DeSantis Press Conference Ahead of Hurricane Milton

Good morning. We’re here at the State Emergency Operation Center in Tallahassee. Of course, we’ve been at a level one, really, for two weeks now with both of these storms. I’m joined by Kevin Guthrie, Jared Perdue, Dave Kerner, General John Haas.

(00:13)
Hurricane Milton is expected to make landfall on the west coast of Florida sometime between Wednesday evening and early Thursday morning. The storm has moved a little bit slower than initially projected, but remember, do not get wedded to the cone. Do not get wedded to where the projected landfall is. I think the 5:00 AM advisory from the National Hurricane Center had it somewhere in the Bradenton Beach area in Manatee County. You could have a wobble either way, and I think one of the things that’s been good is a lot of those folks down in southwest Florida, like in Lee County and in Charlotte, they’re used to seeing the wobble end up going south. And so you’ve had a lot of people that have evacuated from some of those barrier islands. So just know it’s possible that it could hit north of Tampa Bay, it could hit Tampa Bay, it could hit south of Tampa Bay somewhere in southwest Florida. But wherever it makes landfall, there’s going to be impacts far beyond what the cone actually shows.

(01:12)
Now, we have made, as I mentioned yesterday, pre-landfall declaration requests from FEMA. Federal government has approved a portion of our request. There are going to be landfall requests for a major disaster declaration and individual assistance, and we anticipate those being approved as well. We have 51 counties currently under a state of emergency.

(01:34)
As of the 5:00 AM advisory, Hurricane Milton is still a major hurricane. It is no longer a category five, but it potentially could strengthen back to that as it makes its approach to the state of Florida. Maximum sustained winds are in excess of 150 miles an hour. Now, their forecast do call for it to weaken before it gets to landfall. And maybe that’s true. Let’s hope it’s true. Maybe it’s not. But even if it does weaken, you’re still looking at a major hurricane. It is going to have really, really significant impacts.

(02:07)
Right now it’s located about 560 miles southwest of Tampa. Storm surge warning has been issued for the Florida Gulf Coast from mainland Monroe County northward to the Dixie Levy County line with storm surge watches in effect for Nassau County to Brevard-Indian River County line, including the St. John’s River. 10 to 15 feet. Peak storm surge is forecast for the Pasco-Pinellas County line, all the way down into the area where you have Manatee and Sarasota. Five to 10 peak storm surges forecast from Yankee Towns southward, and then from Englewood Southwood to Benita Beach, including Charlotte Harbor. So that almost entire west coast of the Florida Peninsula has the potential to have really, really significant storm surge. And when you’re talking about 10 to 15 feet, that’s obviously major, but we saw what even four feet did with Hurricane Helene in some of these communities. And so this is something that’s really, really significant.

(03:13)
There’s hurricane warning in effect for Levy, Marion, Citrus, Sumter, Lake Seminole, Hernando, Prange, Pasco, Pinellas, Hillsboro, Polk, Osceola, Manatee, Hardy, Highland, Sarasota, DeSoto, Charlotte and Lee Counties. And then tropical storm warning in coastal Franklin, coastal Wakulla, coastal Jefferson, Taylor, Suwanee, Lafayette, Dixie, Gilchrist, Western Columbia, Western Alachua, Okeechobee, Glades, Hendry, Collier, Monroe, including the Florida Keys and the Dry Tortugas. We have a hurricane watch for Nassau, Duval, Clay, St. John’s, Putnam, Flagler, Volusia, Brevard, Indian River, Okeechobee, Glades, Hendry, Collier, Dry Tortugas. And then a tropical storm watch, inland Jefferson, Madison, Hamilton, Eastern Columbia, Baker, Union, Bradford, Eastern Alachua, St. Lucie, Martin, Palm Beach, Broward, and Miami Dade. So basically the entire peninsula portion of Florida is under some type of either a watch or a warning.

(04:13)
The Florida Division of Emergency Management is actively addressing storm-related resource requests. We are currently fulfilling close to 1,000 missions to support our local communities. That includes everything from tiger dams and generators to staff support, as well as food and water and tarps. We’ve also deployed more than 11,000 feet of flood protection systems, and we’re prioritizing critical infrastructure like hospitals, wastewater treatment facilities, and electrical infrastructure. We’ve also done things like generators to support special needs sheltering operations. Of course, Starlink internet, all counties have access to Starlink internet devices and can use those as they see fit. More than 350 ambulances and more than 30 paratransits are in operation. We also have another 144 in staging that can be used if the need arises.

(05:10)
The state of Florida is amassing fuel reserves ahead of Milton and staging it to be utilized as needed. We have been dispatching fuel over the past 24 hours as gas stations have run out. So we currently have 268,000 gallons of diesel, 110,000 gallons of gasoline. Those numbers are less than what they were 24 hours ago because we’ve put a lot in, but we have an additional 1.2 million gallons of both diesel and gasoline that is currently in route to the state of Florida.

