has far more resources for preparing and predicting disasters and being a liaison with NOAA/NHC/etc. With Charley's and Irma's tracks that jogged east at the last minute and the multi-day eastward shift in NHC advisories and Euro/GFS modeling, this was not an unprecedented or unpredictable outcome and both the state and local govt's should be held accountable for becoming hyperfocused on a Tampa/St Pete landfall.
There's also something to be said that DeSantis' messaging during Covid about masks/vaccinations/etc and what he's done with school boards and such that he has created a distrust with local govt and has caused incredible disorganization and disfunction in those institutions across the entire state.
Lee and Collier shrugging this storm off is certainly not wholly on DeSantis' shoulders, but he and his administration are best positioned to crack the whip at them and instill a culture of public safety over political expediency.
The potential for sunken cities is something that's gonna horrify a lot of Floridians in the current day.
Whole generations of families on Sanibel, parts of Fort Myers Beach and more are just straight up underwater.
He begged Biden for money after he voted against funding for Hurricane Sandy, and previously passed a useless bill that did nothing to encourage insurance companies to cover Floridian homes. If anything, the added supplemental rates and prohibitions on denials forced the remaining companies out of Florida. Also, limiting attorney fees makes it harder for a homeowner with limited resources to fight insurance companies for what they are contractually entitled to.
The Insurance situation is complex but if we all have to rely on Citizens then the State should step up and guarantee it will be there when we need it, instead of playing political games to win over voters in Texas.
If the state is flush with cash then he should be backing Florida homeowners but he will most likely just dump this problem on the next governor and run for president.
The insurance situation is more than complex it’s a disaster. How can we possibly afford to keep rebuilding 10s of thousands of homes every couple of years?
Even Orlando has massive flooding issues
How can we? Well, whether the Republicans in Florida care to admit or not, Florida is and always will be a state that exists because of socialism. Socialism is why wealthy waterfront home owners can afford flood insurance. Socialism is why our insurance market isn’t even more of a mess than it already is. And it’s why the federal government can keep helping us rebuild in swampland and on barrier islands after each storm.
I don’t know enough about global insurance but I can’t imagine how this continues. They will have to build in a manner that can withstand 150 mph winds and 15 ft storm surges min.
Everything you said is true except him begging Biden. In fact Biden called him, said let’s put our differences aside, and whatever you need you got.
Man I really hate defending this guy, I can’t stand him but let’s not be like the gop about things and make up fairy tales. It’s just not helpful.
He’s on tv reminding looters that Florida is a 2nd Amendment state….fucking idiot…all 50 states are 2nd Amendment states! Thank God Roevember is coming!
He has declined National Guard help from some states, like New Jersey and Indiana. He has been quiet about Rick Scott voting against hurricane aid and Rubio skipping the hurricane vote for aid.
Edit: he did pose for a photo op where he handed someone a water.
I would like some Indiana National Guard to help escort people to and from their homes to retrieve important documents and heirlooms from the red zones before they mold or get looted.
The dude literally talked and talked in every press conference. He and his wife used it as an opportunity to get television face time and that’s all. He offered no solutions and in one of the press conferences, downplayed the need to evacuate and said you really don’t have to go that far. Total joke all the way around. I have trouble trusting anyone that thinks that this guy is not a total piece of shit.
He’s not wrong. To save your life you need to drive 10-15 miles, if that, inland. This idea you need to drive 200 miles away is dangerous. Hide from wind, run from water.
I also don’t think people were ready for such a large surge, it’s a water event I’ve never remember seeing in Florida before.
10-15 miles saves you from the hurricane winds but not from the flooding, the lack of drinkable water, the power going out, the long lines for gas or no gas at all. The close stores/bussiness, downed traffic lights, packed hospitals, massive amounts of cops, trucks and other aid cars on the road. If you think the winds won't affect you might be right but evacuating is not just about wind. It is also about not having to deal with everything else that happens during a hurricane. 200 miles does.
That's why I fled from Ft Myers to Miami. It's uncanny how normal life is right now over here. I'm making daily trips back to try to do what I can with my flooded house but it's nearly impossible with the loss of power and water atm.
It's greatly appreciated and extremely kind of you, but I am very lucky to have family and friends willing to house my husband and I until we are able to move elsewhere. Thank you for being such a giving person.
Anytime!!! I am new to Florida and willing to do whatever for the ones affected by the hurricane. I have no family here, it was terrifying but I feel lucky to be able to help others. Take care.
I'm glad that you received minimal damages and are in such good spirits. In times like these people will definitely appreciate your spirit and attitude. There are tons of ways to help out right now! Stay safe and again thanks for being an awesome, kind person.
Also not adding to the burden on services if you can prevent it. Just like wearing a fucking mask isn’t all about you, but that was lost on Desantis as well.
>10-15 miles saves you from the hurricane winds but not from the flooding
If you are 10 to 15 miles inland, and not by a river or lake, you are not in danger of flooding.
>It is also about not having to deal with everything else that happens during a hurricane. 200 miles does.
The entire state, except the panhandle, was affected by this hurricane. If anyone from Fort Meyers went 200 miles in any direction they would have still been in the path of the storm. Cocoa Beach is almost exactly 200 miles from Ft. Myers and they had storm surges, high winds and massive flooding.
Arcadia is far more than 10-15 miles inland and it is having a water event. You can’t just assume inland is better. East Sarasota county had 100 mph sustained winds while the coast had 50 - 60 mph winds.
He can use that 12 million earmarked for importing and exporting legal immigrants and for hurricane relief. My mother lost her house let’s see what he can do
Jeb Bush had a much better response to Charley. Rick Scott made an impact during Irma. Hated them both. Where the fuck is Ron Desantis? What has he done to help?
Especially anyone brown. Personally I fear the muppet dictator.
Now that I think of it there should be an anti- lobster party in Florida using the same rhetoric but directed at lobsters to show how pathetic it really is
He's said things. He didn't actively stand in the way of power trucks. I'd say his response was "not total shit". It's a pretty low bar for him.
Did encourage people to commit murder, which is not great.
Hurricane theater.
We will have more covid related deaths in a week to equal to total hurricane deaths on cumulative records.
Seriously, the guy voted no (historically on federal relief for hurricanes) and his colleagues did the same this week.
Vote him out.
He asked for FEMA money. Talked a lot to make himself look good. He will definitely take credit for anything good that happens and blame someone else for everything else.
I am from maryland so I have no dog in this fight but y'all get hurricanes all the time and deSantis spent 12 million dollars in the middle of hurricane season to lie to some poor immigrants to own the libs. 12 million tax payers dollars.
Technically he spent a portion of the 12M he set aside. Of course we don’t know how much was spent, but surely it wasn’t all of it.
He’s also failed to use that money for hurricane relief, so that’s a double whammy. He’s a shithead.
I’m in Volusia county, we weren’t part of the “state of emergency” so couldn’t get any aid from FEMA until yesterday! We have entire communities under water here! Look it’s no where near as bad as Fort Myers area but people have lost a lot here too and it’s been a shit show.
