Don Surber
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Saturday, October 01, 2022
DeSantis passed the hurricane test
A 500-year hurricane wiped out most of Florida this week. The Tampa Bay Times described the devastation.
The newspaper said, “It wasn’t just the coastline, though it took most of the blow.
“As Hurricane Ian made landfall in Florida on Wednesday, the beach towns were the first to go as water and winds up to 150 mph decimated paradise towns from Fort Myers Beach to Punta Gorda — a city familiar with disaster, taking close to a decade to recover from 2004′s Hurricane Charley.
“Houses were torn from foundations by water that acted as a conveyor belt. Personal belongings and building materials fused with wet earth.
“But the wrecked beach towns marked only the beginning.
“An hour northeast of Fort Myers, in rural inland communities like Arcadia, the extent of the damage began to reveal itself Friday.
“The trunks in the orange groves bend to the right or left, mapping the trail of the storm that blazed through the farming community.”
The cleanup will take months. Recovery will take years. Even for a state that deals with hurricanes every year, this one could be too much.
But 4 years ago, Floridians elected the right Florida Man to run the state government. He didn’t wind up in a motel room drunk and stoned with male hookers. DeSantis knew what to do and is doing it.
This week, Politico said, “Gov. Ron DeSantis spent his first term becoming one of the most influential Republicans in the country — a likely 2024 frontrunner who’s already shaping his party’s national agenda.
“But DeSantis still hasn’t faced one of the toughest challenges a Florida leader can encounter: a major hurricane.”
On Sunday, he mobilized the National Guard.
On Monday, he activated the state’s emergency services. He issued warnings on what to expect in the surges.
On Tuesday, he issued an evacuation order.
Then the hurricane hit. Since then, he has been everywhere. Biden and DeSantis called a truce.
The president said, “This is not about whether — anything having to do with our differences politically. This is about saving people’s homes, lives, businesses.”
Biden is right. There is a time to politick and there is a time to govern. This is the time to govern.
But mine is a political blog and it is through that lens I view events a thousand miles away from Poca, West Virginia.
DeSantis passed the test. Problems crop up and he is on it.
He had a stern warning for looters: “Don’t even think about looting. Don’t even think about taking advantage of people in this vulnerable situation. I can tell you, in the state of Florida, you never know what may be lurking behind somebody’s home. And I would not want to chance that, if I were you, given that we’re a Second Amendment state.”
Looting is stealing the last remaining possessions of an impoverished people.
The governor was not just playing Mister Tough Guy.
Attorney General Ashley Moody said, “We don’t want people ever, moving into the future to say, ‘Well, when Ian hit, people went into homes and they robbed their homes they burglarized their homes. I don’t want to leave my home.’ We never want that to be an impediment to people getting out when we say get out.”
Moody is demanding looters remain in jail without bond.
It is Saturday. DeSantis already is discussing recovery. He is giving a troubled people — many who lost everything — hope and encouragement.
Mene Ukueberuwa of the Wall Street Journal wrote, “The day before the storm he called the big one arrived, Florida’s governor met with residents of the state’s vulnerable Gulf Coast. His first and firmest message was: Get out. ‘You have the potential for 10, 15 feet of storm surge that can absolutely be life threatening,’ he said Tuesday at the Sarasota Emergency Operations Center. He demanded that everyone evacuate, saying ‘those orders are not taken lightly.’
“Offstage after the press conference, Ron DeSantis had a different emphasis. ‘He came down to the city and kind of prepared all of us,’ says Mayor Erik Arroyo of Sarasota. The two shared notes on the preparations they had put in place. They pledged to get the city running again more quickly than the days or weeks most believed it would take.”
DeSantis was prepared for the worst. When the worst arrived, he handled it well.
Americans, saddled with an idiot president, noticed.
Posted by Don Surber at 10/01/2022 03:00:00 PM