(05:44)
Now, there is no fuel shortage. Fuel continues to arrive in the state of Florida by port and what we’re doing to bring it in on the ground, but lines at gas stations have been gas stations are running out quicker than they otherwise would, and so that is causing the state of Florida to help assist with the mission to be able to get fuel to the gas stations so that Floridians have access. So last night, 27 fuel trucks were escorted by the Florida Highway Patrol to deliver fuel to stations in the anticipated impact area. We’re also working with fuel companies such as Racetrac, Wawa, Shell and Walmart to ensure fuel trucks are working 24/7 to keep fuel delivered as it comes into our ports.

(06:30)
Now, port of Tampa, for example, our Gulf coast ports are not going to be receiving ships at this point per the Coast Guard. They do have a lot of fuel that’s on hand, and the dockside operations will be continuing. We are assuming, doesn’t mean it’s going to happen, but we are assuming that there’s going to be significant damage to the port of Tampa. So we’re operating as if there’s going to be a significant interruption in their ability to receive fuel. And Kevin and his team are actively working to get around that so that we have the ability to continue bringing fuel into the state subsequent to the impacts from the storm.

(07:09)
As we’ve been noting, we have taken on this debris mission to supplement the local governments in areas like Pinellas and Manatee, which saw a lot of debris left over for Hurricane Helene. Continue, local officials, private contractors continue the debris removal mission. Our folks are going to continue to work 24/7. Our executive order requires the landfills to be open 24/7. And in fact, we’ve had to even pry a couple of them open to make sure that not just the state trucks and the private vendors, but also private citizens are able to drop off debris. We want to get as much of the debris picked up as is possible. And as I noted, when we saw that there was a storm forming, we understood that there was a lot of debris on the ground. Some of the contractors work at different paces. This was not something that they were necessarily doing very quickly. So we took all state assets that were available throughout the state, took them off their normal missions and surge them into these affected areas. We’ve now deployed over 300 dump trucks, and they are continuing to work 24/7.

(08:23)
So we have had just with Florida Department of Transportation in the last 48 hours, they’ve removed 1,200 truckloads of debris from those hard hit areas. That’s almost 22,000 cubic yards. That is the equivalent moving in 48 hours with our state asset than what any single private contractor has been able to do in the entire time since Hurricane Helene. So we appreciate what they’re doing. They’ve been working around the clock, and we want to continue that all day today, going to continue and into tomorrow until it’s no longer safe to do so. The Florida National Guard, Florida State Guard, additional FDOT personnel and Florida Highway Patrol are all involved not only in the debris removal, but in the larger hurricane preparation and response. We will have before landfall 8,000 National Guard for the state of Florida that will be activated. We have already on hand 34 different search and rescue aircraft. We’ve never had this many resources prior to a storm. We have had what’s called EMAC requests that gets sent out to other states, and we’ve had a tremendous response from other states. Just like we responded to North Carolina when they needed, states have come to Florida’s Aid. And so I just want to thank the states that have stepped up and helped us, whether it’s a Chinook helicopter, whether it’s some search and rescue personnel, you name it. We’ve had a number of states that have stepped up to help us.

(09:58)
Linemen and power restoration resources are being marshaled in advance of the storm, as is our standard practice. We now have in excess of 37,000 linemen that are either in or in route to the state of Florida. As most people know, Hurricane Helene left a lot of damage in some of our neighboring states, and there have been a lot of linemen surged into those states still working on major power restoration. So some of these linemen are coming into Florida from as far away as California. So I know people like to see the site of the linemen staging coming on I-10 to get into the state of Florida, and you should be thankful for that, but just know some of them have traveled a long way to be able to be here and to be able to help get the power back on. We are hoping that that number ends up in excess of 40,000. So that’d be significantly more than what we had staged for Helene, which was a very rapid restoration. Of course, this storm could present much different challenges.

(10:57)
I would like to say that the electrical coops, they have staged 4,200 linemen, and their goal is to have 7,500 just themselves between these coops by landfall. And to put that in perspective, I think five years ago, I don’t think the coops had anybody that would come in for mutual aid. So they’ve really stepped up and done a good job. And obviously, FP&L’s got a lot of people do… I know Tico has some. I think they’re probably going to do some more as well. But everybody is coming together to do what they can to be ready for this potentially very complicated power restoration mission subsequent to the landing of Hurricane Milton.

(11:38)
The state of Florida has also assisted in the evacuation of 202 healthcare facilities that are in the potential path of the storm. And I want to thank everybody that’s been involved in that. Very difficult set of circumstances when you’re talking about evacuating people out of healthcare facilities.

(11:56)
So as we prepare for Hurricane Milton, we are also mindful that we have a lot of Floridians that are still reeling from Hurricane Helene. That’s why we launched the Florida Disaster Fund so that Floridians and others could make donations so that that money can go to help with relief efforts for Helene. This is a private fund. The donations are tax-deductible. We are opening it also for Hurricane Milton. After Hurricane Ian, for example, the Florida Disaster Fund raised in distributed over $63 million to help Floridians. This thing helped rebuild homes. It helped providing food and supplies. It helped to aid small businesses. It helped to supplement incomes for teachers and first responders who were having to go perform their duties while they were still suffering from the impacts of the storm.