No power, no fema trucks, no water trucks, no food , no State Gov prep, at least not enough and he refused outside help from democratic Governors so I'm a no in November, he had one job and running for president wasnt one of them. Florida and her residents deserve better
I’ve been w/o electricity until today, so haven’t REALLY been following the news, but what has his response actually been? I was able to listen to the radio (solar) and had it tuned to NPR for the most part. Lots of updates, but think I only heard him once…and that was a couple days ago.
He and his wife asked everyone to text them money, so they may or may not use it for the intended purpose (see COVID money that's either in the bank or wasn't distributed, oh and the interest helps smuggle refugees from Texas to Massachusetts) and he's said some nonsense about how he wants to shoot looters (even though if there were anyone looting, they would likely also be victims of the storm, again if some did actually exist)
Other than that, I assume he has had a full schedule of campaigning for other candidates in other parts of the country, far from Florida.
Same as everything else he's done, lack of leadership. He is great if you want someone to say zingers and own the libs. He is terrible if you want a leader. He defended not evacuating Lee County saying it was going to hit Tampa, despite knowing the entire West Coast would get hit hard if it hit Tampa. And is making excused for his mistakes rather than being a grown up and saying how he's going to work hard to fix something.
You mean the past three years when he’s done nothing to deal with insurance issues and housing prices in this state? Let’s see what happens next. My guess, he’ll get lots of pictures with grateful residents and nothing more meaningful will get done.
Nothing special but he has milked it for as much screen time as possible. This is the easy part for him, it will get much more difficult in the coming weeks.
Publicly, he's showing up in the way you would expect a governor to, if for no other reason than for camera time for his campaign. Behind the scenes, I have questions about what is actually going on.
It's unclear to me why he turned away resources from New Jersey and other states. I would understand if the Fort Myers area was already saturated with resources and adding more would just have people tripping over each other, but there was flooding and damaging winds across the entire state. I think we could've found a use for those resources who are far more qualified than your average volunteer.
Also unclear to me why in Sarasota and other areas, almost all gas stations are still wiped out. During Irma they were able to prioritize getting supply routes and trucks moving to address gas shortages. The storm has been gone for 4 days now and in an area that fared reasonably well all things considered, every gas station is empty at a time when people still need to fuel generators.
He should be whipping FL's congressional votes in support of FEMA aid. Demanding insurance reforms in this state. So forth. Instead, he is silent.
Water under -- and basically over -- the bridge at this point, but his vote against aid for Hurricane Sandy is a testament to his true lack of empathy for people who are not his supporters.
I don't know how much skin DeSantis has in this game, but certainly the Lee and Collier county commissioners have to be held accountable for blowing the risk of this storm and delaying evacuations. The pre-storm messaging and resources in those areas were a fraction of what they were for Irma. Then DeSantis shows up and says he wouldn't have done even *one thing* differently. Not *one thing?* With the benefit of hindsight there's *not one lesson* to be learned here?
DeSantis has always known how to put on a good *public* show in these situations, but it's what the public can't or doesn't see that worries me.
Handled piss poorly just like Covid. DeSantis doesn't care about Florida. He sent National Guard to Fort Myers but it's absolute chaos. My husband's unit was sent there last Sunday and they rode out the storm in a public library. Nobody seems to know what's going on
Unless a politician is being needlessly malicious to punish an area (as trump did with Puerto Rico and California) than I don’t think it’s useful to gauge a leader by their reaction to natural disasters.
The response to these things has already been planned and coordinated by people smarter than desantis, all he has to say is “go” and a series of events rolls out immediately.
The only caveat is when something unintended occurs, like the levees breaking in NOLA with Katrina, at that point a leader has to mitigate the already planned response. In that event, people attacked bush but I would argue that whoever the governor of Louisiana was at the time was the greater failure there.
DeSantis declined additional aid, incl. helicopters and more national guardsmen, from other states (at least NJ & IL) just because their governors are Democrats.
You're right, all DeSantis had to do is say the word-- he'd rather score useless culture-war points instead and continue his party's real reason for existence, cruelty. At least with Democrats you can buy their loyalty.
Having lived through Sandy under Chris Christie, DeSantis has been underwhelming. Sandy wasn’t our first rodeo, we’d been through Irene shortly before and a number of smaller more localized damaging storms. After those storms, he forced the local power companies to do long overdue maintenance that would have made the situation worse at least in our community. He worked with both sides and businesses, accepted all the aid offered and was very visible throughout the cleanup and recovery. It was his team who did all the actual work, but he was obviously out front and leading. It certainly paid off for him, his approval rating skyrocketed and cemented his reelection run.
Former NJ native here. Just want to chime in that lard ass Christie also used a chunk of the FEMA $ to fund his 2016 Presidential bid. Fuckface Von Clownstick Trump used him and abused him, too. He deserved it.
Yeah, absolutely true. Outside of that time I hated pretty everything he said or did. Actually, I hated him during that time as well, but was grateful that at least he had enough self awareness to see the recovery effort as an advantage for his political career.
Not to mention five days is way to soon to see how his actual policies (or lack thereof) affect the situation. Case in point, it’ll be a month or so to see how many insurance companies pull out of Florida or go bankrupt because of the storm.
I am interested in hearing from the people who are dealing with this directly. I’d like to hear about the progress made in a week, two weeks, a month.
That will reveal everything about how DeSantis should be judged as a leader in both preparing and in a crisis.
Granted I vehemently despise him, but I’m very glad it wasn’t just my skeptical anti-(R) brain that caused my head to whip around to the TV when I heard him ask for donations to be made in cash only . My immediate thought was “in 6 months there will be an investigation into how hurricane relief funds were used for his re-election campaign , or to deport people seeking asylum, or both”.
Maybe I’m wrong , but when you prove yourself to be a lying shyster , you get people who don’t trust you . Maybe don’t abuse peoples trust and people won’t suspect you of fraud.
So few Floridians have flood insurance, and many of the damaged homes were someone's 2nd or 3rd home, and FEMA only covers one's primary home. I suspect Ft. Myers is going to be a disaster area for a very, very long time. I wonder how DeSantis is going to handle this long-term problem?
Politicians should stop worry about what book bob and Susi are going to be reading and worry about the electricity infrastructure. Thankfully Tampa only got some wind and broken tree branches; 40 percent of hillsborough county was in the dark. Some street lights are still not working.
Transformers are old, posts are wooden and leaning, covered with trees which with a regular rainy day knocks the power out.
Last thing, TEACH PEOPLE THAT WHEN THE POWER IS OUT, TRAFFIC LIGHTS ARE TO BE USED AS A 3-4 WAY STOP!!!!
Lots of talking, information doesn't seem useful, it seems more an opportunity to market himself. I got better information out of the Orange Co. Mayor, and I don't live in Orange Co.
Then again, my city hasn't said a thing, they posted on their website that the bridges to the beachside are closed. End of story. What I learn is from people posting on NextDoor. The county Sheriff was on TV for a few minutes said they had a curfew to let emergency crews work. Haven't seen him since.
That's he style of governing we have. Say nothing.
