- 5/30/2025
Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) holds a hurricane preparedness press briefing in Jupiter, Florida.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00:00them for hosting us. I want to recognize the guests we have, Kevin Guthrie, Florida Division
00:00:05of Emergency Management, Senator Gail Harrell, and then our representatives, Caruso, Gerwig,
00:00:12and Peggy Gossett Seidman. I want to thank them for being here. We're here because we are about
00:00:20to enter hurricane season for 2025, and you'll see Kevin Guthrie come up here and provide
00:00:28some updates and some recommendations from the Division of Emergency Management. Now,
00:00:33I really hope this is the only time you see me and Kevin Guthrie this summer. That would be great.
00:00:42And, you know, we can pray for that. And hopefully that ends up happening. We do deserve a little bit
00:00:49of a break. I mean, normally you'll have times where you'll have a bunch. I mean, remember 2004,
00:00:55five period, we had a bunch happen. Then we had 10 years where we didn't get one. And then now we've
00:01:01had six majors in seven years, including three hurricanes, two major hurricanes last year in 2024,
00:01:08and then a third hurricane Debbie. And so that's just the way historically I've seen that pattern. So
00:01:14hopefully we don't. But you can hope for that and you can pray for that. But you you can't prepare
00:01:24to have no hurricanes. You got to prepare that it may be something that's going to impact us.
00:01:28And so we are here to to talk about the the need for individual Floridians to take proper precautions
00:01:36and to make sure that they have a disaster preparedness kit that they have a response plan
00:01:42for themselves, their families and their pets. And that if it comes to that, that you're in a
00:01:47situation where you're going to be able to do I do think before we get into that, though,
00:01:52it is important to point out 2024. We had Hurricane Debbie hit in the Big Bend section of Florida on the
00:02:01West Coast. Then we had back to back Hurricane Helene and Hurricanes Milton. Both of those were
00:02:10major hurricanes. One of the things that we really work hard on in Florida is working with our utilities,
00:02:18not just the big private utilities like the Florida Power and Light, but also the municipalities,
00:02:24the rural coops, everything to pre stage as many resources as possible so that when the storm passes,
00:02:33people can work to have a rapid power restoration. And what I found just having studied these things,
00:02:39you know, as I was getting ready to become governor is, you know, when you have two, three weeks where
00:02:44people not even in the eye of the storm are just with no power, it causes huge problems for the whole
00:02:51recovery. And so what we've done with working with Kevin and in my office is as soon as that storm goes,
00:02:59you will see these crews working to restore the power. So in Hurricane Debbie, you had everyone that
00:03:07could safely receive power, 100% restoration in four days. Helene and Milton, both with millions and
00:03:17millions of people without power at one point and Milton got up to 4.2 million. You had 100% restoration
00:03:23of everyone that could receive power in seven days that has never been done quicker in any of these
00:03:29major hurricanes. And it does require us to help pre stage your house and feed all the linemen. You
00:03:36know, you'll see all these people flooding into Florida 9575 I 10 coming in, we get the camp set up
00:03:44and then boom. And I remember Hurricane Ian, which was 2022 category five. And it hit probably I think
00:03:53it hit in like the afternoon, like on a Wednesday afternoon. And literally, by the time all the
00:03:59remnants left, you had these trucks moving in, and they were there working. And you had places I don't
00:04:05know if Home Depot was open very quick, but Publix and Wawa and all these places. I mean, they were open
00:04:10almost immediately. Those types of things make it easier to be able to assist with response and
00:04:17recovery efforts. And so I want to thank everybody that's been involved with that. The power restoration,
00:04:24it's interesting because you look at something like a Florida power and light. I mean, they're a massive,
00:04:29well oiled machine, they've got a lot of technology, they put a lot of resources to bear. You've also seen
00:04:36Duke and things like Tampa electric also be able to do that. And when I first became governor, it was
00:04:44okay, we'd expect those to get it done. But then some of the other ones, maybe the cooperatives or
00:04:49whatever, it wasn't necessarily something that that was going to be done as good. And I remember in Ian,
00:04:55you had some issues. Well, this more recent time, the coops were the first to get 100%. So they were
00:05:02there, you had some of these some of these are rural outfits, you know, Jupiter, obviously, you
00:05:07guys are going to be you guys are all FPL, I'm assuming. And, and you understand that. But as you
00:05:13get into some other parts of Florida, you have that all of those entities, whether it was the most
00:05:19well financed high power utility, or maybe one that wasn't as much, they all were ready, and they all
00:05:25responded very quickly. And we really appreciate that. Now, through the Division of Emergency Management in
00:05:31the state of Florida, we were able to during those storms to deliver and distribute more than 2.5 million
00:05:39shelf stable meals, 1.5 million hot meals, 200,000 food boxes, we have provided shelter for over 80,000
00:05:51survivors and 282 shelters across the state of Florida, distributed 5 million bottles of water, 170
00:05:59truckloads of ice, 90,000 tarps and over 1500 generators, one of the things that we had to do. So, you
00:06:07know, it's interesting, each storm will will be different. Ian was one was a really big storm and did hit
00:06:13Fort Myers and Sanibel in that area. But yet, you go back, I mean, I think we were on the ground there, maybe
00:06:19the next day or a day and a half, and you had gas stations open, they thought of them had generators and
00:06:24the republics was doing generator stuff. So things just bounced back. And you had no fuel interruption
00:06:30because the Ian didn't disable the ports on the west coast of Florida. Well, and then Helene, same
00:06:38thing had a lot of storm surge on the west coast of Florida had a lot of problems, but it didn't
00:06:43necessarily interrupt the fuel. Now we have fuel contracts and we do this. Well, Milton was a little
00:06:49bit different. It disabled Port Manatee and the Port of Tampa for a short period of time. That's
00:06:55where a lot of the fuel gets gets brought in to be able to service those gas stations in Tampa Bay and
00:07:01Sarasota and all those places. And so, you know, we obviously work with the ports to help them get
00:07:07where they need to go. But because we have these fuel contracts, we set up all these these gas stations
00:07:13ourselves around the Tampa Bay area, Sarasota. So people could go in and they could get gas. We didn't
00:07:19even charge anybody. You got free gas. Imagine that people would wait in line for a long time for that,
00:07:24too, because it's people just I mean, you could do gas. It's interesting on what people are sensitive
00:07:29on in price. You know, if you're going down the street, if you have a gas station that is like five cents
00:07:35less than the one on the you will have the line wait. I mean, people will wait to get that savings on gas.
00:07:41So they're very sensitive on gas prices. But we were able to do that. And so that was probably I
00:07:47think we we set it up and probably ran it three or four days. And then, you know, gas stations were
00:07:52coming on line every day. And then the port got to 100% and then everything was fine. But this is
00:07:59the type of stuff to be able to be very flexible to see what's going to happen. Another thing that we did
00:08:06was we did this debris task force. Now, you guys on the east coast haven't had an impact of a major
00:08:17probably what I guess since 2004 2005 period during those seasons. Now, I know you did get some some
00:08:23nasty tornadoes that got flung off some of these other ones, which were very devastating. But you
00:08:28know, when you have a big hurricane come through, you know, it can leave a lot of debris. And people
00:08:33have their homes may get saturated. And then they're cutting out the dry while they're doing
00:08:38all this stuff. So this stuff adds up. And you'll go to some of these other places that have been hit
00:08:43by hurricanes in other states, and they'll just be debris, like just sitting there and nobody really
00:08:50does. So what we said was, you know, we really want to get this debris moving. Now, this is municipal
00:08:57governments have debris contracts, county governments have debris contracts, the state is not in the
00:09:04debris management business. That's just not how things go. You guys have your trash and all that
00:09:09stuff. Those are those are local services. But with Kevin's leadership, we've stressed, you got to have
00:09:15these contracts in place, you got to have these folks ready to go. And that had even more importance
00:09:22when after Helene, we saw Milton forming. Well, guess what? Milton was going to go on a similar track
00:09:29and impact a similar area than what Helene just did. So you had massive amounts of debris on the
00:09:34beaches in Pinellas County, in Bradenton and in Sarasota, all those areas. And it's like, okay,
00:09:42you can have a massive storm, then the debris is just going to get picked up and then projectiles
00:09:46everywhere. So we launched a debris initiative to be able to go in. So we paused. This is unprecedented.