(12:48)
And I’ve directed Volunteer Florida to keep the fund activated. We want to continue to do what we can so far. Almost 4 million has been raised for the victims of Hurricane Helene. Thanks for everybody who’s done it. We’ve had tremendous donations from Lennar, Wells Fargo, Walmart, and Publix, but we’re accepting donations in any amount that you can do. So please, if you want to do that, you can go to floridadisasterfund.org, floridadisasterfund.org You can also text disaster to 20222 if you want to donate via text message.

(13:23)
So we are closing in on less than 48 hours away from the projected landfall of major Hurricane Milton. Now’s the time to execute your plan. You do have time to get to a shelter. You have time to evacuate further than that if that’s what you want, but that time is running out. As we get into Wednesday, there’s no guarantee what the weather’s going to be like starting Wednesday morning. You may have a window where it may be safe, but you may not. So use today as your day to finalize and execute the plan that is going to protect you and your family.

(14:03)
Know your evacuation zone. I think, unfortunately, a lot of people are now quite familiar with their evacuation zone given what we’ve gone through in recent weeks, but if you have questions about that, you can visit floridadisaster.org/know to determine if you live in an evacuation zone. And again, a lot of the places on the west coast of Florida that did receive significant storm surge for Hurricane Helene is projected to have even more storm surge from Hurricane Milton. Evacuations were in effect starting yesterday. And those are ongoing. Mandatory evacuations have been issued for portions of the following: Charlotte, Citrus, Collier, Hernando, Hillsboro, Lee, Manatee, Pasco, Pinellas, Sarasota, and Volusia counties. Of course, we suspended the tolls along the vacuum evacuation routes, and the Florida Department of Transportation is open roadway shoulders as necessary to facilitate

Facilitate evacuations in east congestion on both I-4 and I-75. Yesterday saw a lot of people on the road, particularly those are roads that on rush hour are very crowded anyways, it was about 150% more than what we would typically have on roads like I-75 that moves slow. The average was about 20 miles an hour. That resolved at about 1:00 AM, traffic resumed to normal flow. But we’re already seeing traffic get heavier today, so just be prepared for that. [inaudible 00:15:34] is using all the resources to be able to create as much flow as possible, but there’s an inordinate number of people that are on the road. Knowing that it’s going to be, probably for most of today, slower than normal, just keep in mind you do not have to get on the interstate and go far away. The shelters are open in all of these counties now. You can evacuate tens of miles, you do not have to evacuate hundreds of miles.

(15:58)
Of course, it’s your choice what you want to do, but there are options. And I know there’s a lot of folks, particularly a lot of elderly, they may not want to get on the road on these interstates in normal circumstances but certainly in circumstances where they’re really going to be jammed. You do have options and that is not something when you hear evacuate, don’t think you’ve got to get on the interstate and outrun the storm. You can find safe places on higher ground, hunker down, and then be able to go back to your home when the storm passes. We also have emergency accommodation modules that are activated through Visit Florida, both the Speedy and Priceline. If you want to access these modules, you can go to visitflorida.com/priceline, and then expedia.com/florida.

(16:47)
We’ve also worked with the Florida Restaurant and Lodging Association and they are working with members to continue to offer reduced prices for hotel rooms on a distress rate for Floridians who are fleeing the storm, as well as waving or reducing applicable pet fees. We have properties, the Rosen properties, Red Roof Inns, Aloft, La Quinta, Motel 6, Best Western holiday inns. They’re all on board to be able to do this and help Floridians when they’re in need. So we appreciate you doing that. And, again, having a storm that it’s projected to make landfall about 125 mile an hour winds, and maybe it’s stronger than that, but the reality is if it’s in that cat 3, cat 4 range, if you are on higher ground and particularly if you’re inland, most of these structures in Florida are going to be able to handle it.

(17:39)
But you may lose power, there may be other issues. But as long as you’re getting away from the storm surge, that’s really the most important thing that you need to do. Florida’s also partnered with Uber for Hurricane Milton evacuation, so you can get free rides to and from shelters in counties with active evacuation orders. They did this with Hurricane Helene, they’re now doing it with Hurricane Milton. And so if you want a free ride to a shelter, you use the promo code, miltonrelief, one word miltonrelief. So thanks for Uber for stepping up and helping Floridians when they’re in need. The following counties will close schools beginning Tuesday, October 8th, Brevard, Charlotte, Citrus, Collier, DeSoto, Glades, Hardee, Hendry, Hernando, Highlands, Hillsborough, Indian River, Lake, Lee, Levy, Manatee, Okeechobee, Osceola, Pasco, Pinellas, Polk, Sarasota, Seminole, St. Lucie, Sumter, Volusia. I think some of them actually were closed yesterday too, but as of now, all of those counties have schools closed.

(18:44)
There are 36 county run shelters that are open and operating in counties that are in the path of the storm. Most of these big counties are going to have multiple locations where you can go to shelter. All counties have at least one pet friendly shelter and at least one special needs shelters. Even though we’ve seen a lot of evacuations, we have not seen a lot of folks going into the shelter yet. I think the total population is what, a few thousand Kevin as of right now. And honestly, that’s not unexpected because if you’re going to go to a shelter, why would you go two days before the storm? So I think people will likely be gravitating more to the shelters today and maybe even through tomorrow morning. So we do anticipate that those numbers will climb.