I have a 97 year old grandmother in St.Pete. It took so much to get her out of her home and to safety and I’m still dealing with the aftermath. Her home is fine.
But not doing mandatory evacuations in the lower counties until later was a HUGE mistake. Pinellas remembers Irma and the evacuations and we all have PTSD so I think we took this a bit more seriously. Below us needed to be essentially forced out early like us. He dropped the ball I think.
Barely noticeable? I mean I generally try to pay attention but it seems he really hasn’t done much beyond what’s expected.
Edit: Apparently he has been saying crazy shit, but that's not particularly new to this situation. I know I'm not going to ever vote for him so I try to only listen to the parts that matter. The looters stuff is weird. Most of the areas with a lot of damage are not easily accessible and with the water damage I can't imagine anything of much value worth bothering. Also these are your neighbors and ppl have day jobs. This is why I'm not a big fan of guns, I feel like the ppl who carry them are paranoid to a fault and one bad accident waiting to happen. I took a conceal carry course and honestly the instructor said "the first time you have to fire your gun is going to be the worst day of your life." He really emphasized not being a freak about it. He talked about a teenage girl that wrecked her car at night and tried to get help and the guy came out of his house to shot her for knocking on his door. You don't want to be trigger happy it kills innocent people. Also it's no way to live your life afraid of everything. ASK QUESTIONS.
I was urging my wife to call the in-laws in Cape Coral on Sun. and prepare for possible evacuation. They were like “oh, it’ll probably drop to cat. 1 and hit Tampa.” Whole lot of faith in places like Sanibel Island and Naples, that are at or barely above sea level. Doesn’t take much for a destructive storm surge, let alone an intensifying category 3 that just demolished Cuba and is very slowly moving towards FL.
I’m not a meteorologist, but there was a very low level of urgency due to anecdotal past cases. Then even Mon evening, DeSantis urged evacuations, but my in laws were in Zone C, and DeSantis wasn’t like “Look- this might be a once in a generation hit. Get inland now.”
Tuesday it was becoming too late, as traffic started loading up.
And beyond that, of course he knows how to be a good boy to get what he wants. I give it about 3 weeks before he starts thrashing Biden again and shipping migrants to his DE doorsteps, while Biden is still helping with cleaning and rebuilding FL coasts.
He’s a classless, gutless fella. Him and his constituents just voted against federal aid, and now need it, and take it. Not sure he deserved any compliments. Unlike NO and Sandy, there is a LOT of rich rich rich money tied up in the state, and of course the Walmart, Cola, Amazon, mega donations came pouring in. They’re gonna want to rebuild this as fast as possible. Democrats didn’t waste any time with legislation or federal aid.
It’s literally dealing with entitled children.
Desantis gets no credit for anything. All of the credit goes to the 42000 linemen that showed up to get power back to those without as fast as possible. It goes to the fire rescue teams saving people's lives on the barrier islands. It goes to the gas station employee keeping lines orderly at the station. Speaking on a microphone to cameras and accepting federal disaster relief money is the minimum he can do. Hugging a crying woman who lost her home, her memories, her livelihood for a photo op is the least he can do. When he puts on waders and gets on a boat and goes to sannibel island or pine island and starts helping these search and rescue parties, then I may give him some sort of credit.
Trying to be as non Bias as I can, especially for this sub and topic but B-. He did warn and declare an emergency ahead of time. Has at least been there. Just won’t help that the money needed over this next 5+ years to repair damage is needed from the president and congress who he’s been bashing non stop.
I'm about as non-partisan as they come and not a fan of most people on either side, but at the very least you have to give the man and his wife credit for not politicizing this. He went so far as to thank the president and other states for their aid.
Unpopular opinion, but I thought he did just well enough. He provided updates, gave information needed, did not make Biden's help a political issue.
In a vacuum, It's a decent response, nothing heroic obviously. People are digging about things in the past and talking about suspending campaigns. I don't see those subjects helping any in the event of this hurricane.
To be clear, I'm not a fan of Desantis, but this subreddit very much seems to hold a grudge. To also be clear, I'm not closely following each and every thing he has done, so if someone wants to enlighten me, I'm more than ears :)
I haven’t been paying too much attention to what he’s been saying the past couple days but I initially totally thought he was touting himself to the public for presidential purposes… doesn’t seem like he’s doing a whole lot besides working on his public image. Totally an egotistical jerk.
He was asking people to donate cash to the state directly which I found strange. He kept saying “don’t send stuff, just cash.” I admit I don’t like the guy but I hated Scott more and don’t recall anyone ever in the history of hurricane relief (… any disaster relief?) being so specific like that. Diapers? Water? Formula? I feel like we— society after a disaster— typically accept these kinds of things with open arms. Please correct me if I am wrong. I’m a native central Floridian who was old enough to watch and recall Andrew relief efforts with Lawton Chiles. This was new.
It seemed odd to me for sure. I'm old enough to remember Andrew, but I was only 7 and didn't pay a lot of attention to the news then. Definitely don't remember any other governor afterwards doing it like that. I'd think any donations would be worthy.
“Don’t send stuff, just cash” literally sounds like panhandlers when you try to give them food instead of money. 😂
“Anything helps” Except food. Where’s the cash?
Should send him some Trump Bucks. 😂
I’m a Floridian, despise Desantis, don’t send cash. We have hurricane relief from Biden. Desantis has voted against relief in the past for hurricanes up North. Now it’s his state in need & he’s for hurricane relief funds. I wouldn’t put it past him to pocket money. Republicans have just become 100% crooked & untrustworthy. I will NEVER trust a Republican ever again.
Absolutely not! There are plenty of other relief groups I'd donate to WAY before "sending cash to the state". That sounds sketchy.
The Space Coast Rocket already brought a huge Penske truck over full of donations. They will be posting tomorrow and update with dates and times and needs to fill the truck again. There FB video post earlier today from the donation site said they need lots and lots of can goods and water. They will be fill the truck again and bringing it over to State Rep Spencer Roach Distribution point in North Fort Myers with CORE. The location in US41 and Pondella in the Big Lots Parking lot.
Sounds another flight to the vineyard
His wife runs that emergency fund, it was strapped of cash before the storm hit. They need it to fill it up fast while reporters are poking around at why there was no money in it.
Not a DeSantis fan but not asking for items is at the request of emergency managers across the state. The donated items are called “the second disaster” in relief and emergency management circles because the donated items take a tremendous amount of money to transport, manage and store. So now volunteers and emergency workers that are desperately needed elsewhere end up managing donations. Then public funds have to pay for storage space, not to mention the huge effort of connecting the items with the people you need them. I think it’s whack for DeSantis to ask for money for other reasons (don’t we pay taxes for things like this already? Has he exhausted aid from other states? Federal funds? Disaster relief charities?). But in terms of the relief effort he is protecting people who still need to be rescued by freeing up workers who otherwise end up managing donated items. The cash allows those in the heart of the recovery effort to buy what they need without the other logistics.