00:09:55We paused all of our road work, everything our department of any dump truck under the control
00:10:03of the state of Florida was sent over to where Helene had hit and they are doing debris 24 seven.
00:10:11And we said it needed to be 24 seven. One of the counties Pinellas County did not follow that
00:10:17executive order and they locked up their landfill. Well, we sent in the Calvary to cut the locks open
00:10:25the gate and get that debris going because that's what you needed to do. And we had citizens loading up
00:10:32their Ford F one fifties F two fifties, you name it, bringing it in round the clock. And we were able
00:10:39to clear so much debris. And we also got from the Biden administration 100% reimbursement for all
00:10:47debris cleanup. So we told them we created a debris dashboard where citizens could see how much their
00:10:53city or county was doing because basically it was free to them. They were going to get reimbursed for
00:10:58100% of the cost. So get it done. And I got to say, that's probably been the fastest debris pickup
00:11:04that that that we've ever seen after a major hurricane. And in fact, you know, I'm down in Longboat
00:11:09Key, I was doing some charity event a few weeks ago, and you're pulling down there, you wouldn't have
00:11:15known a hurricane, they got hit by two, they got by Helene, and then they got hit by Milton. And you go through
00:11:21there. And it's just like, bustling tourists everywhere. People are building like, you know,
00:11:28whatever they're they're doing. And you didn't see like massive debris sitting everywhere. So I think
00:11:35that people really handled that in a good way. And I know it was really Kevin and his team, you know,
00:11:42setting up these incentives, we worked with the federal government to get that reimbursement. I don't
00:11:47know if we're going to get reimbursement going forward, certainly not at that level from from
00:11:51what we're seeing. But I think what happened with Milton was Helene happened. And then you had like
00:11:58Western North Carolina, all this stuff. And it was like, where's the federal government, like people
00:12:03are like, you know, where's the president all this stuff. And so I think the Biden administration was
00:12:07very sensitive on the heels of that with Milton, they bent over backwards to be able to do so we were
00:12:12able to get 100% of the debris cleanup, which we think is really, really good. So during that hurricane
00:12:20season 2024, Florida Division of Emergency Management distributed 12 billion in recovery funding, that's
00:12:27the most that has ever been paid out within six years. And they've administered 244 million in
00:12:34preparedness grants. And so some of these things are more immediate, some of these things are more some
00:12:39of the long term stuff. I know Kevin will discuss some of that. Now, we are still responding.
00:12:46As we are still responding to Hurricane Helene, we were able to get things and this is kind of how
00:12:54Florida does it. You looked at Western North Carolina after Helene, it was like, no one was really
00:13:01there, right. And and some people were saying FEMA needed to be there. Our view on that is, we don't
00:13:08rely on FEMA for any of the preparation or response efforts. Now they obviously have programs that the
00:13:15federal government has where you if you're impacted, you can apply for individual assistance. Or if a
00:13:20municipality wants to get reimbursed, they can do if your certain triggers are met. And that obviously is
00:13:26fine. And people should do that. But in terms of getting people ready and prepared and the messaging
00:13:32and the other things that go into that, that is really the state leading that with locals executing
00:13:39that. And we assume we're not going to get support from FEMA on all those things. And sure enough,
00:13:45that's how we've rolled. And so power restoration, the immediate distribution of supplies and meals,
00:13:52when we had to do the gas stations, we did that all these different things
00:13:56is really being done by both the state of Florida and your local emergency management operators. And so
00:14:04so we're we're proud to do that. We think it's important for the state. Obviously, when you're
00:14:08a peninsula sitting out in the middle of a tropical part of the world, you have no choice but to lean in
00:14:14on this stuff. And we gladly do that. So because of that, when Helene hit, you had a massive response
00:14:21effort, you stabilize the situation very quickly, there were hundreds and hundreds of rescues that
00:14:28were done. And you stabilize and where it hit ground zero, there was not a single fatality up
00:14:34and up in Franklin, or Taylor County, not one fatality, which for a storm of that magnitude is
00:14:40pretty incredible. So that was good preparation, good coordination with the locals, you do that. So
00:14:45so the dust settles 24 hours later, like we really don't have any more rescues to go,
00:14:50we're not getting any requests from the counties at that point beyond things that we would need.
00:14:56But in terms of that immediate rescue, we didn't have it. But then you saw Western North Carolina,
00:15:01you saw things where people didn't have support people didn't have. And the reason why, first of
00:15:06all, we help other states, other states help us, you know, anytime I do something, we sent people to
00:15:11help at the border and I'll give me what are you doing there? You're not Florida. No, you know what,
00:15:16why one, it affects everybody, the border. But put that aside, when we have times, I've had Texas,
00:15:23I've had New York, I've had California send to Florida. And likewise, we've sent and we've offered
00:15:28help on the California fires. We did that. We've helped with tornadoes in response. So that's just
00:15:34what we do. The states do do that traditionally. It's not like it was anything, anything out of the
00:15:39ordinary. But Western North Carolina, if any of you've been to Western North Carolina in the summer
00:15:46times, you can't move without running into a Floridian. In fact, there's probably more, I mean,
00:15:53like more people in Western North Carolina in the summer consider me their governor than the North
00:15:57Carolina governor, because that's just what it is. And I've been there and I've seen that. So I knew
00:16:02we were going to have some connections on the North Carolina, we would have helped anyways. But this is
00:16:07a really big deal. So we sent in Florida State Guard and other emergency response. And so they're in
00:16:14North Carolina conducting rescue operations, I people come up to me to this day saying thanks for having
00:16:20the State Guard to do. Now, in some respects, I think it speaks highly about our guys that you have
00:16:26this in Western North Carolina, and then you have Florida people rescuing you. On the other hand, it's
00:16:31like I know, it's a little bit weird that that would be the case, but it is the case. And so we were able to
00:16:36do that. And we saved, you know, a lot of people, we were also able to bring star links, we were able to bring
00:16:44water, we helped build rebuild bridges there with with our Florida Department of Transportation. And we also
00:16:53helped Tennessee and some of those remote regions. So it was really a good team effort. But that's just what we should
00:17:00do. So the 2024 season was challenging. But I think you can feel pride in the fact of how folks up and
00:17:08down the state of Florida responded to those very challenging circumstances, which brings us to this
00:17:15year. You just have to prepare and plan that we are going to have impacts. I if you plan and it doesn't
00:17:23happen, you're never going to have great regrets on that. If you don't plan, and it happens, you're going
00:17:29to be immediately saying, Why didn't I do this? Why didn't I do that? So we encourage with hurricane
00:17:35season starting this weekend, we encourage all Florida residents and visitors to have a household
00:17:40plan that considers the needs of Children, seniors and pets in the family in particular, you can go to
00:17:48Florida disaster.org slash plan prepare. If you want more information, know your zone and know your
00:17:56home. It's important that residents know if they live in an evacuation zone, a low lying flood prone
00:18:02area, a mobile home or an unsafe structure during hurricane season. It's also important for residents
00:18:07to know their home and its ability to withstand strong winds and heavy rain. This information will
00:18:13help residents better interpret orders from local officials. For more information and determine
00:18:19evacuation zones visit Florida disaster.org slash no Florida disaster.org slash no in advance of the
00:18:28season determine your option should you need to evacuate. Now, this is something that I think more and