(19:36)
And in anticipation of that, we also have additional state supported shelters that we are going to operate in partnership with the private sector to support and augment what those local counties are already doing in terms of their shelter. So if we do get to a point where Pinellas County, Hillsborough County, Prime shelters are full, you’re going to have other options to be able to go to. And those are not simply limited to those counties, you will have shelters in other counties that are a little bit further away from the storm surge. And finally, the state has identified 14 potential sites for state operated shelters and we are going to announce four of those sites. These are big category five proof warehouse type things that can have thousands of people. I mean they can do, how many thousands do you think on some of those?

One of our sites, we estimate about 10,000.

Yeah. So I mean we have one of the sites can do 10,000. Others will do multiple thousands. But these are designed to be a shelter of last resort and so they are going to be adjacent to some of the evacuation routes. We’re going to have some in Polk County close to I-4, and then we’re going to have some in Hillsborough and Pasco County not too far from I-75 North. And so those will be announced. We’re going to start with four. If there is a demand to do more, we will do more. But it could be a situation where if you’re trying tonight, you’re on the road, traffic’s bad, you say, “Hey, there’s a shelter here in Lakeland I can go to and be able to ride out the storm and then go back”. That is an absolutely safe option to do and we encourage if that is necessary for folks to be able to do it.

(21:22)
Now you can find your county’s emergency management page which will have this type of information and others. For sheltering floridadisaster.org/shelters to have the list of shelter locations. And then for general, including sheltering as well as other orders, floridadisaster.org/counties. So please keep an eye on alerts and advice from your local officials as the storm approaches. This has been a very difficult time for a lot of people in the state of Florida. To have a major hurricane come, not even two weeks ago that we got hit with Hurricane Helene, is a very difficult thing to go through. We did have people lose homes, we had people lose very valued possessions, and unfortunately we did experience loss of life. And so you never want to have to go through that again, but you certainly don’t want to have to go through it on the heels of less than two weeks after getting hit by a category four to potentially have another major hurricane that’s going to impact some of the very same areas that saw significant storm surge.

(22:28)
But here we are. You can tell you the folks back here at the state E.O.C, I mean this has been going on now for a little bit more than two weeks in terms of our first state of emergency with Helene, working on the prep, working on the response. And now we’re responding to Helene and preparing for Milton and going to have a really robust response for Milton. People have been working around the clock in the local communities, our first responders, our law enforcement, their staged, they’re ready to go, our national Guard, our state guard, all these people and some of the search and rescue who helped immediately after Helene. And then when that mission was no longer necessary, they went to do missions in North Carolina. Now they’re back ready for a third round of potential search and rescue.

(23:12)
So there’s a lot of folks that have been working very hard. And I know our citizens go through, it’s very frustrating to have your life interrupted and to potentially have your possessions and your home on the line. We can’t control how strong or weak this storm will be when it hits the state of Florida. We can’t control the path of the storm. The only thing that we can control is the decisions that are made on an individual level to be able to protect yourself or your family. We hope to have as minimal damage as possible, but looking at how big the storm is, there’s going to be significant damage in different parts of Florida. And it’s not just going to be with the surge, that will be probably worst, but this storm is going to go through the peninsula as a hurricane and you’re going to have hurricane force winds on the east coast of Florida.

(24:03)
So make the decisions now and execute your plan to be able to protect yourself and your family. No matter what property damage is done, we can rebuild homes, we can rebuild businesses, we can get people back on their feet, but only if they’re safe and they survive the storm. We’re not going to be able to bring people back who stay behind in 10 or 15 feet of storm surge. So you have time today, time is running out, but you do have time today to make the decision to heed any evacuation orders and to do what you need to do to protect yourself and your family. So please take heed and do it now. Okay, Kevin Guthrie.

Thank you governor for your leadership and your support as always and helping that we can ensure resources are ready to quickly deploy into communities. The state of emergency response team, as the governor has mentioned, are working on nearly 1,000 missions. Some of those missions that are starting to come in are definitely post landfall missions for points of distribution, food and water and things of that nature. We will continue to fulfill these requests until it is no longer safe to do so. Life-threatening storm surge is expected along Florida’s West Coast. Storm surge value show areas could see upwards of 15 feet. Again, as I’ve said several times, the ceiling in this room we’re in right now is 10 foot, eight inches, so another five feet above that. That is certainly not survivable.

(25:32)
Counties have ordered mandatory evacuations all up and down Florida’s West Coast region and I urge you to heed those warnings if you’re in one of those zones. If you’re unsure if you’re in an evacuation zone, visit floridadisaster.org/know and enter your address to find out if you’re in an evacuation zone. There are options to assist residents with evacuating. We have shuttle systems running today for residents in counties with evacuation orders. We also have our Lyft and Uber, again that is available by entering the miltonrelief. You can find the schedule by visiting floridadisaster.org/updates. All of our evacuation assistance is there to include our 1-800 number for shuttles.