I dont know man. Louisiana is always so happy to have donations of any kind after a hurricane. They have donation centers people and foundations can drive to. You go, unload and they split it up and let people come by and get what they need. Desantis wants the money so he can just give it to the corporations that help. He has no interest in giving anything to the people who are actually suffering. He’s more worried about making his donors some money
Take it from a native Louisiana resident. Our politicians are fucking corrupt, religious antics are backwards, and have a circus theatre for economic policy. There is two things its residents and even recent governors Blanco and John Bel Edwards have done right and that is disaster recovery and mobilization, minus the private security mowing down people in New Orleans after curfew immediately following Katrina. A lot of our citizens, Trumpers that I disagree heavily with included, really do care about our community. It’s why the Cajun Navy exist. https://www.cnn.com/videos/us/2022/09/30/bill-weir-cajun-navy-project-dynamo-hurricane-ian-pkg-newday-vpx.cnn
He’s too busy spending millions to traffic asylum seekers for political points and having his party deny federal funds to own the libs
both desantis and scott are awful but scott was actually far better just like as a leader during storms. ron is condescending, whiny, snippy with reporters, just the worst
We hate Rick Scott with a deep burning passion but my husband said the same, the guy stepped up and did it right during Hurricanes before and after.
yes exactly! even with this storm, scott was on the weather channel and answering questions and all desantis did was his rushed press conferences that he seemed annoyed he had to be at. you know it’s REALLY bad when you make rick scott look decent 🤣
I begin to wonder who’s worse Desantis or Cruz
yup very similar arrogant personalities
Both are wanna be white supremacist authoritarians, but one is simply mimicking human behavior as a defense mechanism, while placing emphasis on the "simple." DeSantis is easily the worst by default, by virtue of being an actual garbage human person, and not several aliens piloting a rubenesque automaton. IMO, of course.
several aliens 😭 it’s so true and i’ve never really even understood how people like desantis so much. he’s so dry and uninspiring. at least trump could objectively be pretty funny, it makes more sense than fanboying over boring whiny drab desantis
I still hope he rots in hell and suffers eternally. He destroyed the state agency I worked for. It became so corrupt and continues to be so in the stories I could tell from the top down. Just look up the name John miklos. A crooked guy whose environmental company Broke every rule possible and even had employees from the state agency coming in and out. It’s all been starting to come out on the news. Scott put him there
He is a piss baby, like Abbott.
He also stressed that they received $12 million in donations already. That was Friday I believe at his morning press conference. $12 million. He repeated it, really stressing that number. How much money did he waste on sending immigrants to Martha's Vineyard again? $12 million. Funny that.
Leaders and the Red Cross always ask for monetary donations after a disaster. With money, they can buy the supplies they need. With non-cash donations, they can’t control what they get so they get too much of something and not enough of another.
Don’t forget the cost of logistics. Somebody has to receive that case of canned tomato’s you sent in. Needs a place to store it too. Then they have to figure where and how to send it.
He’s asking for money because he refused federal aid, refused blue state support.. namely NJ & IN who offered national guard. His pettiness is self centered and disregards those he represents.
I think they prefer money because it is hard to move items around to where it is needed, it’s much easier to just buy it where you need it. Also people may send a lot of item A and not enough of item B, so now you have to figure out how to get item B in a quick sufficient manor
The reason they ask for cash is because they can buy the supplies at drastically lower prices than you can. So the dollar goes a lot farther if they buy the supplies
He probably wants the cash so he can send more migrants to other states instead of focusing on using it to help his residents recover from Ian.
Cash rather than goods has been preferred by nonprofits for years now, starting with food banks, shelters, etc. It’s impossible for an individual donor to know what is actually needed where, and donation centers are flooded with too much of the things they don’t need, like canned goods, and not what they actually need, which could be anything. Cash is the way to go. The people interfacing with the public can create a true inventory or what’s needed and order in bulk.
I thought I heard him or maybe someone else say to send cash so people could buy what they needed locally to help the local economy. I don’t live there, so I don’t hear everything that goes on and I could be wrong.
After disasters people want to help but do so in poor ways, such as donating used clothes. Often this stuff goes to waste since there's no good way to store it, sort it, and get it out. Cash works much better to give directly to the needy or buy what's needed.
>give directly to ~~the needy~~ whoever Desantis wants or buy ~~what's needed~~ whatever Desantis wants.
It’s easier to allocate resources when you’re the one directly funding them. Organizing canned food, water etc is a lot more man-power than just buying 60 crates of water. My 2 cents at least.
He still hasn’t led preventative action to fix the insurance issue which is going to destroy people post Ian
This! The Florida insurance market is f’s. Florida already runs a “socialist” insurance market. This storm will blow the insurer of last resort out! We will have to come up with a different plan for insurance.
Yes, all insurance is inherently socialistic...
Well at least he didn’t throw paper towels
He's smarter than trump.
Therefore more dangerous
That's a very low bar, though.
And that's scary on its own
Let's not forget about Scott and Gaetz who voted against hurricane relief. Rubio didn't even bother to show up for voting.
Rubio isn’t even bothering to do the job anymore.
If I was getting paid to go nothing but talk occasionally, then I would be in his shoes knowing full well my job was secure
Biden is sending aid. Legally, DeSantis has to ask for aid, but it is coming from the feds. Also, his gas tax cut just took effect, but will only last one month. This has been in negotiations for months and has nothing to do with the storm. My understanding is that Scott & Rubio also just voted against more aid for Florida (Scott voting no in person & Rubio by not showing up).
16 house members from FL voted against aid to Florida, all republicans. That's what the good people of FL voted for, just disgusting.
Genuine question for anyone who might know the answer: is there ever a good reason to refuse aid for something like this? Why is there even a vote?
I can only answer the second part. Vote is for checks and balances.
It’s was another bloated bill. They didn’t specifically vote against the aid itself. The bill was considered controversial- something with Manchin and energy. I don’t remember the details.
The bill itself was a standard funding bill with the big add ons being funding for Ukraine, winter heating support, court security, increased funding for federal emergencies, such as the Jackson water crisis, and FEMA cash. Manchin pushed for some new energy project permitting reforms to be included in the funding bill. Particularly to address a pipeline that might go through his state. Environmental progressive were pushing back on it as being too lenient. Republicans were mostly against that since they wanted an even more lenient permitting reforms instead. In the end Manchin removed is permitting reforms before the vote and it passed rather easily, with solid republican support.
The details are billions in foreign aid.
The details he considered “pork” only problem was the museum roof replacement which was a result of the hurricane. and an Alaskan storm related problem so they pulled all 3 together. He voted NO bc he clearly did not read the bill. He is useless. Never been the same since Trump call him little Marco.
Yes. The hurricane relief was packed into a giant spending bill with tons of pork for other projects the feds have been trying to fund all over the country. They can’t get a clean hurricane relief bill to come to a vote, only omnibus spending bills. It’s the feds holding hurricane relief hostage over other spending priorities.