00:18:33more Floridians have have gone to appreciate it because we had really serious evacuations from the west coast of
00:18:41Florida. Florida last year, you had I'm not saying there was no traffic on it. But you did not have
00:18:47the nightmares that we've seen member in Texas people were stuck and they couldn't move at all
00:18:52and all that. Now we opened an auxiliary lane. We did some stuff with that. But I think the reason was
00:18:58more of just the message is this. If you're called upon to evacuate, you do not need to get in your car and go to
00:19:05some other state. You don't need to get in your car and go 300 miles. When you're evacuating, most of the
00:19:13time they're calling on you to evacuate is because you live in a low lying area that would be dangerous
00:19:19if storm surge hit. So if you go to higher ground, most of the places that you would evacuate to in
00:19:26Florida are in structures that are hurricane proof. Certainly any place that would be considered a shelter,
00:19:32virtually any hotel that would have been built in the last 20 years. So you don't need to make this
00:19:41a major excursion. You can have back. So like if you're here on the coast in Palm Beach County,
00:19:46chances are you just go inland. You hunker down, let the storm pass, and then you'd likely be able to go
00:19:53back to your home and hopefully things are fine. And if there's not, you can tend to that. If you go
00:19:58hundreds of miles away, look, there's I understand why some people want to do it. So if you can just
00:20:03get totally out of the path, they'll be you don't have to worry about power interruption. You don't
00:20:07have to worry about a lot of that stuff. Maybe you just want to relax for four or five days. And
00:20:11and that's fine if that's what you want. But you do not have to do that. And it is not advisable
00:20:17in most situations that you do do that. You will not have to worry about roads. You won't have to worry
00:20:23about this stuff if you just evacuate interior. So that is what we've stressed. We've also said I
00:20:29was in Palm Beach County. We were at the big dog ranch animal rescue and we signed the bills on the
00:20:36against the animal cruelty with the dogs, especially in times of emergency. You know, we had only Milton
00:20:44coming and you had some guy he's evacuating. And so he decides to chain his dog on a fence right off
00:20:53the interstate on I-75. Well, the storm was coming. Water was rising. So it's about up to the dog's
00:21:01like, you know, right up to the dog's torso. And we fortunately we had a Florida Highway Patrol trooper
00:21:08that saw this and rescued the dog, but the dog would have died, you know, had they done that. And
00:21:13I'm just thinking to myself, why would you chain a dog up to a fence like that in that situation? It just
00:21:21makes no sense. And you shouldn't have to do a law on this. You really shouldn't. But unfortunately,
00:21:27this is where we are. So we were we were able to do but but here's the thing. Sometimes when people
00:21:34evacuate, they're cons they feel like they have to leave their pets that maybe they can't bring their
00:21:40pets. No, no, no. Every county has at least one pet friendly shelter in the state of Florida,
00:21:47you will if you go to a shelter, you will be able to have an option to bring your bring your
00:21:52household pets. We work with the Florida Restaurant and Lodging Association so that when this happens,
00:21:58we usually get almost 100% of the hotels. When you're fleeing in a state of emergency, they will
00:22:06outwave any pet restrictions. And you can bring your pets for that. So so don't leave the pets behind.
00:22:12And certainly don't leave them out in harm's way. You have the ability to make sure that they're
00:22:18cared for. And that's something that's important. So there's options when it comes to evacuations.
00:22:25And so just keep that in mind. Because think about we've had situ. I mean, I remember I wasn't
00:22:29governor. But you know, you had Hurricane Irma. So all the people in southeast Florida are evacuating.
00:22:35And a lot of them went to Tampa. But then the storm shifted. So then they're going back. And it's like,
00:22:41you know, some of that is tough. So these options locally, all you need is higher ground and a safe
00:22:49structure. And the things that we would use, I mean, the schools, some of these other buildings,
00:22:54you know, they're going to be able to withstand a major hurricane winds. And honestly, a lot of the
00:23:00buildings even on the on the coast, the more recent stuff, I mean, they're built really well,
00:23:06you can tell in some of the newer buildings, you didn't even know that there had been a hurricane
00:23:10if you looked at it. But then ones that were older, they could be wiped off the map. But so so we do
00:23:16pretty good on wind in Florida. It's just that storm surge. If you get caught up in that, there's really
00:23:21no way that you're going to be able to do so just keep that in mind when it comes to to evacuations.
00:23:28Keep you don't need to get in and do this make this a major joy ride. Look, if you want to,
00:23:34maybe you have family in in in Georgia or Tennessee that you wanted to visit anyways,
00:23:39maybe this isn't an excuse to go do it. You know, we're not going to sit here and tell you that you
00:23:43can't do that. But just don't feel that you have to do that right now when you have a disaster supply
00:23:49kit. We recommend seven days worth of food and supplies for each of your family members, including
00:23:57pets. This is water shelf stable food, batteries, flashlights, reusable ice, pet items, toys,
00:24:04portable power banks and more. We have the checklist at Florida disaster.org slash kit.
00:24:14When you're doing that, I think if you look at every hurricane we've responded, certainly since I've
00:24:19been governor, there hasn't been a place in Florida where you would not have had options for food or
00:24:26water inside of seven days. Right. Um, but you never know, you just never know what's going to happen.
00:24:33So we're, we're proud that we've been quick to respond, but just understand that's not really the
00:24:38norm. They used to never even set up the, the, the, the, the pods. Usually it was like, forget about it
00:24:47within 72 hours. Like no one would even think about doing a pod. We do the pods within 24 hours now.
00:24:53So we'll, we'll do that. But I think you still need to be prepared and gasoline as well, making
00:24:58sure that your tanks are full, making sure that you have some gas in, in a canister or something
00:25:04in your car. We saw two of our ports that got taken out briefly that interrupted the flow of
00:25:10gasoline to the gas stations. You also have the fact that if power goes out, all these gas stations
00:25:16are supposed to have generators, uh, that can run. But the reality is, is not all of them have done
00:25:21that. And so you may not have every gas station immediately. So if you have that and you say,
00:25:27listen, I know I'm going to have to have a period of, of, of a few days up to a week that I can handle,
00:25:34then all your worries will go down. If you are relying, chances are we're going to come there and help
00:25:42and get things. But, but if you don't, then, then that's just the reality. I'm also encouraging
00:25:47residents to have multiple ways to receive weather alerts and listen to all orders from local
00:25:52officials. You are going to be like, so the state, we don't order anyone to be evacuated. That's done
00:25:59at the local level. And partially it's because they're familiar with all the different areas of
00:26:04their city or county. It's also the fact that if they ever did a mandatory, they're going to,
00:26:09they're the ones responsible for putting that into effect. I mean, I could sit here and issue
00:26:13an edict and say, you know, close the bridge. Uh, but then sheriff doesn't have to do that. The
00:26:19police don't have to do that. But if it's done at the county level, then they say, okay, this bridge
00:26:23is closed to the, to the beach traffic. Uh, we want to do this. And I'm not even saying that, that, that
00:26:29they should be doing or not doing on these things. But the reality is it's a bottom up process. So
00:26:35listen to those local officials, understand where you are, understand what they would do. We in the
00:26:41state will amplify those messages. If Kevin has a belief that certain areas that that it makes sense
00:26:49to evacuate and the locals are not, you know, he'll have conversations to try to get to where we think
00:26:54is good. But when you're doing evacuations, it's not an exact science. These weather forecasts can shift.
00:27:01You do not want to be in a situation where you're just telling everyone in the state to evacuate.
