Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Friday provided a “heartbreaking” update following the damage caused by Hurricane Helene, which blew through the Sunshine State late last week in an interview with Fox News’ Kayleigh McEnany.
Here’s a transcript of the conversation:
MCENANY: I know you’re in Tampa. The images I saw overnight from friends and family are shocking. And as I understand, perhaps 7 foot storm surge in parts of Tampa?”
DESANTIS: “Yeah, that’s right. I mean, we had 6-7 feet throughout the Tampa Bay area that exceeded records in a lot of those places. And of course, that creates a whole host of problems. So we’re down here. We started in Tallahassee at the emergency operations center. We’re going to be touring some of the sites here, particularly in Pinellas County. But I think it’s — it’s important to point out that as soon as this storm hit, you started to have people that were calling because they were in distress. And between local first responders, combination of local and state and then state teams, there were thousands of missions that were completed. The state was responsible for hundreds of rescues. I know places like Hillsborough and Pinellas, the sheriff’s departments, fire departments, they were out there doing that. So you did have some people that stayed, that got some surge in those evacuation zones. But all the rescue attempts were successful.
Second thing is, is we’re now down. So we’ve had about 1.3 million power restoration since the storm hit and we’re down to about a million without power. So those numbers are going to continue to go down. Because we had the crews stationed, they’re going in, they’re doing work. As soon as it was safe to do, they’ve been working. So there’s a lot going on. But we also had this storm hitting a place that has seen two hurricanes in the last 13 months, in that Big Bend part of Florida, and I’m going to be there later today. But the initial reports we’ve been getting from those communities in the Big Bend was that the damage for Helene exceeded the damage of Idalia and Debby combined. So please keep those folks in your thoughts and prayers. There’s going to be a lot of damage that was done in those communities, which is bad enough, but this comes on the heel of the rebuilding for the last 13 months. So it’s a real gut punch to those communities. And I know a lot of people are reeling right now.”
MCENANY: “Yes, Governor, I spoke to you just about a year ago and we have some images from that we’ll pull up. I interviewed you as you served the lineman food. Some incredible human beings who come to the rescue when power is down. You were in Perry, Florida. And you just mentioned this, this is Taylor County. You have neighboring Dixie County, and the individuals there, I just, I cannot believe I was in Perry County a year ago. Talked to the residents, they’ve rebuilt and now they are facing all of that again. What are you hearing? How are the residents at this very moment?”
DESANTIS: “Well, it’s a very difficult time. I mean, I think that when you deal with these storms, and they did do Idalia, which was a major hurricane. Then we had Debby, which was a Category One storm but basically was on almost the same route. So it didn’t do as much damage as Idalia in and of itself. But when you compound it from what had happened. Then you have Helene, which was stronger than Idalia, and has done more damage than both combined. You know, that is something that’s going to be very difficult. So we’re going to be having assets to be able to help with this. But the reality is, when you see buildings that have been blown to smithereens, that had been in the process of being rebuilt or maybe survived the other two storms and now they’re destroyed, you know, that’s more than just the dollars and cents. I mean, that really is a gut punch. It’s demoralizing. And so, I think that there’s a — it’s going to be some trying times in that Big Bend part of the state of Florida.”
MCENANY: “Yeah. An incredible blue-collar part of the state that’s beautiful. You know, Governor, final question, I just wanted to see if you had any update on fatalities. I know, as I understand it, there was a young person that unfortunately died on I-4 because of a fallen sign. But do you have any updates?”
DESANTIS: “So, that was the first one yesterday. The other one we’ve confirmed is that there was an individual in Dixie County, tree fell on the home. And these are freak things that can happen. It’s very sad. But I will also say and we may end up having more reported because this is a very difficult storm, but all the rescue attempts that were done when they went, someone called, they were able to find the person or people and including pets and successfully rescue them. That was not the case with Hurricane Ian down in southwest Florida where some of the calls, by the time people got there and they did a great job getting there, you know, you had people that drowned in the storm surge. We have not seen that yet, but there’s going to be more operations done today for search and rescue and even in places that weren’t made phone calls in, there’s going to be sweeps of those very vulnerable areas just to ensure that people are OK.”
MCENANY: “Well, our prayers are with Florida and the entire southeast region. Thank you, Governor.”
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