Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis Shares Tropical Storm Idalia Update Transcript

Now with respect to Tropical Storm Idalia, it is currently 80 miles off the coast of Cozumel with 35 mile per hour winds. It will become a hurricane by late Tuesday afternoon. Landfall is currently expected along the Big Bend region on Wednesday, and it could arrive at the state of Florida as strong as a Category 2 hurricane. The storms, of course, as we know, these things can wobble, so Floridians along our Gulf Coast should be vigilant even if you’re currently outside the cone, and indeed you could see impacts if you are in a place that’s outside the cone.

(00:41)
We issued an executive order yesterday to allow prep time and to stage resources to be able to respond to the storm’s aftermath. Our emergency operation center here in Tallahassee will go to a level 1, 24 hour round the clock starting at 0700 tomorrow. Please listen to your local officials. If you look at this Big Bend region, the models are probably more in agreement than when we had Ian last year, but these things can shift. There’s still some uncertainty out there, so please just heed the warnings of your local officials, continue to watch the news.

(01:20)
If you are in the path of this storm, you should expect power outages, so please prepare for that. Particularly if you have one, if this storm ends up coming in the Tallahassee region, there’s a lot of trees that are going to get knocked down, the power lines are going to get knocked down. That is just going to happen, so just be prepared for that and be able to do what you need to do. If you are power dependent, particularly people who are elderly or who have medical needs, please plan on going to a shelter. Some of these counties are going to be announcing that they will be opening shelters I would imagine in the next day or so. That will be a good decision because the chance of you losing power if a Category 2 hurricane hits is very, very high.

(02:09)
In terms of resources, we have mobilized 1,100 national Guardsmen and they have at their disposal 2,400 high water vehicles as well as 12 aircraft that can be used for rescue and recovery efforts. Power, we are going to start… The power companies are going to start pre-staging linemen starting on Monday, and we’re going to have probably not as many as we had for Ian because the track of the storm is different and the number of people affected is likely to be less, but there is going to be a significant amount of linemen that are going to be stationed and ready to go. And so, what we would say to the municipalities and other electric outfits is please be willing to accept this mutual aid so we can get the power back on as quickly as possible.

(02:56)
When we did Hurricane Ian, the places that accepted the mutual aid early, they got the power back on a lot quicker, so please, these resources are going to be there. Let’s all work together to get the power back on. Clearly, we’ve had instances in the past where it dragged on and there were a lot of people without power, particularly in Tallahassee and in 2016 storm. So I want to avoid that. The linemen are going to be there and we want to put them to work. And I know that all the residents will really appreciate that. So please accept the mutual aid. Contact Kevin Guthrie if you have any questions about that, but we are going to have power outages and so we want to get the power back on for all Floridians as quickly as possible.

(03:37)
We are likely going to be staging the majority of our resources in Marion County and parts of North Florida, and that’s going to just give us the flexibility in case the track changes to be able to mobilize the resources where they need to go. Florida Department of Transportation has now allowed expanded weight and size requirements for emergency transport, so they’re going to be able to bring in more supplies on trucks than they otherwise would be.

(04:08)
Please just be vigilant and watch the Weather Channel, watch the news, listen to your local fishers. We’re going to continue to have briefings as the days go on here. If you want to know how you can prepare, go to floridadisaster.org/getaplan, floridadisaster.org/getaplan. You have time to make the preparations. You’re going to see on that website all the things that are recommended that you do, but I would say again, if you are in the path of this storm, expect to lose power for a certain amount of time, so just take whatever precautions are necessary as a result of that.

(04:46)
I’m going to have Kevin Guthrie stand, come up here and provide an update from the emergency management perspective.

Thank you, governor. Good afternoon everyone. My name is Kevin Guthrie. I’m the executive director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management, and I want to begin by thanking Governor Ron DeSantis once again for his swift action and declaring an emergency order as we prepare for the impacts of Tropical Storm Idalia. But I also want to express to you how diligent our state emergency response team behind us has been working over the weekend to ensure that our communities are ready.

(05:22)
The state emergency response team is here in the EOC working tirelessly to be prepared for any direction that this storm may take, and I thank them for their continued hard work for Floridians. Additionally, the state has been made aware of a situation involving fuel contamination at gas stations serviced by the port of Tampa. I want to ensure Floridians that we are coordinating here at the EOC with everyone from petroleum retailers to the ports themselves to ensure that the disruption will not be widespread or prolonged and that residents can have seamless access to fuel.

(06:01)
At the direction of the governor as he’s already mentioned, we have already waived the size, weight, and hour restrictions for getting those necessary resources into the state and down to consumers as quickly and effectively as possible. FDACS has just released a statement related to this fuel contamination and they’re conducting investigations on how widespread the situation is and what you can do in specific situations if you’re impacted. If you think your car may be affected, please call the Florida Department of Agriculture Consumer Services Consumer Hotline at 1-800-435-7352 for English, and for Spanish, 1-800-352-9832.

