Florida is trying to pick up the pieces after Hurricane Helene.
The Sunshine State is already pivoting to another tough mission.
And Florida made one scary rescue mission after the hurricane that put Kamala Harris on notice.
Ron DeSantis sends resources to help flood-ravaged North Carolina
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has his state prepared to handle a hurricane.
When Hurricane Helene was at sea, he had linemen ready to go to restore power, rescue crews ready, and the state mobilized to respond to the storm.
The Category 4 Hurricane became the most powerful storm to hit Florida’s Big Bend region.
Record storm surge was recorded up and down the state’s Gulf Coast.
Florida was able to hit the ground running on recovery.
Roads were repaired quickly and in less than a week more than 2.36 million homes had power restored after the hurricane.
DeSantis said during a press conference in the storm-damaged city of Steinhatchee that Florida would be sending resources to help Tennessee and North Carolina.
“Florida, we have it handled,” DeSantis said.
Western North Carolina and Eastern Tennessee suffered from the catastrophic flooding that wiped out whole towns off the map from the rain from when Helene became a tropic storm.
Asheville, the largest city in Western North Carolina, has portions completely underwater.
Florida takes action while Kamala Harris and Joe Biden dither
President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris were nowhere to be found in the immediate aftermath of Helene’s devastation.
Biden was on a beach in Delaware and Kamala was a high-dollar fundraiser with Big Tech in San Francisco.
DeSantis had Florida resources headed to North Carolina before the federal government took action.
The Florida Governor launched Operation Blue Ridge and compared it to rescue operations the state made in Israel after the October 7 terrorist attack last year and Haiti earlier this year.
“If we can bring people back from Israel by the hundreds when Hamas is raining rockets down, we should be able to get some helos into the Blue Ridge mountains and get some people out of there,” DeSantis told reporters.
Eight members of the Florida National Guard, nine members of the Florida State Guard, 14 Florida Department of Law Enforcement agents, an all-hazards incident management team, a telecommunications team, 100 Starlink internet kits, and two Chinook helicopters were dispatched to North Carolina.
DeSantis said Florida state personnel would be able “to go up and to effectuate rescues of people who are not able to get out of those areas.”
Parts of Western North Carolina are completely cut off from civilization.
DeSantis said the Appalachian Mountains in the region made for a rugged terrain that made rescues difficult.
“It’s very pretty, it’s very refreshing because there’s no humidity but it is very ragged,” DeSantis explained. “I mean, they build these roads and, you know, it is not necessarily easy to get around all the time. It’s not well-lit all the time. You know, it’s just a different, different lifestyle.”
“And so, when you have something like this happen to sever the roads and the bridges and a lot of the things that happened, I mean, basically, I don’t think they have any major way to even get out of a lot of those western North Carolina places right now,” DeSantis added.
The Florida State Guard rescued a mother and her one-year-old baby and airlifted them to a hospital in North Carolina shortly after arriving there.
During a joint mission with @MyFWC near Alexander, North Carolina, the Florida State Guard Special Missions Unit responded to a life-threatening situation involving a mother and her 1-year-old baby.
Our team stabilized the mother and baby, cleared a landing zone for a helicopter… pic.twitter.com/YnVX6nXW9z
— Florida State Guard (@FLStateGuard) September 30, 2024
DeSantis Daily will keep you up-to-date on any new developments in this story.