(26:24)
That number is 800-729-3413. Again, 729-3413 and that is for residents in any evacuation zones. Your local county is the best place for resources and information and you can find their website at floridadisaster.org/counties. Please make sure that your supply kit has enough food and water for each household member, to include your pets, for at least seven days. Don’t forget to consider any pets and children as you continue to work towards executing your plan. Power outages are expected. I want to make sure I say that again. Power outages are and will be expected. Right now it’s a good time to charge all of those electronic devices and backup charging sources. If you have a person with access or functional needs in your home, you should have registered by now with the Florida Special Needs Registry at FloridaDisaster.org/SNR. But you can continue to do that regardless if you’ve done it yet or not.

(27:23)
Those who live in an evacuation zone and depend on medication or electricity to use medical devices, please listen to us right now and evacuate. The time to evacuate is now. If you lose power, you will not be able to charge those medical devices or use those medical devices. So please get to a place that has guaranteed electricity. The state has activated the state assistance information line. Residents needing information and resources can call 1-800-342-3557 and we have operators there in English, Spanish, and Haitian Creole. Please know that that is a information line, it is not a help line. If you call there and say, “I need help with…”, they’ll be able to give your information to somebody else. But again, that is a information line. General information. I know that the governor has alluded to the fact that he had a call with the President of the United States last night who asked if there’s anything the federal government can do.

(28:17)
So today I’m going to be writing a letter to FEMA and the administrator to ask for assistance. The assistant I’m going to be asking for is in the debris world. We know that we’re going to continue to have major extreme debris issues after this disaster makes landfall. And what we want to do is be able to guarantee individuals, say from California, Texas, the Midwest to come to Florida. If they’re only guaranteed say $9 a cubic yard, there’s not really an incentive for them to get on the road and travel three days across the country to get here at $9 a cubic yard. So what I’m going to be asking FEMA to do is let us have the flexibility to provide guaranteed daily rates for 30, 60, 90 days so that we can encourage and incentivize these haulers to come from across the country to help us get that debris picked up.

(29:16)
If we can surge 1,000, 2,000, 3,000 haulers into the area, we’ve seen that with Jared as a best practices along with General Haas. We see what we can do in just a mere 48 hours with thousands of resources. So the thought process here is to ask FEMA for a waiver that’ll allow us to do guaranteed daily rates for a finite period of time, and we do believe that we’ll be successful at getting those haulers to come in from around the country. Please make sure you look at floridadisaster.org for the latest updates. You can always follow us on X and Instagram @FLSERT, that’s at FloridaSERT, and Facebook @FDEM as we share those updates in real time. Thank you again, governor, for your commitment to the residents of the state

… state of Florida and the division.

Okay. Thank you governor for your continued leadership and good morning. So we have been laser focused on the debris mission leading up to Hurricane Milton landfall. As you heard from the governor, over the past 48 hours, we’ve removed over 1,200 loads of debris, which is over 21,000 cubic yards. That’s truly remarkable what we’ve accomplished in 48 hours using our state assets, our state personnel. We have state employees that live within the projected cone that have been out there working around the clock to remove debris. This is an important mission. These efforts are supplementing the county’s and local municipality efforts. It is still a local responsibility. Our expectation is that every municipality and county continue to pick up debris, to mobilize every available resource and that our debris vendors and contractors in the state through those locals mobilize every available resource and operate 24/7 until it is no longer safe to do so.

(31:02)
We’re going to continue picking up debris, taking it to landfills until it’s no longer safe. We’ve even mobilized some of our road builders here in the state of Florida to help us with debris removal. Again, this is a very important mission. We’re all in this together. Evacuations have been happening. We noticed yesterday traffic was very heavy, congestion was heavy. That means a lot of people are leaving, a lot of people are evacuating. That is a good thing. We did open the shoulders for use. It’s called emergency shoulder use. We did that yesterday throughout the day, over several hours, the congestion began to resolve and we saw that things were back to normal around 1:00 AM. Traffic is already picking up again early this morning. We do expect to see people continuing to evacuate. We’re going to keep those shoulders open. The Florida Highway Patrol and our Road Ranger Service Patrol are circulating those corridors frequently.

(31:54)
We’ve already helped a lot of stranded motorists. We provide fuel, water, we remove disabled vehicles from the travelway and keep the evacuations flowing. Please remember, as you evacuate, traffic will be heavy. Go to FL511.com, that’s real time information on traffic. You can view our cameras. You can plan your routes. There are a lot of alternative routes. You don’t only have to use the Interstate. FL511.com, please do not wait till the last minute to leave. It can be very dangerous to drive in heavy rain with high winds. Unfortunately, every storm season we see traffic fatalities because people decide to leave at the very last minute. Know your zone. Know if you need to evacuate. Know the local orders. Have a plan, implement that plan and get on the road and get to safety. We have suspended construction on all of our construction projects within the projected cone.

(32:51)
Our road builders are on standby with their resources and assets to affect any temporary emergency repairs that may be needed after Hurricane Milton makes landfall. We have staged our bridge inspectors, our damage assessment teams, and the resources that we need to clear roads quickly after Hurricane Milton makes landfall. We have 156 bridge inspectors staged and ready to go. We’re focusing in on coastal bridges, low-lying roads, and also bridges inland over rivers, creeks, and streams. There’s been a lot of rain, there’s going to be a lot more rain, and then there’s going to be heavy winds. And so we’re going to be focused on getting those bridges inspected and affecting any temporary repairs that may be needed. We have over 1,500 pieces of heavy equipment and over 300 team members staged throughout the state and ready to move in as soon as Hurricane Milton makes landfall and passes through the peninsula.