(06:53)
In July, the division and the Florida Association of Broadcasters brought together meteorologists from around the state to discuss hurricane forecasting and messaging. We are relying on you in this room to help us get that message out. I want to stress that every tropical storm, every hurricane is different, and this is no exception. We cannot gauge our ability to withstand future hurricanes based on prior experiences. This will not be Hurricane Hermine, this will not be Hurricane Ian. We need you to pay attention to what we’re asking you to do.

(07:31)
A few things that you should keep in mind. Do not focus on just the cone. The cone is where the eye could go, but those hurricane force winds and tropical storm force winds will extend far beyond what the cone represents. We will have storm surge warnings and watches in the coming days. Storm surge was the number one cause of death in Hurricane Ian. You can evacuate by going tens of miles away, not hundreds. Just simply going to your nearest shelter will save your life. Utilize this time now to sit down with each and every member of your household and communicate your plan. Make a plan if you haven’t done so and make sure you focus on those household members or even your businesses.

(08:19)
Things that you should consider, “How will we receive our communications and warnings? What is our plan for shelter? What is our evacuation route? What is our internal family communication plan if we should get separated? How do I communicate with my employees?” are just some of the things that we would encourage you to do. The governor’s already mentioned this, but additionally, medically dependent Floridians and those with access and functional needs can receive extra assistance during a disaster through the state Special Needs Registry. If you are not familiar with that, please go to floridadisaster.org, that’s floridadisaster.org/snr for Special Needs Registry.

(09:05)
Once you have taken the time to make a plan, take a stock of you and your family’s disaster supply kit. If you need additional information on your disaster supply kit, please go again to floridadisaster.org/kit. If you need items for your kit, we are in the middle of a tax holiday, so please make sure you take advantage of this first ever Florida First second iteration of the tax holiday. Supplies of the kit should be specific to the needs of your household. But for a model disaster supply kit, again, you could go to floridadisaster.org/kit.

(09:44)
I’ve said this once, I’ll say it again. If your kids do not eat canned tuna, don’t buy them canned tuna. Please get them stuff that they’re going to need, that they’re going to eat so you take care of everybody in your household.

(09:56)
Last that I want to talk about is know your home and know your zone. What do we mean by this? You need to understand what your home’s ability is to withstand winds. We will see 90 mile an hour winds with the storm perhaps even higher, so please know if your home could withstand those hurricane force winds. The next thing you need to know is your evacuation zone. So many people that I talked to in Hurricane Ian do not know the difference between FEMA’s flood zone and an evacuation zone. If you need to know where your evacuation zone is at, please go to your property appraiser’s office, go to the website and your evacuation zone will be listed there. You can also get to it through your local emergency management pages and of course floridadisaster.org.

(10:46)
If your you’re ordered to evacuate, that order will come from local emergency management officials or maybe a local sheriff. If you’re asked to evacuate, please do so. Again, we want to save lives. When it comes to your yard, if you can pick it up, put it up. If you cannot pick it up, make sure it’s tied down so that those objects do not become missiles, if you will, into someone else’s home. The State of Emergency Response team will continue to coordinate, collaborate, and communicate with our county partners to ensure our state is ready to respond. And again, governor, I want to just say thank you for all your leadership.

Sure. I’ll just also say if you look at… We have the track up here, I’m sure people have seen it on TV or whatnot, so it’s going basically, Taylor and Dixie County is where they’re saying that the landfall is going to be. And I do think that these models are a little bit more in agreement than when we did Hurricane Ian, but I do remember being here on a Sunday afternoon for a Wednesday impact and seeing the impact be up in north Florida in that Big Bend area, and it ended up hitting Sanibel Island and those areas down in southwest Florida. Now that was partially because you had one model taking it way west and they kind of were just averaging it, and so it ended up there. I think most of these models are probably a little bit more in agreement this time, but I would just caution people to remain vigilant. This stuff can change. We’ve had storms hit outside the cone in recent years. I mean, we’ve had in Pensacola a couple years ago outside the cone, they got massive flooding.

(12:20)
So if you’re in Tampa Bay, if you’re in some of those areas, you absolutely could have major impacts. The fact that it’s bent a little bit more south from where it was maybe this morning, the hurricane center, things that very well may migrate back further west and be more in line with Tallahassee. So people here in Tallahassee, you’re not out of the woods at all just because it moved a little bit to the east. So I would just say anybody on this Gulf Coast, certainly from Tampa all the way up to places like Bay County, you should absolutely be very vigilant right now. You should be following what the track of the storm and you should just be making your preparations.