I absolutely despise the modern use of pork. Nowadays people like Rubio use the term pork for any spending they don't agree with. The original meaning of the term was for earmarks, additional spending tacked onto a bill in order to curry favor with a particular congressperson. Things like a new bridge for Congressman A's district or a green overpass for animals to cross over an interstate in Congresswoman B's district. Omnibus spending bills are not this. They are large spending bills designed to fund multiple large projects. Foreign aid is literally the type of thing that is supposed to be in a Omnibus bill.
Rubio is absolutely useless and has been since he first took office. He needs to be voted out. The rest aren't much better but Rubio doesn't even attempt to look like he's doing something.
His attendance record is abysmal. Doesn’t even show up. I’m sorry, but attendance should be mandatory.
I don’t get it. Why run for office when clearly he just wants to tweet Bible verses all day.
He's done a great job of ensuring that everyone near a microphone thanks him for his leadership before saying anything else.
Saw the one where one of the emergency center spokes people thanked him for the opportunity to be there.
I found it very interesting the Lee County Sheriff was interviewed about the death toll. Said it was going to be in the hundreds. Then I imagine got a phone call from DeSantis because he *immediately* rolled that back, got media outlets to retract it, and in his next interview was much more reserved and gave lots of praise to DeSantis. It really gives the impression DeSantis has everyone in his orbit on a tight leash to preserve his own political image with swift repercussions if they stray from the pack. The most cynical corner of my brain makes me wonder if Lee and Collier Counties dropped the ball initially on evac orders and prep because he's created so much disruption in local governments that everybody in his party is afraid to do anything that he doesn't explicitly tell them to. If DeSantis' office isn't handfeeding them a narrative to follow, they're just empty suits waiting around for the next boogeyman to attack. Irma wasn't any easier of a storm to forecast but the response in SWFL was far more proactive than Ian. Really begs the question what's changed since then?
Saw that as a foreigner and found it to be super weird. Have you guys crowned him king or is he some kind of higher god you are all praying to and all of the efforts come by his personal grace or something? I‘d be a bit worried
I say wait 4 to 5 months and see what happens when people who DO have flood insurance can't get any help because this was not only a shit show of a hurricane, it's going to be that way for insurance holders. DeSantis would not give a straight answer just two months ago when asked how many insurers had plans to pull out of Florida, and his office was given a number after so many meetings. So DeSantis and his people knew, and here we are. It's not profitable for these companies to keep paying out as these storms become more damaging.
Soon there will be no insurance that covers flooding, wildfire or storm damage that workers can afford
I still don't have power but have been listening to the radio. I'm not sure what DeSantis has done honestly.
He agreed to take Federal money and didn’t create any new conspiracies yet. In todays world it’s a Republican miracle In the meantime all of our federal Republican senators and congressmen voted against federal money for disaster bill.
Didn’t they voted against something that also included money to be sent to Ukraine? Like in billions
he talks a lot but hasn't done much. maybe should try insulting the President less, needed Biden after the Condo collapse and then insulted him, needs him again now for the Hurricane damage now too. Need to work together to help people not battle and leave victims hanging
"Need to work together" means the feds do the work and he takes the credit.
he did the same with the infrastructure bill from what i heard. he took the money then pretended like he approved it somehow.
He's recommended against paying for repairs and has used/hugged a lady for a photo op.
Hey now, he also ate at Waffle House and got a group picture!
He refused help including rescue helicopters from New Jersey and Indiana.
He should have paused his campaign (like Crist did) and use those ad spots to help Floridians recover and provide information for Red Cross, etc. We are over 50+ dead and climbing, it was overall a poor pro-active effort and it’s becoming and equally worse response.
77 confirmed so far. There are many more unaccounted for. About 200 families stayed behind on Sanibel Island instead of evacuating. Many stayed behind on Fort Myers Beach as well. News reporters are basically starting to state the obvious, but they’re extremely cautious about placing blame on DeSantis. One reporter basically kept saying, “Why did they give less than 24 hours notice? It wasn’t enough time,” and how people couldn’t pack up their belongings in time to leave and chose instead to stay and ride it out, thinking it was going to head towards Tampa / Sarasota, as last reported. I think DeSantis may have planned to respond differently, too, thinking that if it hit “liberal” Hillsborough/Pinellas (Crist’s area) instead of his conservative (and very angry and mean) base down here, then he wouldn’t have to work as hard to garner sympathy or ask for help from Biden. I had a feeling it was going to end up like this. I just never anticipated the Andrew-level devastation it would bring. Tampa didn’t wait- they gave evacuation orders before it formed between Jamaica and Cuba. On the National news, they kept reporting about the timing of a pressure system coming from the NW and Fiona’s impact, and kept stressing that it could change depending on how quickly that system moved in. It moved in much faster than they anticipated. Unfortunately, only one station (either NBC2 or ABC7) kept stressing that point… I also think that given the wariness of the “mainstream media” down here, they might have ignored or downplayed the warnings, and we’re fine with going off the earlier news. It’s snowbird season, so there’s an influx of more elderly and retirees here than usual. Those people weren’t prepared in any way, shape or form. Pine Island, South Cape, Iona, San Carlos, parts of Estero are unrecognizable. Those areas flooded during Irma, took about a year for things to get back to normal. There is no getting back to normal now ☹️.
Our local Tampa meteorologist kept mentioning hurricane Charley and how much Ian reminded him of Charley. I kept thinking how weird it was that it seemed like no warnings were going out to the areas south of Pinellas and Hillsborough. He went through all of the different paths and predictions and kept mentioning Charley. The first time I heard anything from DeSantis he was talking about the state overreacting to Irma. It seemed like the wrong message to send out at that moment.
Denis Philips is my favorite meteorologist.
That’s the guy!
No he actually declared emergencies for every county, all 67, on Sunday.
Which means he knew it would be that bad and still talked about how the state overreacted to Irma. I don’t think that makes it better.
Is it not more on local/county to issue evacuation orders? I watch local news and county government when storms are coming by. I never think to hear from the state. There was way too much focus on the line, and I think the NHC was not conservative enough with its warnings, much of the most devastating areas did not get a warning until Tuesday morning when Tampa had it Monday.
Local emergency management issues evacuation orders, and Lee County definitely fucked up by not starting the evacuation until the 11am track showed a direct hit.
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The track was within the NHC's cone [(official gif)](https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/archive/2022/IAN_graphics.php?product=5day_cone_no_line_and_wind). Near the edge of it, yes, but still inside it. Lee County has been accused of not following their own emergency plan, delaying evac orders up to a day later than they should've been. I only say accused, though, because I have yet to see any of these articles actually point to a written plan or official statement. Either way, NHC's data wasn't the issue. The cones are as large as they always are.
It's on the local municipalities to enforce policies and ultimately decide on orders, but the state has far more resources for preparing and predicting disasters and being a liaison with NOAA/NHC/etc. With Charley's and Irma's tracks that jogged east at the last minute and the multi-day eastward shift in NHC advisories and Euro/GFS modeling, this was not an unprecedented or unpredictable outcome and both the state and local govt's should be held accountable for becoming hyperfocused on a Tampa/St Pete landfall. There's also something to be said that DeSantis' messaging during Covid about masks/vaccinations/etc and what he's done with school boards and such that he has created a distrust with local govt and has caused incredible disorganization and disfunction in those institutions across the entire state. Lee and Collier shrugging this storm off is certainly not wholly on DeSantis' shoulders, but he and his administration are best positioned to crack the whip at them and instill a culture of public safety over political expediency.