(33:44)
The seaports on the West Coast of Florida have closed this morning on the waterside. Landside is continuing to operate. Fuel is continuing to move. Since Saturday, Port Tampa Bay has received six shipments of fuel, so the terminals are full operating on the landside and fuel is continuing to be distributed. Passenger rail lines are suspending or modifying service today, and also transit agencies will begin suspending normal service throughout the day today. To conclude, I want to remind you FL511.com is the place to get real-time traffic information. Remember, always follow the direction of local law enforcement and emergency personnel. Thank you, governor for your leadership.

Thank you, governor. Good morning, fellow Floridians. My name is Dave Kerner. On behalf of the Florida Highway Patrol, it is an honor to serve this governor and the people of the great state of Florida. Just a quick update on the resources deployed on behalf of the Florida Highway Patrol. We have nearly all of our 2,000 state troopers and over 300 auxiliary state troopers are activated and they’ll be working on Alpha Bravo shifts until the job is done. Secretary Perdue talked about the fuel deliveries, the governor did as well. We want to assure you that the Florida Highway Patrol is engaged in transporting and escorting all of the fuel carriers from the ports, Port Manatee, Port Tampa, along the route of evacuation. You will see state troopers and you will see fuel trucks utilizing the right lane to bypass traffic. It’s important for the continuity of operations that we have that space to work in the right shoulder.

(35:22)
Please don’t occupy the right shoulder, the left shoulder, and the affected parts of I-4 and I-75 are open for your use. But please make sure if you break down, if you get a flat tire, call Star FHP, the Florida Highway Patrol will be there, the Department of Transportation will be there to help change a tire. But if the vehicle cannot be restarted and moved, then it’s going to have to be moved to the left side of the Interstate so that emergency shoulder use remains open. We have 30 troopers assigned from 6:00 AM to 6:00 PM today, specifically transporting fuel trucks to the route where affected area we believe will be. We have six Florida Highway Patrol aircraft with cameras that are staged and activated and will be deployed at the appropriate time. We have 74 QRF members that are already pre-staged in Orlando with chainsaws and skid steers.

(36:11)
We have seven drone teams are all staged in east of Pinellas and Lee Counties and are active and operational in both the transportation and debris removal operations. Just two points about evacuation. Decide what’s best for your family. The governor has said and reiterated that it’s your decision. But if you’re in an evacuation zone, please heed the warnings and direction of your local government and make that decision. Whatever your decision is, don’t hesitate in that decision. So today is an important day to execute on the plans to make sure that you and your family are safe. If you are going to evacuate and if you’re considering doing that, please do not be concerned about the potential loss of property, theft or looting. We spoke yesterday about how the Florida Highway Patrol, the National Guard, the State Guard, the FWC, are all engaged in proactive patrol to make sure that if you’re evacuating that your property is safe, that your home is safe, and that’s one less thing that you have to worry about. You should be focused on evacuating safely and preparing for the storm.

(37:16)
Even our sheriffs in all of the counties, our elected sheriffs and police departments, they’re engaged. They speak with each other, they speak with us, they surge resources into the affected areas and they assist in proactive patrol. Again, if you’re on our roadways and you’re evacuating, obviously there’s a lot of saturation and congestion. The moment that happened, the governor directed that we escort fuel trucks. We will continue to do that until it’s not safe. But if you do break down, remember Star FHP, we will have a trooper or a road ranger to you immediately to make sure that you are taken care of. And that’s all we have for today. Thank you, governor.

And just to reiterate something that Dave said, this is not going to be an opportunity for folks to take advantage of people. If you think you’re going to go in and loot, you’ve got another thing coming. You go into somebody’s house after the storm passes, think that you’re going to be able to commit crimes, you’re going to get in really serious trouble. And quite frankly, you don’t know what’s behind that door in a Second Amendment state. So do not try to take advantage of people who are suffering because of the results of this storm. That goes for Helene continually, but then of course, that will be the case for Milton. I know we’ve already brought a lot of people, held people accountable in post-Helene, and we will be very swift across all levels of government to throw the book at people. And of course, when you make these bad decisions, you’re opening yourself up to response from property owners who may be inside that house.

(38:55)
We are going to continue full throttle with everything that we’ve been doing, whether it’s debris, fuel, we have all the stuff staged that we would normally do and then some. And we’re going to continue to do that. We will respond. Your local emergency responders, your state emergency responders will respond to people in distress the minute it is safe to do so. So this storm is going to come, it will move through the state of Florida. As soon as you can get into those areas, we will have that. And we have all the assets, we have air assets, as I mentioned, more search and rescue air assets then we’ve ever amassed before a storm. We have our water assets with FHP high water vehicles, our FWC boat teams, and of course we have State Guard Special Missions unit and up to 8,000 National Guardsmen that will be ready to go and we will do that.

(39:47)
But now’s the time where you have the ability to make the decisions necessary to keep yourself and your family safe. We urge you to execute your plan now. Let’s prepare for the worst and let’s pray that we get a weakening and hope for the least amount of damage as possible. But we must be prepared for a major, major impact to the West Coast of Florida.