(13:03)
There were models that had up to Cat 3. We think that now the highest seems to be… The agreement seems to be Cat 2, but again, there’s a lot that can happen. This thing hasn’t even gotten to Cuba yet. And the water and the Gulf is very, very warm, and so that’ll provide some fuel for this thing to pick up some more speed. So floridadisaster.org/getaplan. We’ll continue to be providing updates. Listen to the folks who are the emergency management and the local officials. They’re going to be the ones that are going to be issuing guidance on evacuating, if there’s any road closures, that’s all going to come from them. So please listen and heed that advice. Any questions?

So we’re going to start with staging and preparation in Marion County, is that what was said earlier-

And in North Florida. So there’ll be two staging areas. This way, it provides Florida DEM, the ability to move the response wherever it goes depending on how the storm may wobble.

Sir, what is your travel schedule going to look like with this? Obviously you were supposed to be out of state for campaigns and whatnot.

We’re locked in on this. We’re going to get the job done. This is important so people can rest assured. We’ve always been ahead of the curve on this. Kevin and I were talking about this middle of last week, a week ago. All the preparations that have needed to be done have been done. Those preparations, of course, are ongoing. We are going to have resources staged and we’re going to execute a response.

So you’ll be here this week or-

I am here. I am here.

Governor, how involved does the state with the evacuation orders and did Hurricane Ian change the calculus [inaudible 00:14:40] considering how many people?

Hurricane response is bottom up. When you do an evacuation order… The reason the state doesn’t do an evacuation order is because evacuations are effectuated by local officials. So if the state said, “This Sanibel Causeway is closed,” well, we don’t have people there that can effectuate that. That’s the sheriff, that’s the police, that’s the local people. So that’s why it’s got to be bottom up because they’re the ones that are controlling how the traffic’s going to flow, how people are going to go, whether they’re shelters or not. That is just not done by the state. So we support their efforts on different things, but those orders are going to come locally. And that’s the way it’s always been, that’s the way it’s going to be. I spoke out at the time when people were attacking Lee County about it. Kevin was talking with them. Sunday of the storm for Wednesday, it was even further northwest than this track was. And so of course they didn’t issue an evacuation order at that time. Then as it got closer, they acted and did it. But I think it’s got to be done locally.

With gasoline, is there any concern about price gouging or panic buying affecting-

There’s always concerns for both. I mean, obviously attorney general’s going to be all over the gouging, so that’s not something anyone should do. There’s no need to do panic buying, but sometimes that happens in these storms. The issue with the Port of Tampa is one that could complicate this. It has nothing to do with the storm, but it’s happening right on the eve of the storm. And so places… And I think I spoke with Commissioner Simpson earlier today, they’re trying to get the list of all the gas stations that may have had cross-contamination so that people know if they filled up at any of these stations that they probably don’t want to drive their car because I mean, you’re going to have people potentially just stuck on the side of the road. I mean, if you fill up your tank with diesel and you start driving it, it’s not going to end well. So that is a concern.

(16:42)
Now, if the storm ends up more north Florida than Tampa, then maybe that’s not going to end up being as important for the storm. But as you see, I mean you could see some major flooding. You could see surge in the Tampa Bay where it could be major, major impacts there. That is all still in the cards. Now overall with fuel, we always work to have the ability to surge fuel if there’s a major problem. And so, we did it with Hurricane Ian. We had the trucks out there. People could go fill up. In rural areas, that really helped.

(17:11)
I will tell you though, Hurricane Ian, the gas stations getting back on track. They actually got back pretty good compared to Irma and some of the other storms that we had, and a lot of that was just driven by power. If they had generator capacity, they were able to do it, but the fuel was still being delivered. And so I think Kevin’s view is that the fuel’s probably going to still be delivered. We are going to have the ability to move some fuel in. Do you want to say anything more about fuel?

I would just say that just over the governor’s shoulder here is the Florida petroleum industry, they are here. We have the Ports Council that is here. We have DOT who’s over my left shoulder that’s here for weights and measures and making sure that people can move commodities freely throughout the state. We did not fill up fuel in Hurricane Ian. We’re not going to fill up fuel now. We are already making adjustments for the market to make sure that we’re able to meet all of the needs there and we’ll continue to do that. Thank you.

I’ve asked Commissioner Simpson to come to tomorrow’s briefing. I think he’s going to be here and he’ll provide an update on the latest on this fuel situation from the port of Tampa. And basically, it was just human error. They put diesel in tanks that were supposed to be regular gas. And then the FDACS, they identified it and they were able to do it, but there was nobody until DACS did the oversight that identified it. It was something that could be identified. I think just from the difference in the smell, they were able to do that. So hopefully we don’t have that many people that are affected by this. Obviously, if you have a tank of gas and it’s 90% regular and 10% diesel, the dilution probably may not ruin your car. But I mean if you put a whole tank of diesel in, that’s going to be a major, major problem. So stay tuned tomorrow morning, we’ll have an update on that and so we’ll see you guys then. Thank you.

Can I ask you a quick question about the Jackson hearing?

I’ll be addressing that again shortly.