Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, (R), said Sunday that he spent some time on the ground, giving out food and looking at the extent of Hurricane Ian’s damage.
The Governor’s update comes after 76 deaths were confirmed in Florida, and whole communities were wiped off the map by powerful winds and storm surges.
In an effort to reduce residents’ financial burden, DeSantis had temporarily suspended the state’s gasoline taxes. DeSantis encouraged debris to be removed in areas that were safe for return, according to the governor’s office.
According to the governor’s office 42,000, state linemen restored power to nearly 2 million homes. They are still working to restore power to 800,000.
Over 1,000 search and rescue personnel from the 14 affected countries have completed more than 1,600 rescues by Sunday morning.
According to the governor’s office, the Coast Guard and National Guard were landing helicopters at barrier islands to perform search and rescue. The Florida National Guard supported 152 missions.
Already, hundreds of pallets of food and water were delivered to areas in desperate need. These included more than 829 000 MREs and 3.8 million bottles of water.
DeSantis tweeted: “Worked with Florida Baptist Relief to distribute food and water to residents of Naples. “@CaseyDeSantis has been encouraging and providing prayers and support for Floridians in need.”
DeSantis shared the moment that he met the woman who lost her home to the storm on Twitter.
“Today, I met with Marta, who had her house destroyed and was rescued by one of our high-water vehicles,” DeSantis tweeted. “Damage from #HurricaneIan flooding extends across the state, but our people are resilient.”
Kevin Ruane was the Lee County Commissioner. He stated that he was disappointed at the complacency displayed by so many people during the storm and that they didn’t evacuate when it was supposed.
Ruane said, “As soon as we saw the model shift northeast, we did everything possible to encourage people.” “I’m disappointed that so many people didn’t go to shelters since they are open. ”
“I think the most important thing that most people need to understand is we opened up 15 shelters. During Irma, there were 60,000 people in our shelters. There are 4,000 people in the shelters right now,” Ruane continued. “Unfortunately, people did get complacent … As far as I’m concerned, the shelters were open, they had the ability, they had all day Tuesday, they had a good part of Wednesday as the storm was coming down – they had the ability to (go to a shelter).”