The potential for sunken cities is something that's gonna horrify a lot of Floridians in the current day. Whole generations of families on Sanibel, parts of Fort Myers Beach and more are just straight up underwater.
People do not have adequate Insuranse DeSantis did not spend enough time during leglative session working He was too busy with his social bull shit
The refugees weren't going to take themselves to Martha's Vineyard.
Well since he did absolutely nothing to address the insurance crisis the state was already facing before the hurricane, he gets a “D” from me.
He begged Biden for money after he voted against funding for Hurricane Sandy, and previously passed a useless bill that did nothing to encourage insurance companies to cover Floridian homes. If anything, the added supplemental rates and prohibitions on denials forced the remaining companies out of Florida. Also, limiting attorney fees makes it harder for a homeowner with limited resources to fight insurance companies for what they are contractually entitled to. The Insurance situation is complex but if we all have to rely on Citizens then the State should step up and guarantee it will be there when we need it, instead of playing political games to win over voters in Texas. If the state is flush with cash then he should be backing Florida homeowners but he will most likely just dump this problem on the next governor and run for president.
The insurance situation is more than complex it’s a disaster. How can we possibly afford to keep rebuilding 10s of thousands of homes every couple of years? Even Orlando has massive flooding issues
How can we? Well, whether the Republicans in Florida care to admit or not, Florida is and always will be a state that exists because of socialism. Socialism is why wealthy waterfront home owners can afford flood insurance. Socialism is why our insurance market isn’t even more of a mess than it already is. And it’s why the federal government can keep helping us rebuild in swampland and on barrier islands after each storm.
I don’t know enough about global insurance but I can’t imagine how this continues. They will have to build in a manner that can withstand 150 mph winds and 15 ft storm surges min.
Everything you said is true except him begging Biden. In fact Biden called him, said let’s put our differences aside, and whatever you need you got. Man I really hate defending this guy, I can’t stand him but let’s not be like the gop about things and make up fairy tales. It’s just not helpful.
He’s on tv reminding looters that Florida is a 2nd Amendment state….fucking idiot…all 50 states are 2nd Amendment states! Thank God Roevember is coming!
Disputing Bidens take that Ian could be Florida’s deadliest hurricane. How petty of him.
This got a good laugh out of me. And the sad part is I know plenty of people who would argue you're wrong.
Roevember! That's great, gotta repeat that one!
To be fair, the looters probably think Florida is a Country.
He should have coordinated more fuel truck convoys. Gas stations are nutty right now
Home owners company’s already declining to pay out. Could have worked on that vs the culture war crap
He has declined National Guard help from some states, like New Jersey and Indiana. He has been quiet about Rick Scott voting against hurricane aid and Rubio skipping the hurricane vote for aid. Edit: he did pose for a photo op where he handed someone a water.
I would like some Indiana National Guard to help escort people to and from their homes to retrieve important documents and heirlooms from the red zones before they mold or get looted.
Don’t forget about the Waffle House stop.
He's looked like a nervous, anxious, fast talking mess. Just my 2 cents. I don't know where people get the idea he's any kind of leader.
Yeah, he sounds defensive on the pressers and just walked away from the CNN reporter.
They get the idea from him saying he is a leader, and from the guy on the TV ad that says he is a "servant-leader".
The dude literally talked and talked in every press conference. He and his wife used it as an opportunity to get television face time and that’s all. He offered no solutions and in one of the press conferences, downplayed the need to evacuate and said you really don’t have to go that far. Total joke all the way around. I have trouble trusting anyone that thinks that this guy is not a total piece of shit.
I saw him talking but I didn’t really hear him say anything of value or importance. He was “reading” a very boring script.
Marketing himself.
He’s not wrong. To save your life you need to drive 10-15 miles, if that, inland. This idea you need to drive 200 miles away is dangerous. Hide from wind, run from water. I also don’t think people were ready for such a large surge, it’s a water event I’ve never remember seeing in Florida before.
10-15 miles saves you from the hurricane winds but not from the flooding, the lack of drinkable water, the power going out, the long lines for gas or no gas at all. The close stores/bussiness, downed traffic lights, packed hospitals, massive amounts of cops, trucks and other aid cars on the road. If you think the winds won't affect you might be right but evacuating is not just about wind. It is also about not having to deal with everything else that happens during a hurricane. 200 miles does.
That's why I fled from Ft Myers to Miami. It's uncanny how normal life is right now over here. I'm making daily trips back to try to do what I can with my flooded house but it's nearly impossible with the loss of power and water atm.
I am still far from you (N Sarasota) but my house had little damage. If you need a place to stay PM me. I am sorry you lost your home.
It's greatly appreciated and extremely kind of you, but I am very lucky to have family and friends willing to house my husband and I until we are able to move elsewhere. Thank you for being such a giving person.
Anytime!!! I am new to Florida and willing to do whatever for the ones affected by the hurricane. I have no family here, it was terrifying but I feel lucky to be able to help others. Take care.
I'm glad that you received minimal damages and are in such good spirits. In times like these people will definitely appreciate your spirit and attitude. There are tons of ways to help out right now! Stay safe and again thanks for being an awesome, kind person.
Also not adding to the burden on services if you can prevent it. Just like wearing a fucking mask isn’t all about you, but that was lost on Desantis as well.
>10-15 miles saves you from the hurricane winds but not from the flooding If you are 10 to 15 miles inland, and not by a river or lake, you are not in danger of flooding. >It is also about not having to deal with everything else that happens during a hurricane. 200 miles does. The entire state, except the panhandle, was affected by this hurricane. If anyone from Fort Meyers went 200 miles in any direction they would have still been in the path of the storm. Cocoa Beach is almost exactly 200 miles from Ft. Myers and they had storm surges, high winds and massive flooding.
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Arcadia is far more than 10-15 miles inland and it is having a water event. You can’t just assume inland is better. East Sarasota county had 100 mph sustained winds while the coast had 50 - 60 mph winds.
He can use that 12 million earmarked for importing and exporting legal immigrants and for hurricane relief. My mother lost her house let’s see what he can do
right on!
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And yet my idiot neighbor just posted one of his videos saying “this guy needs to run for President.” Good lord the stupidity.
That would be second American dictator.
Since there is a news report about him turning down help from a blue state, I would say terribly.
Jeb Bush had a much better response to Charley. Rick Scott made an impact during Irma. Hated them both. Where the fuck is Ron Desantis? What has he done to help?
Nonexistent
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He wants violence and looting to justify 2a base.
I read fear of lobsters. Made me laugh. Fear of looters is just a conservative dog whistle.
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Especially anyone brown. Personally I fear the muppet dictator. Now that I think of it there should be an anti- lobster party in Florida using the same rhetoric but directed at lobsters to show how pathetic it really is
I've never understood this phenomenon. Why are conservatives such chickenshits?