00:27:06Um, now there's some Florida residents that wouldn't mind to have a lot of because they'd have more
00:27:10less traffic and a little bit more room. And so it's like all these people always come in here,
00:27:15but you can't just do that, right? So you've got to figure out and you got to look at the forecast.
00:27:21And sometimes the forecasts are excellent. Sometimes they can bop around a little bit.
00:27:24But you don't want to tell people to evacuate if there's not a high, high chance that there's going
00:27:31to be significant impacts. On the other hand, you don't want to act like nothing is going to happen
00:27:37if you end up getting some major storm surge. So they have to weigh that they understand it's
00:27:41disruptive to people's lives. It's disruptive to businesses and the economy. And so so they're
00:27:47working hard to come to. But Kevin is not if there's something that was bearing down on a part of
00:27:51Florida. And in the local emergency responded and responders are somehow asleep at the switch,
00:27:56which I don't think will happen in Florida. But if it was he would get on there and say,
00:28:00Okay, let's go guys, we got to get going. And we'll get them to where where they need to be.
00:28:06Now we are a law and order state, I probably don't need to remind people of that. But but we are,
00:28:12if we do have a storm, the last thing you want to do is to try to take advantage of that situation.
00:28:18You do not loot. You do not violate people's private property. We have very strong laws in
00:28:27Florida about defending your home. And all I would say is, if you're thinking about committing any of
00:28:34these bad acts, I would think again, you never know what's on the other side of that door in a
00:28:38Second Amendment state. Now our Florida State Guard is on stand will be on standby to assist state and
00:28:44local authorities. We're proud of what we've been able to do with our own State Guard. We used to
00:28:49have State Guard up until after World War Two, it kind of got discontinued. And we rely on National
00:28:56Guard. Our National Guard is great. Don't get me wrong. But ultimately, the National Guard is
00:29:01administratively controlled by the federal government. If they want to grab these people and send them to
00:29:07Afghanistan, the feds can do that. Our State Guard has there's no control with the federal government
00:29:15over our State Guard. So they respond to Florida issues on behalf of Floridians. And I think that
00:29:22that's something that's been really, really good. We've been able to recruit, I mean, huge numbers
00:29:28of very talented people. We have the search and rescue. We've got a special missions unit. You know,
00:29:33they're the ones going into this rocky terrain and rescuing people. So it's been it's been a huge
00:29:39success. And I'm glad that that they're on watching us. Now, one of the ways we encourage Floridians
00:29:45to prepare for the storm season is to make needed repairs to their homes. And where possible strengthen
00:29:50their homes against storm conditions will have had a time. We restarted a program called My Safe Florida
00:29:57Home a few years ago. And the idea was provide matching grants for homeowners to be able to make
00:30:04improvements one that protects better against the storm. But it also entitled them to reduction in
00:30:10insurance rates, which obviously, you know, we've seen a lot of increase over over that period of time.
00:30:16In particular, it's been stabilized the last year and a half. And hopefully that continues. If we don't get
00:30:20any storms, that'll be really good for that. But we wanted to do that. And a lot of people used it.
00:30:26Now, we did it last year's budget. We put a lot of money into it. But you had a lot of people sign
00:30:34up for it. So now we've got a lot of people on the waiting list. And this was this is they've been on
00:30:39the waiting list since last summer. And so I told the legislature in January, we did a special session.
00:30:46Now part of it was this immigration enforcement and we're leading the country by by a mile on that.
00:30:52But I said replenish the my safe Florida home, at least to get the people on the wait list who were
00:30:59already approved for repairs, let them do it and make the repairs so that all this will be done in
00:31:05advance of this hurricane season. Well, that was not something that that was that advice was not heeded.
00:31:13So you had view, I think, mainly by the Speaker of the House that those folks on the waiting list,
00:31:18that they should just toil there and not get any support. It'd be one thing if they were just all
00:31:24of a sudden asking for a grant out of the blue at a thin air. That's not what they were doing. They
00:31:29were told to apply for this. The program ran out of money and needed to be replenished. They've been
00:31:34waiting for this. And it was a huge missed opportunity to be able to replenish that so
00:31:40that they could have gotten these repairs done in time for this hurricane season. Now I still think
00:31:46that we want to be able to do that. I think it's really important that people particularly that have
00:31:50been waiting on this are able to get it has proven to be effective. It has helped homes withstand events
00:31:57and it has helped them moderate what they're being charged on insurance premiums. So hopefully,
00:32:04and you know, we're here, it's almost we usually do the hurricane tax preparedness holidays. So the
00:32:11first two weeks of hurricane season, and then we do two weeks at kind of the height of hurricane season,
00:32:16but they haven't even done the budget yet. So we don't have any of the tax holidays in place in the
00:32:22state of Florida. I think you need two weeks early so that you can get all the supplies you need tax
00:32:28free. So we're going to make sure one way or another, there's going to be hurricane preparedness tax
00:32:34holiday. And I know it's people at Home Depot, they flood Home Depot, they flood all these places,
00:32:40and they get their stuff tax free. And you can spend and it's not just disaster, people have other needs
00:32:45around their homes. I mean, you can spend a lot of money in Home Depot and you save a lot on tax when
00:32:52you do it during these tax holidays. So so we want to do it. Now, as part of my safe Florida home,
00:32:59we allow residents to receive free wind mitigation home inspections and ensures they can make the
00:33:04necessary fixes before hurricane season gets underway. I recently signed Florida House Bill 715
00:33:12earlier this month that makes it easier for Florida homeowners to do these repairs. Right now,
00:33:18Florida law allows licensed roofing contractors to install, repair, maintain, alter or extend roofing
00:33:25systems, but restricts them from performing major structural work beyond roofing unless they hold
00:33:31additional licenses. Well, this bill expands the scope of work that roofing contractors can do to include
00:33:37roof to wall connections for structures with wood roof decking. Roof to wall connections are the
00:33:44structural link between a building's roof and its walls, sometimes called hurricane straps. These are
00:33:50critical, critical aspect of wind mitigation and are often eligible features for discounts on home
00:33:57insurance premiums. So by expanding the list of authorized inspectors and installers to include roofing
00:34:02contractors. We're providing a greater opportunity for consumers to have these wind mitigation devices
00:34:09installed. We also recently signed legislation which, you know, hasn't been necessary while I was governor,
00:34:17but in state of emergencies, you would occasionally have local governments use that to unilaterally say
00:34:25you can't purchase firearms. What does that have to do? Honestly, if a storm's coming,
00:34:31some people may want to purchase firearms to be able to protect themselves from looters. And so I would
00:34:37always overrule that with executive action. But for whatever reason, they were under the impression
00:34:43that they had the ability to do that. So the bill that I signed ends that it protects Florida Second
00:34:50Amendment rights from being quote suspended during declared emergencies. And again, as long as I was here,
00:34:57we would overrule that. But the reality is, is who knows what happens in the future. And we want to
00:35:03make sure that we're protecting our citizens Second Amendment rights. So that is also in the books. So all
00:35:10that being said, we're starting hurricane season, I'd urge you to prepare. Now the reality is, is hurricane
00:35:17season goes from June through November, right? Now if you look at when these storms come,
00:35:23major hurricanes are rare in June, in July, as we get into mid August through probably mid November
00:35:30or mid October, that's really the peak, I'd say the end of September, last two weeks of September,
00:35:36first week of October is like, is like the real peak. We've had big ones in August, obviously, you can
00:35:42still have them after the first week of October, you can have them in June. But the reality is there's a
00:35:48there's kind of a rhythm to this. So you do have time, I do anticipate that there will be disaster
00:35:54preparedness tax holidays that will be enacted soon. Obviously, it's got to be enacted this month,
00:36:01because you got to get a budget done by the end of the month. So hopefully, we'll be able to get that
00:36:06done. And then you'll be able to save money on that. But let's prepare as if we're going to have major
00:36:12events. And then let's hope that we get a respite this year. And if we do, that'll be great for the
00:36:18people. Florida will be great for the state. It'll be great for a lot of different things. But we can't
00:36:24just sit there and and hope for the best and go into hurricane season ill prepared. So we've been
00:36:30preparing ever since the end of last cycle. We've been preparing for this hurricane season at the state
00:36:35level. You guys have some of the best local emergency response folks anywhere in the country. I mean,
00:36:42well, we have the best in the country. I mean, for obvious reasons. So so feel comforted in that.