You finally had a chance to speak with the president. What did you guys talk about now about [inaudible 00:40:16]?

Well, what I said yesterday is everything that we’ve asked for the administration has approved. There’s not anything that we’ve asked for that they haven’t. If there’s something that comes up, I said I would not hesitate to get on the phone and call and ask directly on behalf of the people of Florida. My job is to use all the levers available to me as governor to be able to help prepare and respond to this storm.

(40:44)
And so when we do pre-landfall declaration, it’s important that that’s approved. It was. When we do the major disaster declaration, it’s important that that’s approved. It will be after speaking with the president. I’m confident of that. We are also utilizing the urban search and rescue teams, which a lot of those people are in Florida anyways, but they’re mobilized under the DHS banner. That’s great. Hopefully we don’t need them, but we’re assuming that we do. So we have what we need, the president said, “If there’s something else you need, call or send a letter.” So Kevin’s going to send the letter on this debris issue. We’ve seen there is going to be a need to have a lot of these contractors come in and you’re going to have to see these local governments and the counties and the municipalities, they’re going to have to do more contracts most likely.

(41:32)
And there aren’t that many, there’s not enough available. And so why would you come from Arizona or California under the current incentives? So Kevin, I think this is smart to say, why don’t we change those incentives to be able to get more people to come so that this debris mission can be conducted as quickly as possible? You saw what we’ve been able to do in the 48 hours when you really have a 24/7 sense of urgency. Now, most times after a storm, you don’t have another storm on the back end. These things tend to take months and months to be able to do. And maybe this is just something that will take some time no matter what you do, but I think it could be done quicker and I think this, Kevin’s idea, would be good. So we hope that we will get a positive response from that.

(42:16)
But we are utilizing all resources available. We’re pulling every lever we can to get support here in the state of Florida. We’re doing everything we can to support our local first responders and our local communities as they are really, this is a bottom-up thing when you talk about hurricane response, as they go through their evacuations, their shelter operations. And they will be of course on the tip of the spear for search and rescue in addition to what the state is doing. So we’re doing that. We appreciate the approvals that we’ve gotten. We will not hesitate to ask for more if the need arises.

In terms of the evacuation, I don’t know if you guys have been able to ascertain the exact estimated size, the number of people who will be getting out of the area of harm’s way.

I mean, it’s a lot. I think that what you’ve seen is on the heels of Helene, a lot of people I think are like, “Well, you know what? I got four feet on Helene, why would I want to stick around for 10 feet with this potentially?” And so I think you see a lot of people who are doing that and just want to get out of Dodge. I also think a place like Southwest Florida, they have muscle memory from these storms. Remember Charlie was supposed to hit Tampa Bay, Ian was supposed to hit Tampa Bay, and those curve. Now I’m not saying this is going to curve far South. It’s possible, there’s some models that say that. But I think they’re looking at it and saying, “Okay, we’ve seen this before. Even though they say it’s going to go into Manatee right now, very possible a little wobble, it ends up in Charlotte Harbor or it ends up in Lee County.”

(43:52)
And certainly even if it hits North, I mean the surge is going to be significant. So I think you’re seeing a lot of people go across Alligator Alley, and you’re seeing people leave from Southwest Florida, go into Southeast Florida. So you do have a lot of folks. I think that this is one where people don’t want to mess with it. Of course, it’s a lot easier to make that decision, and I know it’s not going to hit at 180 miles an hour, no one’s saying that. But when it hits 180 miles an hour off the Yucatan Peninsula, hurricanes don’t get that much stronger than that. I mean, there have been some that have, but that is a really serious storm. And so I think when people see that they do.

(44:29)
So I don’t know the exact number of who’s going to ultimately go. I will say it’s a lot. I will say that the roads were 150% more than what we would normally have. And so that’s telling you that the people are getting and getting on the road. Again, just to reiterate, when you’re told to evacuate, there’s places close by that you can evacuate to. We do not expect people to have to drive hundreds of miles. Some people may want to do that because they have family or friends or maybe they have a hotel someplace. Maybe they don’t want to have power outages and stuff, and they’re willing to drive

… more. That’s fine. That’s your choice, but do not feel like you have to get on an interstate and be in potential bumper-to-bumper traffic. I think Jared said yesterday, the average was about 20 miles an hour on I-4 And I-75. I mean, those are roads that can have bad traffic generally, but I mean that’s slower than normal. As we got to 1:00 AM, the flow returned to normal. But as we go through today, you’re going to continue to see a lot of people on the roads. And so, on one hand, that shows that people are taking it serious, but on the other, people just need to prepare for that. I mean, they’re working really hard with the road rangers. They’ve opened the shoulders. There’s a lot that’s being done and they’ll continue to do it. They’ll help with people that run out of gas.

(45:43)
But when you have this entire peninsula on the West Coast that’s under threat, the reality is, is there’s only so many places you can go in there. So, just be prepared for that. Be prepared that you’re not going to be able to go 75 miles an hour to get out of dodge on the interstates right now. You probably could have done that in the wee hours of this morning. But as we get back to normal, it is going to be a little slower. That’s just the reality.