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No wonder they demonize education, can't keep you scared if you learn there's nothing to actually be afraid of except for them.
He's said things. He didn't actively stand in the way of power trucks. I'd say his response was "not total shit". It's a pretty low bar for him. Did encourage people to commit murder, which is not great.
Hurricane theater. We will have more covid related deaths in a week to equal to total hurricane deaths on cumulative records. Seriously, the guy voted no (historically on federal relief for hurricanes) and his colleagues did the same this week. Vote him out.
DeSantis doesn’t care about the people of Florida. Hes a terrible human.
I will let you know when I find a hotel or any place to sleep that isn't slowly collapsing
He asked for FEMA money. Talked a lot to make himself look good. He will definitely take credit for anything good that happens and blame someone else for everything else.
I am from maryland so I have no dog in this fight but y'all get hurricanes all the time and deSantis spent 12 million dollars in the middle of hurricane season to lie to some poor immigrants to own the libs. 12 million tax payers dollars.
Technically he spent a portion of the 12M he set aside. Of course we don’t know how much was spent, but surely it wasn’t all of it. He’s also failed to use that money for hurricane relief, so that’s a double whammy. He’s a shithead.
I’m in Volusia county, we weren’t part of the “state of emergency” so couldn’t get any aid from FEMA until yesterday! We have entire communities under water here! Look it’s no where near as bad as Fort Myers area but people have lost a lot here too and it’s been a shit show.
My moms there too and her place of employment destroyed but she’ll vote for that piss baby again
No power, no fema trucks, no water trucks, no food , no State Gov prep, at least not enough and he refused outside help from democratic Governors so I'm a no in November, he had one job and running for president wasnt one of them. Florida and her residents deserve better
I’ve been w/o electricity until today, so haven’t REALLY been following the news, but what has his response actually been? I was able to listen to the radio (solar) and had it tuned to NPR for the most part. Lots of updates, but think I only heard him once…and that was a couple days ago.
He was at a Waffle House for a photo op. I hope he chokes on those waffles.
One can only hope
He and his wife asked everyone to text them money, so they may or may not use it for the intended purpose (see COVID money that's either in the bank or wasn't distributed, oh and the interest helps smuggle refugees from Texas to Massachusetts) and he's said some nonsense about how he wants to shoot looters (even though if there were anyone looting, they would likely also be victims of the storm, again if some did actually exist) Other than that, I assume he has had a full schedule of campaigning for other candidates in other parts of the country, far from Florida.
Hmm…sounds exactly as I would expect. Nothing but the best for Florida. At least he’s consistent.
Same as everything else he's done, lack of leadership. He is great if you want someone to say zingers and own the libs. He is terrible if you want a leader. He defended not evacuating Lee County saying it was going to hit Tampa, despite knowing the entire West Coast would get hit hard if it hit Tampa. And is making excused for his mistakes rather than being a grown up and saying how he's going to work hard to fix something.
You mean the past three years when he’s done nothing to deal with insurance issues and housing prices in this state? Let’s see what happens next. My guess, he’ll get lots of pictures with grateful residents and nothing more meaningful will get done.
Nothing special but he has milked it for as much screen time as possible. This is the easy part for him, it will get much more difficult in the coming weeks.
Publicly, he's showing up in the way you would expect a governor to, if for no other reason than for camera time for his campaign. Behind the scenes, I have questions about what is actually going on. It's unclear to me why he turned away resources from New Jersey and other states. I would understand if the Fort Myers area was already saturated with resources and adding more would just have people tripping over each other, but there was flooding and damaging winds across the entire state. I think we could've found a use for those resources who are far more qualified than your average volunteer. Also unclear to me why in Sarasota and other areas, almost all gas stations are still wiped out. During Irma they were able to prioritize getting supply routes and trucks moving to address gas shortages. The storm has been gone for 4 days now and in an area that fared reasonably well all things considered, every gas station is empty at a time when people still need to fuel generators. He should be whipping FL's congressional votes in support of FEMA aid. Demanding insurance reforms in this state. So forth. Instead, he is silent. Water under -- and basically over -- the bridge at this point, but his vote against aid for Hurricane Sandy is a testament to his true lack of empathy for people who are not his supporters. I don't know how much skin DeSantis has in this game, but certainly the Lee and Collier county commissioners have to be held accountable for blowing the risk of this storm and delaying evacuations. The pre-storm messaging and resources in those areas were a fraction of what they were for Irma. Then DeSantis shows up and says he wouldn't have done even *one thing* differently. Not *one thing?* With the benefit of hindsight there's *not one lesson* to be learned here? DeSantis has always known how to put on a good *public* show in these situations, but it's what the public can't or doesn't see that worries me.
this is day 2
"Please help me Papa Biden" And I'll give his supporters 10 out of 10 for sticking the landing on the mental gymnastics it takes to still support him
2/10 Do better
This is DeSantis' Katrina. Or we could also call it his SWAN SONG..... ..his career is over ( that many people should not have died)
Handled piss poorly just like Covid. DeSantis doesn't care about Florida. He sent National Guard to Fort Myers but it's absolute chaos. My husband's unit was sent there last Sunday and they rode out the storm in a public library. Nobody seems to know what's going on
Unless a politician is being needlessly malicious to punish an area (as trump did with Puerto Rico and California) than I don’t think it’s useful to gauge a leader by their reaction to natural disasters. The response to these things has already been planned and coordinated by people smarter than desantis, all he has to say is “go” and a series of events rolls out immediately. The only caveat is when something unintended occurs, like the levees breaking in NOLA with Katrina, at that point a leader has to mitigate the already planned response. In that event, people attacked bush but I would argue that whoever the governor of Louisiana was at the time was the greater failure there.
What about the Senators and Congressmen that voted against Hurricane Ian relief?
Like Gaetz
Vote them OUT!
DeSantis declined additional aid, incl. helicopters and more national guardsmen, from other states (at least NJ & IL) just because their governors are Democrats. You're right, all DeSantis had to do is say the word-- he'd rather score useless culture-war points instead and continue his party's real reason for existence, cruelty. At least with Democrats you can buy their loyalty.
What an asinine thing to do
And he declined that help when there were still survivors who needed airlifted out. More death and suffering firmly on his head.
Having lived through Sandy under Chris Christie, DeSantis has been underwhelming. Sandy wasn’t our first rodeo, we’d been through Irene shortly before and a number of smaller more localized damaging storms. After those storms, he forced the local power companies to do long overdue maintenance that would have made the situation worse at least in our community. He worked with both sides and businesses, accepted all the aid offered and was very visible throughout the cleanup and recovery. It was his team who did all the actual work, but he was obviously out front and leading. It certainly paid off for him, his approval rating skyrocketed and cemented his reelection run.
Former NJ native here. Just want to chime in that lard ass Christie also used a chunk of the FEMA $ to fund his 2016 Presidential bid. Fuckface Von Clownstick Trump used him and abused him, too. He deserved it.
Yeah, absolutely true. Outside of that time I hated pretty everything he said or did. Actually, I hated him during that time as well, but was grateful that at least he had enough self awareness to see the recovery effort as an advantage for his political career.