00:36:48But just understand those first three days, five days, seven days, no one's going to have more
00:36:55significant impact on how you respond to the storm than what you personally do to prepare for yourself,
00:37:02your family members, your pets, and anyone else that that needs assistance. Okay, Kevin Guthrie, come on up.
00:37:12Thank you, Governor, for your leadership and always supporting the division emergency management.
00:37:21Yes, I do hope this is the one and only time this year that we get to see each other.
00:37:27Now is the time to be prepared and informed. With the 2024 season behind this, we can reflect on
00:37:33this year's accomplishments. The governor has done that and the lessons learned. And we work together
00:37:38as we move into this hurricane season. Florida is a national leader in the field of emergency
00:37:44management. But it is our mission each and every hurricane season, each and every storm that we
00:37:50continue to improve to better serve our Floridians. When two major hurricanes made landfall within weeks
00:37:56of each other, our preparedness efforts allowed for record breaking state response and recovery efforts.
00:38:02This hurricane season has been predicted to be similarly active. And the division has already begun
00:38:09pre-staging response resources throughout the state of Florida. We're training personnel,
00:38:15and we're establishing contingency plans to ensure that Florida remains prepared. Let me share some of
00:38:20those statistics with you. We already have, even though we talked about all of the stuff that the
00:38:24governor said we put out in the past. We've already replenished 3.5 million gallons of water, 3.7 million
00:38:32shelf stable mills, 1.4 million tarps, 415,000 linear feet of tiger dams. New Florida Central Operations
00:38:41Coordination Office, a new warehouse in Auburndale, Florida. 52 disaster response contracts are already in
00:38:49place and ready to assist for this season. 20 logistical staging areas have already been
00:38:54pre-identified with memorandums of understanding with each of those. A recent addition this year
00:39:00is going to be the launch of our beacon, which is the broadcast emergency alert and communications
00:39:06operation network. So beacon is revolutionizing local public safety communication, ensuring every
00:39:12resident receives timely, accurate, actionable and official emergency information. Now you may say,
00:39:18how is this different than our national weather service radio? It is not different. It is
00:39:23in addition to the national weather service radios. We want everybody to have a way to receive alerts.
00:39:28You should have a weather radio. You should have the alert setting on your phone set to receive alerts.
00:39:34But now in addition, we have beacon. This is an official way for us to give out information
00:39:40from the governor, from myself, from local elected officials, utilizing generative AI to put out
00:39:47text messages to voice radio in each and every market throughout the state of Florida. Today,
00:39:53we launch for the South Florida market. I'm happy to announce that WLRN FM HD 3, HD channel 3,
00:40:00will be the Southeast Florida's radio station for beacon. Throughout the other areas, we have Gainesville
00:40:07and Ocala at WUFT, Pensacola and Destinant, UWF and many, many other stations coming online. If we don't
00:40:15have a station in your area, you can always download the beacon app and then you have 24, 7, 365 single
00:40:24source official information straight from your local officials, your state officials and federal officials
00:40:31if needed. Every resident in every Florida county can access that and we look forward to our continued
00:40:39relationship with beacon. In order to prepare for whatever is blown our way this season, Floridian
00:40:48should follow five simple steps to be ready. First, we want you to know your home and know your zone.
00:40:54Generically, if your house was built before 2004, then it is not up to the Florida building code.
00:41:02Now, Southeast Florida, if you get closer to Miami-Dade, Miami-Dade's building code went into effect
00:41:07around 1996. So those within this market may actually be up to the Florida building code,
00:41:14but generically across the state of Florida, 2004. So know what your house was built. That's what we mean
00:41:21by know your home. Can it withstand hurricane force winds? Next, you want to know your zone. That is
00:41:27all about water, all about the storm surge. So what we're looking for there is, are you in an evacuation
00:41:33zone for storm surge? Storm surge evacuation zones are different than your flood zones. And yes,
00:41:40I don't know why, but at some federal level they decided that we were going to make evacuation zone A and
00:41:46AE. And oh yeah, by the way, we have evacuation zones for hurricanes of A and E. So it gets very,
00:41:53very confusing. But know the difference between those things. After you know your home, you know
00:41:57your zone, the next thing is to make a plan. Make a plan for every member of your family. Make a plan for
00:42:02your extended family. My wife is a primary caregiver for her mother and father. We have to take those
00:42:08things into consideration. Pets and so on. So please make sure you make a plan. Build a disaster supply
00:42:16kit based on your plan. That's all about getting ready. So think about this as ready, set, go. So
00:42:23those three things are all in the ready column. Once you're there, now you're ready to get set. What do
00:42:29we do? Now's the time of year, and we were very, very good at this last year, Governor, on getting the
00:42:35message out about keep your electric vehicles and your gas tanks halfway full. When it gets to the
00:42:41halfway mark, that is the new empty. Go ahead and fill it back up. We saw much less of a run on gas
00:42:47stations in last year's hurricane season when we started the halfway full halfway there campaign
00:42:52than the previous season with Hurricane Ian. So again, this time of year gets to halfway, fill it up.
00:42:59You're ready to go. That's get set. The next phase is go. Governor talked about it. I'll reiterate it.
00:43:07Tens of miles, not hundreds of miles. Generically, don't don't quote me on this media, but generically
00:43:14speaking, please, all you got to do is get to the other side of the interstate system.
00:43:19If you're coastal, whether you're on the west coast or the east coast, get to the other side of the
00:43:24interstate, whether that's the Turnpike 95, etc. There's some as you get close to like Broward
00:43:29County down there right around the county line. You've got to southern county line. You got to
00:43:34maybe move a little bit further. Maybe it's a mile further inland, but generically speaking,
00:43:38get the other side of the interstate. As the governor said, find a hotel, find a shelter, find
00:43:43something that is built after 2004, and that is your go. So evacuate tens of miles, not hundreds of miles.
00:43:49So again, ready, set, go. Those five steps to get you ready for hurricane season. This is the time to
00:43:55do it. You see a lot of things up here for your kit. Make sure you're getting those things now. We are
00:44:02excited. The governor, myself, the legislature are working to get some new products on the tax-free
00:44:08holiday when the budget gets signed. Some of those are on display here today for the first time ever.
00:44:13We now have, how many of you have a sliding glass door inside of the state of Florida? I think everybody's
00:44:19hand in this room should go up, right? There is now a sliding glass door flood control product that's
00:44:25going to be sold here at the Home Depot stores, and it's on display over here for you guys to see.
00:44:29We are excited about this product because we think we're going to cut the damage. We did this study
00:44:34with the Florida International University's Wallowin, so that's an investment that the legislature makes
00:44:39into the Florida International University. But we believe, based on the statistics that FIU have given us,
00:44:46that we're going to see a 99% reduction in water coming in through sliding glass doors.
00:44:52That is going to cut damages down significantly.
00:44:58That's a good question, sir. Somebody can scan that item real quick for us.
00:45:05But that is a great product this year. Again, we're trying to get onto the tax-free,
00:45:10and I'm 99% sure we're going to get there. But that is a great product this year for us,
00:45:15and we'll get to $585 to protect wind-driven rain coming in through your sliding glass doors.
