Search-and-rescue efforts have narrowed to three counties hit hard by the Category 3 Hurricane Idalia, while Gov. Ron DeSantis wants the federal government to expand a disaster declaration.
DeSantis and state Emergency Management Director Kevin Guthrie said Friday they plan to ask the White House to include more counties in the disaster declaration signed Thursday by President Joe Biden. The declaration, in part, makes federal money available to help people in Citrus, Dixie, Hamilton, Lafayette, Levy, Suwannee and Taylor counties.
“We absolutely anticipate more counties being added,” DeSantis said during a morning briefing at the state Emergency Operations Center. “The same thing happened after (Hurricane) Ian. They added on. And certainly, a county like Madison, they had 100 percent power loss (in Idalia). It’s a county that has not necessarily faced the storms the way some of our other communities have. And so, yeah, I mean, they’ve got hard hit.”
Biden is expected to travel Saturday to areas hit by Idalia, which made landfall Wednesday morning in the Keaton Beach area of Taylor County before roaring through other areas of North Florida into Georgia.
Guthrie said Friday search-and-rescue efforts were focused on rural Madison, Suwannee and Lafayette counties. Such efforts had been completed in 15 counties.
“As search and rescue comes to a close, very soon, we are immediately shifting into recovery efforts to get communities back on their feet as quickly as possible,” Guthrie said.
The state had confirmed one death tied to Idalia. That death was a traffic-crash victim in Alachua County.
The federal disaster declaration opened the door to such assistance as grants for temporary housing and home repairs and low-cost loans to cover uninsured property losses, a White House news release said.
Also, money will be available to help with debris removal and emergency-protective measures in the designated counties. The federal government will pick up 100 percent of such costs for a 30-day period “of the state’s choosing,” according to the White House.
Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Deanne Criswell joined DeSantis on Thursday to get a first-hand look at communities damaged by the storm. Along with Criswell’s observations, officials will use before-and-after aerial and satellite images of the region to help determine what programs are needed to provide support.
As of Friday morning, 91,000 utility customers remained without electricity, though power had been restored to hundreds of thousands of others. Duke Energy Florida, a major utility in the region, had 18,832 customers without power as of 11 a.m, according to its website.
Also, base camps are being set up in Horseshoe Beach in Dixie County and in Madison County for such things as supplies and meals to be distributed to residents, Guthrie said.
Special-needs nurses are also being called in to address health and medical issues, and travel trailers will soon arrive to provide temporary housing.
“It took months for us to get to that point after Hurricane Ian,” Guthrie said of the housing and sheltering program. “And I’m happy to announce that within 48 hours we’re going to have travel trailers in that area for Horseshoe Beach, which is one of the most impacted.”
Idalia came less than a year after the Category 4 Ida made landfall in Lee and Charlotte counties and caused widespread damage as it crossed the state.
–Jim Turner, News Service of Florida
Ban the GOP says
racist ron should tell uncle Joe he doesnt want his woke money like he did for Floridans for energy credits, medicare, medicade or pandemic assistance, even unemployment benefits. Foridiots can pay for their own disasters. Thats socialism with their FEMA dollars trying to help out families is unacceptable for republicans.
Fedup Floridian says
Hurricane Ian was an Emergency Management disaster. At least this time the barrier islands were evacuated.
But it appears that it took Idalia to get FL Emergency Management to do its job of emergency managing instead of going to Texas to manipulate migrants into agreeing to be flown to Sacramento and Marthas Vineyard.
Idalia has also been a great opportunity for Cristina Pushaw to marshall a bunch of alias blue checks on Twitter/X to praise Ron’s “leadership” which consisted of doing his job for a change. He activated the Florida Guard, his private army, to stand behind him for photo op in areas hit by Idalia, though there wasn’t a dirty boot among the entire entourage.
Fortunately, FEMA had boots on the ground and arrangements made for assistance before Ron woke up and came back from Iowa to do proforma paper work and hold self serving pressers.
JimboXYZ says
Adding more counties & the potential for getting the same types that are the usual insurance & disaster relief fraud & abuse that has created in part, the insurance crisis for homeowners throughout FL. I feel for the true victims, but there will also be those that try to piggy back off others misfortunes for being the real victims. The home improvement sales people will be scouring the residential looking for contracts based on questionable insurance claims. Get ready for bigger premiums again.
Shark says
Biden should refuse all aid to Florida just like Desantis and Rubio did to hurricane Sandy aid for New York and New Jersey !!!
Kat says
Yes, no energy credits, no clean energy sources, so we could potentially try and reverse some of the damage which led to there being more major climate change-related disasters. But please give us more federal dollars that will wind up in the pockets of the insurance companies and unscrupulous contractors that carpetbag these areas each and every time.
Nephew Of Uncle Sam says
RonDuh whines and whines about President Biden and the Federal Government, then puts his greedy paws out looking for more handouts for those that will make money off this emergency to donate back to his campaign.
Kat says
Democrats don’t tend to be petty and cruel in the same manner. They tend to offer a helping hand, which in turn lends some of the less kind folk to label them as socialists or communists. Funny how kindness and helping the less fortunate aren’t priorities for some “Christians”, whether they be the elected officials or the folks that voted them into their positions.
Skibum says
It was sad and disgusting to witness our slimy, childish gov dis the president who came to FL a couple of days ago to view first hand the damage done by the latest major hurricane to decimate part of this state’s gulf coast. The gov refused to meet with President Biden, but at the same time begs for federal disaster funds from FEMA to be approved and sent to this state? He might just as well have stuck his middle finger up high in the air at the entire federal government’s ability to help FL citizens, even though he knows this sorry state doesn’t ever allocate enough money or resources to its citizens, even during calm weather, not to mention when there has been wide spread destruction from a major hurricane. DeathSantis is the worst type of hypocritical politicians who show off for the most extreme segments of his base at the expense of every day Floridians who have suffered losses and need help. Unforgivable!