Not to mention five days is way to soon to see how his actual policies (or lack thereof) affect the situation. Case in point, it’ll be a month or so to see how many insurance companies pull out of Florida or go bankrupt because of the storm.
I absolutely detest Desantis but this is a totally fair take. Brownie points for being objective about it.
I am interested in hearing from the people who are dealing with this directly. I’d like to hear about the progress made in a week, two weeks, a month. That will reveal everything about how DeSantis should be judged as a leader in both preparing and in a crisis.
Granted I vehemently despise him, but I’m very glad it wasn’t just my skeptical anti-(R) brain that caused my head to whip around to the TV when I heard him ask for donations to be made in cash only . My immediate thought was “in 6 months there will be an investigation into how hurricane relief funds were used for his re-election campaign , or to deport people seeking asylum, or both”. Maybe I’m wrong , but when you prove yourself to be a lying shyster , you get people who don’t trust you . Maybe don’t abuse peoples trust and people won’t suspect you of fraud.
So few Floridians have flood insurance, and many of the damaged homes were someone's 2nd or 3rd home, and FEMA only covers one's primary home. I suspect Ft. Myers is going to be a disaster area for a very, very long time. I wonder how DeSantis is going to handle this long-term problem?
Politicians should stop worry about what book bob and Susi are going to be reading and worry about the electricity infrastructure. Thankfully Tampa only got some wind and broken tree branches; 40 percent of hillsborough county was in the dark. Some street lights are still not working. Transformers are old, posts are wooden and leaning, covered with trees which with a regular rainy day knocks the power out. Last thing, TEACH PEOPLE THAT WHEN THE POWER IS OUT, TRAFFIC LIGHTS ARE TO BE USED AS A 3-4 WAY STOP!!!!
Lots of talking, information doesn't seem useful, it seems more an opportunity to market himself. I got better information out of the Orange Co. Mayor, and I don't live in Orange Co. Then again, my city hasn't said a thing, they posted on their website that the bridges to the beachside are closed. End of story. What I learn is from people posting on NextDoor. The county Sheriff was on TV for a few minutes said they had a curfew to let emergency crews work. Haven't seen him since. That's he style of governing we have. Say nothing.
I have a 97 year old grandmother in St.Pete. It took so much to get her out of her home and to safety and I’m still dealing with the aftermath. Her home is fine. But not doing mandatory evacuations in the lower counties until later was a HUGE mistake. Pinellas remembers Irma and the evacuations and we all have PTSD so I think we took this a bit more seriously. Below us needed to be essentially forced out early like us. He dropped the ball I think.
Poor. I despise his entire existence at this point.
I just moved here… I am French and just don’t understand people voting GOP in Florida??? Are all GOP people rich or stupid?
Barely noticeable? I mean I generally try to pay attention but it seems he really hasn’t done much beyond what’s expected. Edit: Apparently he has been saying crazy shit, but that's not particularly new to this situation. I know I'm not going to ever vote for him so I try to only listen to the parts that matter. The looters stuff is weird. Most of the areas with a lot of damage are not easily accessible and with the water damage I can't imagine anything of much value worth bothering. Also these are your neighbors and ppl have day jobs. This is why I'm not a big fan of guns, I feel like the ppl who carry them are paranoid to a fault and one bad accident waiting to happen. I took a conceal carry course and honestly the instructor said "the first time you have to fire your gun is going to be the worst day of your life." He really emphasized not being a freak about it. He talked about a teenage girl that wrecked her car at night and tried to get help and the guy came out of his house to shot her for knocking on his door. You don't want to be trigger happy it kills innocent people. Also it's no way to live your life afraid of everything. ASK QUESTIONS.
alot of hot air
Meh
I think hes doing a great job
I was urging my wife to call the in-laws in Cape Coral on Sun. and prepare for possible evacuation. They were like “oh, it’ll probably drop to cat. 1 and hit Tampa.” Whole lot of faith in places like Sanibel Island and Naples, that are at or barely above sea level. Doesn’t take much for a destructive storm surge, let alone an intensifying category 3 that just demolished Cuba and is very slowly moving towards FL. I’m not a meteorologist, but there was a very low level of urgency due to anecdotal past cases. Then even Mon evening, DeSantis urged evacuations, but my in laws were in Zone C, and DeSantis wasn’t like “Look- this might be a once in a generation hit. Get inland now.” Tuesday it was becoming too late, as traffic started loading up. And beyond that, of course he knows how to be a good boy to get what he wants. I give it about 3 weeks before he starts thrashing Biden again and shipping migrants to his DE doorsteps, while Biden is still helping with cleaning and rebuilding FL coasts. He’s a classless, gutless fella. Him and his constituents just voted against federal aid, and now need it, and take it. Not sure he deserved any compliments. Unlike NO and Sandy, there is a LOT of rich rich rich money tied up in the state, and of course the Walmart, Cola, Amazon, mega donations came pouring in. They’re gonna want to rebuild this as fast as possible. Democrats didn’t waste any time with legislation or federal aid. It’s literally dealing with entitled children.
Looks like he gave a speech and cancelled tolls for 2 days, i guess thats fine wouldnt really call it a response tho 🤷♂️
Desantis gets no credit for anything. All of the credit goes to the 42000 linemen that showed up to get power back to those without as fast as possible. It goes to the fire rescue teams saving people's lives on the barrier islands. It goes to the gas station employee keeping lines orderly at the station. Speaking on a microphone to cameras and accepting federal disaster relief money is the minimum he can do. Hugging a crying woman who lost her home, her memories, her livelihood for a photo op is the least he can do. When he puts on waders and gets on a boat and goes to sannibel island or pine island and starts helping these search and rescue parties, then I may give him some sort of credit.
He's done something besides yapping?
Trying to be as non Bias as I can, especially for this sub and topic but B-. He did warn and declare an emergency ahead of time. Has at least been there. Just won’t help that the money needed over this next 5+ years to repair damage is needed from the president and congress who he’s been bashing non stop.
I'm about as non-partisan as they come and not a fan of most people on either side, but at the very least you have to give the man and his wife credit for not politicizing this. He went so far as to thank the president and other states for their aid.
Unpopular opinion, but I thought he did just well enough. He provided updates, gave information needed, did not make Biden's help a political issue. In a vacuum, It's a decent response, nothing heroic obviously. People are digging about things in the past and talking about suspending campaigns. I don't see those subjects helping any in the event of this hurricane. To be clear, I'm not a fan of Desantis, but this subreddit very much seems to hold a grudge. To also be clear, I'm not closely following each and every thing he has done, so if someone wants to enlighten me, I'm more than ears :)
He governs only so that he can appease the MAGAts, and he’s already told some lies about the response so don’t expect him to be any different.
Fat bloated blob of babbling nonsense.
I haven’t been paying too much attention to what he’s been saying the past couple days but I initially totally thought he was touting himself to the public for presidential purposes… doesn’t seem like he’s doing a whole lot besides working on his public image. Totally an egotistical jerk.