00:45:25And that will save you $40 in tax if, you know, however much it would be, right?
00:45:30That is a great, that is correct. So we will, well, I think you're pretty close to that.
00:45:35Seven percent, 30, I think you're pretty close on that. So you have an opportunity to save about $40
00:45:41on that when we get to the tax-free piece of that. But folks, again, these, we're looking,
00:45:47we're constantly looking and striving to get things done that make sense. Common sense flood mitigation,
00:45:54common sense things that we could do at your home. Just as a, I guess not a shameless plug, but,
00:46:00and that particular product is made here in South Florida, by South Florida, for Florida. So we're
00:46:06very, very excited about being able to get this product on the tax-exempt holiday week.
00:46:12Um, sign up. Last thing I'll say, another governor's already talked about it. Sign up for your local
00:46:17alerts. Sign up for weather alerts. Make sure you follow the Florida Division of Emergency Management
00:46:22at F-L-S-E-R-T on X and Instagram and at F-D-E-M on Facebook. Uh, together, you know, we're,
00:46:32the governor's talked about this a little bit. We receive a lot. We are number one in the United
00:46:37States at response recovery and mitigation. We bring more people from the United States into our,
00:46:44into our state to help us respond to disasters. 33 states all in all for the last year's hurricane
00:46:50season. From Alaska to Puerto Rico and everything in between. We are number two and the governor is,
00:46:58I'm very proud of this and the governor's very proud of this and one of these days we're going to beat
00:47:01Tennessee at this. But we're number two at sending people out. Red, blue, purple states, it doesn't
00:47:08matter. We will send people to help out because they send people to help us. We reciprocate that.
00:47:12That's a great function of the Emergency Management Assistance Compact and we're, we're proud signatures
00:47:17of that and we utilize that a lot. But all of that is the state being prepared. What's going to help us to
00:47:26get from number two in the country of being prepared to number one in the country of being prepared,
00:47:30right now Texas is that group. But we need homeowners. State and local federal government
00:47:36are doing what they need to do. We now need homeowners to step up and help the state of Florida
00:47:41get to number one in preparedness so that we're number one in all four verticals of emergency
00:47:45management industry. Let's work on that together, Florida. I appreciate your time. Thank you so much,
00:47:50Governor. I appreciate your leisure.
00:47:51So as Senator Harrell comes up, these generators, you see them behind and we've, I think, delivered
00:48:03the message over the years. Did we have any generator fatalities last year? Not that I ever saw. So
00:48:12when you do the generators, you can't run them inside your house. Like if people put that unit there,
00:48:17the exhaust is carbon monoxide, same thing even in a garage. So it's got to be outside, then you run the cord
00:48:24and then it's fine, right? But we have had people in the past who are maybe new to hurricanes who would
00:48:30run the generator. And then unfortunately, you'd see fatalities that we didn't have any reported last year.
00:48:36I don't think we had any in Ian either. So but that's just something to be important. So like, yeah,
00:48:43great to have a generator, it can help you get through a couple days without power. Clearly, in
00:48:48in the summer in Florida, to be able to have have things working is a big deal. We understand that.
00:48:55And we encourage you to do whatever whatever you need to do to to make things to mitigate the
00:49:00inconvenience. But just do not run that inside your house or inside your garage. Make sure the exhaust is
00:49:07outside. Gail. Thank you. Thank you. Well, first of all, I want to say thank you so much to the
00:49:14Governor for coming and really making a big deal of this. Thank you so much, Governor.
00:49:25You know, it's delightful to be here at Home Depot. And guess where we're standing? Right in front of
00:49:31the generators. Right. So this is called preparedness. I got my generator last year during the tax holiday.
00:49:39Hopefully we have that in statute very soon. But I just want to give you a little idea about what is
00:49:44happening in Florida and where we are. We are truly the number one state when it comes to our preparedness.
00:49:53We may be number two, but we are overall number one. And that's because of the leadership we have in
00:50:00the state of Florida. It's also because of the lessons learned. We have we are hurricane central.
00:50:08So we have lots of lessons we've learned way back to Andrew all the way through. And what the
00:50:14legislature has done every single time we have a hurricane is we then then do the postmortem and we
00:50:23say what can we do better. And we have learned all along the way. And this is my 23rd session in the
00:50:33Florida legislature. And I've been very much a part of that as we have changed our statutes, changed our
00:50:39requirements. And we always keep in mind those four essentials. Preparation. Number one, we've just
00:50:47talked a lot about that. And you all at Home Depot in particular are very much a part of that. And
00:50:54getting people ready for it, whether it's the generators and this I'm going to buy one of those
00:51:00more than one and getting ready for it. But then also you have to look at our response. What has Florida
00:51:09done in response? And we are the best at response. We have the preparation, but then when it happens,
00:51:17you have to respond. And that is amazing. What we do in Florida, whether it's through our state guard,
00:51:25getting people out there, whether it is getting the gasoline to where it needs to be, or whether it is
00:51:32just making sure you get the debris out of the way. Response is key. But that takes a lot of planning. And what
00:51:41we have learned along the way is every time we have a hurricane, the legislature comes back in and sets
00:51:48up new processes and new laws that say how to do that response. Then you go into that recovery stage.
00:52:00So recovery is where you all play a major part. And thank you. And we want to make sure that you are
00:52:08there to do that. And that people also have done the preparation. But you also have to, you also have
00:52:14to then make sure that the recovery is there. And we want to empower you all as the major industry that
00:52:24helps in that recovery. And that has been a major effort on the part of the state of Florida to empower
00:52:31that. Then we come to mitigation. Okay. And we've talked about the various changes we've made in our,
00:52:38in our building code over the years. And every time we have a hurricane, we look and see what else needs
00:52:46to done be done to help mitigate the effect of these hurricanes. And certainly the building code changes
00:52:56have been major. In fact, I had to put a new roof on my house because of that. I lost my mitigation
00:53:02credits and legislation I voted for. It cost me a whole lot of money. But at the end of the day,
00:53:10at the end of the day, it has made my house much, much stronger. And one of the most important things
00:53:16we have done is this my safe Florida home. So hopefully we get the money in that governor,
00:53:23hopefully very, very soon, please. And that we have that in place. Because at the end of the day,
00:53:32mitigation makes a difference. Some of the examples I can tell you we have done over the long term
00:53:38is you know, when we when you could not get gas, we talked about gas earlier,
00:53:43we then came back and required that any gas station with over 16 pumps had to have a generator
00:53:53so that they could actually pump the gas. Of course, you have to have the gas to pump it. But in most
00:54:00situations, it was because there was no electricity. I remember way back in Francis. And this is again,
00:54:07how we have mitigated things along the way. In Francis, I was without electricity for 13 days.
00:54:16Three weeks later, we all live here on the East Coast. We remember Francis and Jean,
00:54:21three weeks later, Jean came through. So I was out of electricity for 13 days. A week and a day later,
00:54:30Jean comes through. I didn't have electricity for nine days. So in a whole month, and I still had to pay
00:54:38my bill. A whole month I had minimal electricity. However, you look at what is happening today,
00:54:45and what our power companies have done to mitigate those effects has been incredible. With all the storms
00:54:55that we have had come through with the tornadoes that actually hit our area, I really have not been
00:55:01without electricity more than maybe six to 10 hours. So the difference is huge where we have come in the
00:55:09last 20 years because of the efforts we've put into mitigation. And that takes a coordinated effort
00:55:17of our state and our local governments working together. Our state EOC is an example for the entire
00:55:28country. But every single county has to have and by statute must have a local emergency operation center.
