Hurricane Ian hit Florida as a strong Category 4 storm on Wednesday, with maximum sustained winds of 155 miles per hour.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis described it as a “500-year flood event.”
That’s why Ron DeSantis let out a sigh of relief after Joe Biden said these eight words about Hurricane Ian.
Hurricane Ian hit Florida’s southwest coast on Wednesday and slowly crawled across the state before exiting the northeastern portion on Thursday.
But now that Hurricane Ian is gone, counties in central Florida are facing a potential “500-year flood event.”
“We’ve never seen a flood event like this,” DeSantis said at a news briefing in the state’s capital of Tallahassee. “We’ve never seen a storm surge of this magnitude.”
“The amount of water that’s been rising and will likely continue to rise today even as the storm is passing is basically a 500-year flood event,” DeSantis added.
Gov. Ron DeSantis gives an update on Hurricane Ian: “The amount of water that’s been rising … is basically a 500-year flood event.”
— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) September 29, 2022
DeSantis is currently leading the disaster recovery effort in the Sunshine State, and he praised Floridians for their resilience and expressed appreciation for the influx of resources the state received in the past day.
Florida First Lady Casey DeSantis said the state raised $2 million in 24 hours to help the hurricane’s victims.
“The response here and the way people have reacted has been very impressive,” DeSantis added.
DeSantis also announced he spoke with President Joe Biden.
Joe Biden previously declared a major disaster for nine counties in Florida, and DeSantis said he plans to ask the President to expand it to more counties in the coming days, which would allow Florida residents to receive individual assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
“This storm is having broad impacts across the state and some of the flooding you’re going to see in areas hundreds of miles from where this made landfall are going to set records, and that’s going to obviously be things that will need to be responded to,” DeSantis said at his press conference.
On Thursday, Joe Biden spoke to reporters about Hurricane Ian.
Ron DeSantis was relieved to hear Biden say he agreed about the importance of bipartisanship in the federal response efforts.
“This is not about whether — anything having to do with our differences politically,” Biden said. “This is about saving people’s homes, lives, businesses.”
The brief time-out is welcomed after the games Biden played with Florida during the pandemic, holding up shipments of monoclonal antibodies as a way to exact political retribution against DeSantis for keeping his state open.
Of course, only time will tell how long this ceasefire will last.
DeSantis Daily will keep you up-to-date on any new developments in this ongoing story.