00:55:38And the communication that takes place between our local and our state is key to making sure that we
00:55:45have that system in place that really helps us recover as quickly as possible. So we are here as your state
00:55:55legislators. When you have ideas, when you think something's not working, please reach out to us.
00:56:02We are there. We will be looking every single year post hurricane season as to what we can do to empower
00:56:11the entire state of Florida to be prepared to really respond to recover and then put in place those
00:56:20mitigation elements that we really need in order that we can become and stay the great state of Florida.
00:56:28So thank you very much for being here.
00:56:30Well, the season's upon us. So you have time and it is exciting to see. I mean, I remember Kevin talking
00:56:41to me about the things for the sliding glass doors. I mean, if you think about it, um, if that's 99%
00:56:48effective and you drop five, five, $600 on it, the amount of damage that potentially can prevent, because
00:56:55really, I mean, some homes can get just roofs blown off and that's, that's serious. But I would say
00:57:03the vast majority of the damage that we've had in our more recent hurricanes are just water rising,
00:57:09getting into people's homes. And then you've got a, you've got a gut, gut muck and gut. You got to
00:57:14replace the carpet, replace the floor, whatever you have to do. And, and that's just like, if you can avoid
00:57:20having to do that, I mean, that is a huge, huge thing that's worth its weight in gold. So prepare,
00:57:26there is going to be one way or another, we are going to get you tax free, uh, disaster preparedness.
00:57:32So you are going to have a time to buy all this stuff tax free. It should have started tomorrow. Um,
00:57:37as should have our second amendment tax holiday. I mean, that should have started on Memorial Day.
00:57:42Uh, we also are working on a Marine, no, no tax on marine fuel over the summer, which I know is
00:57:48important to a lot of people that are out, out doing that. And this all just needs to get done.
00:57:52So we'll, uh, we'll make sure it does one way or another. Okay. You got any questions?
00:57:56Yeah, you've made it a point not to take federal tax dollars. They always come to the script
00:58:02detach. Um, kind of explain to me and not taking that money. It feels like a lot of more of the words
00:58:10being placed on the state, not in disaster. So when we did that, those were two discrete instances.
00:58:16One was on the Biden infrastructure. There were requirements that we basically change our policies
00:58:23to do things that were effectively part of the, the left wing agenda, such as monitoring people's
00:58:29tailpipe admissions in the state of Florida. We are not going to do that. So that was three,
00:58:33$400 million. We said we weren't going to do it. We sent back Biden's people didn't, didn't know how
00:58:38to accept because no one had sent a money back. Elon accepted it and we got it. The other was on,
00:58:44they wanted us to do these things where we're housing all the illegals. And we said, we're not
00:58:48doing that. Obviously we're doing the opposite. So those are two discrete instances. Now on the,
00:58:53on the federal disaster, what I have said, because there's been controversy with, um,
00:59:00president Trump saying he doesn't want FEMA, he wants to do. And what I've pointed out is in my
00:59:04discussions with him, what he's objecting to is the FEMA bureaucracy. Uh, I think it's the
00:59:11administration's intent to block grant money to the states and let us administer it. So all the
00:59:17things that FEMA does where you have individual assistance, where you have, uh, response or, uh,
00:59:23reimbursements for things like debris removal. If you just calculated typical hurricane, how much,
00:59:30and you gave us 80 cents on the dollar on that, but cut out the bureaucracy, I'll bet you that money
00:59:35would actually go further. So I am not at all opposed to, uh, our citizens utilizing the levers
00:59:43available. And in fact, we utilize the levers available. They have this whole apparatus that's
00:59:49in federal statute. So when a disaster comes, if there's a lever for me to push to be able to,
00:59:55to get support for the state, I do that. That's different though, when you're talking about
01:00:01an infrastructure bill that was really trying to do social engineering, when you're talking about
01:00:06them trying to make us have to do all this people coming across the border, those are just things
01:00:11that were totally contrary to our policies, federal government, whatever the role it plays
01:00:17in disaster response, if there are levers available to me as governor that I can pull to help people,
01:00:24uh, in Florida, get what they need, I will pull those levers. So we're not saying, in fact,
01:00:28I I've told my message to the president, send us the money, send us the money and let us administer it.
01:00:34Now, I don't think that's going to happen this hurricane season, because I think the reality is
01:00:39there's going to need to be more lead up than the time they've had an office thus far. But if they
01:00:43eventually get to that place, I think you could potentially remove a lot of the heartache in these
01:00:49post storm things. You know, I'm talking about Helene and Milton, we're cleaning debris, restoring power,
01:00:53we're doing all this. Well, then what happens is these homeowners end up in this, this stasis with
01:01:00having to deal with FEMA was this FEMA this and it's all about bureaucracy and red tape. And I'm just
01:01:07like, you know what, like, I get it. But why don't we just say, you know, there's certain things, okay,
01:01:12distribute money to people, and then let them make decisions on the basis of this to try to micromanage
01:01:18everything. It just paralyzes the response. So I think that's what a lot of people have been
01:01:22frustrated with. I think that's what the president's frustrated with. But that I would say that's
01:01:27definitely different than what we've done in Doge, where we're rejecting federal money with strings
01:01:33attached. We're also working with our universities because we're Doge-ing them too. You know, they're
01:01:37now having to unwind some of the grants that came down that were DEI. We eliminated DEI in Florida,
01:01:43so you have that. But I would say that's totally different than the disaster situation.
01:01:50Condo crisis that we've had in this state. Obviously, the inspections are well underway.
01:01:55That rollout's been happening since Surfside. Here we are facing another hurricane.
01:01:59So I called for this in January for a special session for condo relief. The reality is the
01:02:06legislature did a bill that responded to Surfside. I was down in Surfside every day for two weeks. It
01:02:13was a tragic situation to have somebody loved ones die in the middle of the night because a building
01:02:20collapsed. It was cruel. It was wounding for the community. And I think the legislature was,
01:02:29you know, we don't want this to ever happen again. And so they took steps. And there were a lot of
01:02:33things in that legislation that was positive because we have had problems with how these condo
01:02:38associations operate, the lack of transparency. But they also imposed on that some rigid requirements
01:02:46about immediately filling up some of these reserves, which the reality is for some of those reserves are
01:02:54not necessarily for structural integrity. It's just for general upkeep. But we just don't have some of
01:02:59our folks that can afford an assessment of 50, 100, $150,000. So I called for this in January. It was not
01:03:07taken up in January. But I am happy to say it was passed at the end of the legislative session. I will be
01:03:14signing it into law shortly. It doesn't take effect until July 1st. But I think what that's going to be able to do
01:03:20is that's going to be able to relieve the burden of these assessments and allow them to be able to work that out in a way
01:03:27where people can stay in their homes. I mean, you don't want to be in a situation where assessments
01:03:33caused by legislation are driving people out. And you know, I hear some people say, well, you know,
01:03:39they can sell everything's gone up in Florida, even these old condos, they'll make money off it.
01:03:44Yeah, but then where do they go after that? A lot of these are elderly people, you know,
01:03:48they may make money off this condo. But then everything else is more expensive. It isn't like if you're in
01:03:53Coral Gables, you know, you can just buy a three bedroom, three bath house for $200,000. Like no,
01:03:59you're gonna probably can't get them for under a million dollars there the way things have gone.
01:04:03So having some appreciation for what those condo owners are going through is something I've been
01:04:09talking about for a year now. So this legislation I think was good. I know the House leadership
01:04:15initially had a different product, which I don't think was good. This is more of the Senate product,
01:04:20which most of the people who are facing this were positive towards. So that is going to be signed
01:04:26into law soon, but it will definitely take effect on July 1. So everyone can rest assured there is
01:04:33relief coming on the condo crisis. Do you think that this legislation has helped us to avoid another
01:04:41catastrophe like surf site? Well, that's a counterfactual, right? I mean,
01:04:45the thing is, when you do things to preempt, or to forestall bad things from happening, nobody really
01:04:53knows that, right? Because it doesn't happen. I think looking back, there are some good things in
01:04:57that legislation that I think have made a difference. I also know that they were legislating against a
01:05:02backdrop. And I was criticized at the time because this wasn't anything I was pushing. And the reason was,
01:05:08I didn't know, we didn't know what caused surf side. It wasn't clear what all needed to be done
01:05:14statewide. And so I think it was a good faith attempt. But I definitely think there were things
01:05:19that have provided some some consequences that we want to not have on those homeowners. I think a lot
01:05:26of people think there's things that have been improved with safety. But it's hard to prove what would
01:05:32have happened or what not have happened. I know you mentioned that it will happen one way or another,
01:05:40the tax holiday. Is there a timeline and estimate as to when that will happen since so we will have
01:05:45something in effect from a budget and tax perspective by the end of this month, because
01:05:51that's the end of the fiscal year. And there's no way that we are going to allow the legislature to
01:05:58just not do their job and get this done for the people of Florida. This is the one responsibility
01:06:04they have as legislators. And you know, I say that I mean, before we have here, if it was up to them,
01:06:09this would have been done, right? I mean, like there's we're just dealing with issues. It is what
01:06:13it is. And the Senate is having to deal with some of these issues. Some of these rank and file House
01:06:18members, I think they're left in the dark. I don't think that they get a lot of insight into what's going
01:06:22on. But I can tell you the fact that we're now here, basically to June for a legislative session
01:06:29that ended in early May. This was totally avoidable. It was not something that needed to happen. You
01:06:36guys should already be enjoying tax holidays right now. And you'd be saving. I mean, if you're somebody
01:06:43that's like gung ho, I'm going to take care of my home and do and you're like a Home Depot shopper,
01:06:48you will save a lot of money, right? Because there's other things that you'd buy. Second
01:06:53Amendment people that go to like the range, like they save a lot of money. Marine fuel. I mean,
01:06:59it's like this is like great stuff for Florida. Over the summer, parents get the back to school
01:07:05tax holiday that's coming up in August. So there's a lot of good stuff that needs to be done. And then
01:07:10I've also called for rebates on property taxes for Florida homesteaders, at least for middle class,
01:07:17we can do this year, right? Let's do that. So this can all be done and it will be done. But you know,
01:07:25as governor, I have different budget priorities, but most of the priorities I've had have been
01:07:33implemented over six years. All the members of legislature have voted for all the things
01:07:37that I asked for. They voted to raise teacher salaries. They voted to help law enforcement.
01:07:43They voted to restore the Everglades. They voted to do K 12 school choice and fund our school district.
01:07:51All the things we've done, we've done better than any state in the country. New York has 3 million
01:07:59fewer people than the state of Florida now. And yet their budget is more than twice the size of our
01:08:05budget. And yet do they have better roads in Florida? No. Better education? No. Do they have
01:08:10better services? I don't know. You tell me, would you rather go to the DMV in Jupiter? Or would you
01:08:14rather be in New York getting a license? I think most people know. So we've done that. We have the
01:08:20lowest number of state employees per capita in the country. You look at like Doge in the federal
01:08:26government, you got massive bureaucratic footprint, not in Florida, we have a light footprint. We have the
01:08:31second lowest spending per capita in the entire country. If you look at the state's debt, just since I've
01:08:38been governor in 2019, we've paid off 41% of our state's debt accumulated over 180 years of being a
01:08:46state paid off. We have the lowest per capita debt in the country. So the reason why I think it's it
01:08:53doesn't speak well to some of the people that are involved and that have brought it brought them to
01:08:57this point is because all you really had to do was copy and paste what's been done. The voters are not
01:09:04asking you to upend the apple cart. They're asking you to build off the success. That's the mandate
01:09:09that that I have as governor. That's the mandate that these reps have as governor. You know, we have
01:09:14the biggest Republican majority in in the House of Representatives in the history of the state of
01:09:19Florida. There's a lot of those people that wouldn't have been there if it weren't for the success,
01:09:24you know, that we've we've gotten in Florida. And, you know, who knows what happens going forward. But
01:09:29it's just you know what you need to do. The formula is very clear. No one's been friendlier to taxpayers
01:09:36than we have. And we want to do more now with helping you with local property tax. No one's done
01:09:42better to do to support education and environment and road building and our ports and our beaches and
01:09:49all these things. And yet we're doing it on a great budget. And we're doing it in ways that were the
01:09:55model for people of the country. You had the Treasury Secretary of the United States saying, you know,
01:10:00be less like New York and more like Florida. If the country was more like Florida, we'd be better
01:10:05off than if we were like New York. Thanks, everybody. God bless.
01:10:13I was in Palm Beach County. We were at the big dog ranch animal rescue. And we signed the bills on the
01:10:20against the animal cruelty with the dogs, especially in times of emergency. You know, we had only Milton
01:10:27coming and you had some guy he's evacuating. And so he decides to chain his dog on a fence right off the
01:10:37interstate on I-75. Well, the storm was coming. Water was rising. So it's about up to the dogs,
01:10:45like, you know, right up to the dog's torso. And we fortunately, we had a Florida Highway Patrol
01:10:51trooper that saw this and rescued the dog, but the dog would have died, you know, had they done that.
01:10:57And I'm just thinking to myself, why would you chain a dog up to a fence like that in that situation?
01:11:04It just makes no sense. And you shouldn't have to do a law on this. You really shouldn't.
01:11:10But unfortunately, this is where we are. So we were able to do. But here's the thing.
01:11:16Sometimes when people evacuate, they feel like they have to leave their pets,
01:11:22that maybe they can't bring their pets. No, no, no. Every county has at least one pet-friendly
01:11:29shelter in the state of Florida. If you go to a shelter, you will be able to have an option
01:11:35to bring your bring your household pets. We work with the Florida Restaurant and Lodging Association
01:11:40so that when this happens, we usually get almost 100% of the hotels. When you're fleeing in a state
01:11:47of emergency, they will wave any pet restrictions. And you can bring your pets for that. So don't leave
01:11:55the pets behind. And certainly don't leave them out in harm's way. You have the ability to make sure
01:12:01that they're cared for. And that's something that's important. So there's options when it comes
01:12:07to evacuations. And so just keep that in mind, because think about we've had situation. I mean,
01:12:12I remember I wasn't governor, but you know, you had Hurricane Irma. So all the people in Southeast
01:12:16Florida are evacuating. And a lot of them went to Tampa, but then the storm shifted. So then they're
01:12:23going back. And it's like, you know, some of that is tough. So these options locally, all you need is
01:12:30higher ground and in a safe structure. And the things that we would use, I mean, the schools,
01:12:36some of these other buildings, you know, they're going to be able to withstand a major hurricane
01:12:41winds. And honestly, a lot of the buildings, even on the on the coast, the more recent stuff,
01:12:47I mean, they're built really well, you can still in some of the newer buildings, you didn't even know
01:12:53that there had been a hurricane if you looked at it. But then ones that were older, they could be
01:12:57wiped off the map. But so so we do pretty good on wind in Florida. It's just that storm surge,
01:13:03if you get caught up in that, there's really no way that you're going to be able to do so just keep
01:13:07that in mind when it comes to to evacuations. You don't need to get in and do this make this a major
01:13:15joyride. Look, if you want to, maybe you have family in in in Georgia or Tennessee that you wanted
01:13:22to visit anyways, maybe this is an excuse to go do it. You know, we're not going to sit here and tell you
01:13:26that you can't do that. But just don't feel that you have to do that right now.
Recommended
1:01:27
|
Up next
1:02