For the debris removal, do we know just how much is left in the expected impact areas? Because I know you guys are running around the clock. Do you have an estimate?

It’s just a lot. We don’t have an exact number.

So yeah, I mean, what I would say is there was a lot of debris. I’d say we’ve made a huge dent in it, but I don’t think that even at our current pace, and even if we continue going through Wednesday morning, maybe even Wednesday at noon, that you’re going to be able to get all of it. We’re urging the contractors to do the 24/7 like we are. Not all of them are doing it. In fact, most of them are not doing 24/7. So the only place that really has had the sense of urgency is Jared and the FDOT. These are… The Debris Mission is not the state’s mission. That’s a local mission. Kevin and I have been talking to local governments for years about make sure you have these contracts in place. Make sure you’re ready because getting the debris up, even if you don’t have another storm, people just want to see the debris up.

(47:08)
I mean, it helps with the recovery. It’s good for morale and it’s also just good for safety and good for cleanliness. And so we’ve been stressing that. And you have had vendors, some have done pretty good, others have just been very slow. That’s just the reality. So we have all these different assets that are engaged in normal operations, having nothing to do with debris. I mean, these are state agencies that have tasks that they have to accomplish. And Jared and Kevin basically scrambled all those assets across multiple agencies and are shifting it now to do this debris. So to be able to do, what is it? 1,200 truckloads of debris in 48 hours, and these are big trucks. I mean, that’s a huge thing. And you see them being escorted with police escorts and I think people have told me they’re thankful for this because it just shows progress and it shows that we’re taking it seriously.

(48:05)
So I think it’s going to end up making a big, big difference. I don’t think I can say that all the debris will be taken off even if these contractors pick up the pace, but I do think it’s made a difference. We’ll have less damage from the storm as a result of what the state has done to supplement than if we had just done… And then even if just the fact that we did 24/7 at the landfills, that’s helped private individuals. People are loading up their own debris and they’re bringing it in. They wanted to close the landfills. We said, no, it needs to be open. You’re doing that. So it may not have been humanly possible to have all debris cleaned up from Helene until the hit of Milton, just because of how much it is. And you don’t start picking up the debris immediately because people, they compile the debris when they’re gutting their homes and figuring out… So it takes a little bit of time just to get on the target on that.

(48:59)
But what we’ve been able to do, I think has been historic to have this many state assets being brought to these local communities and helping them not just supplement the mission, but really augment it in a way that’s making a real difference.

Are you seeing more requests for these flight control dams that have been proven effective the last few storms?

Yeah, I mean I think we’ve now… What do we have? Total amount of feet? We’ve got-

A little over 11,000.

Yeah, 11,000. So we probably did, what do we do, 1,500 for Helene, 2,000 maybe?

I think it was a little bit more than that. Probably just shy of 5,000.

Okay. So we’ve doubled that already. Kevin is working and we’ll see. We have had requests and then some said, well, maybe do something different. But if we do get a request, one of the things we’re interested in doing, we’d have to do it today, is finding a flood prone community maybe that have a lot of citizens insurance policies and setting up tiger dams around the homes. I think it will be effective. So Kevin’s working on that, we may do something in Pinellas or Hillsborough, so when that happens, if it does, we will announce that. So we want to use these. We want them to be put into practice. They did help against the surge in Hurricane Helene and I think that they’ll be helpful in the surge with this upcoming Hurricane Milton. And then what it could do is potentially help… We should… A citizen’s insurance, if they’re going to be exposed on some of these storms and they can potentially buy tiger dams for people or have that option knowing you’re going to have to pay out less as a result because you’ll mitigate some of the damage.

(50:38)
Is that something that would be good? I think it probably would be. So we’re going to actually support a lot of things to protect critical infrastructure, but then using it in the residential, however that is done with Kevin and his team. If that ends up being done, I think will be important because I think it can help people, but I also think it could be something that we could then in a more significant way to protect against future storms.

Is this something that you’re encouraging local governments to also invest in so that they have [inaudible 00:51:09]?

Sure, but we also understand that just right now, that would be something that maybe they would do in future hurricane season. We’re not anticipating that they have very much to bring to bear. Now that’s mostly going to be driven by us, but it’s fine.

(51:22)
I mean, we always look for ways, what can we do to augment? This was something we introduced during Hurricane Debbie, which was not a storm on the level of Helene or Milton, but it did create surge. It did create flooding and where that was used, it worked. It really did. It worked in Helene where it was used. I think it’ll work in this storm as well. So we’re going to have six weeks, eight weeks of practice on this where we then can look and maybe incorporate this as part of a larger part of our hurricane prep and response efforts.

(51:56)
I mean, think about it, go back five or six years, it wasn’t the norm to necessarily have 40,000 lineman stage. Now people expect that. That’s what we do. We have the co-op, electrical co ops. They’ve got over 4,000 lineman that they’re bringing in. 10 years ago, the co-ops would never have brought in lineman and they may get to 7,500. So these things create, I think, good momentum. People then want to utilize it, and it won’t just be the state in the future, but right now we’re kind of the main show in town on that.

A lot of Florida natives I spoke to have kind of seen this storm as kind of like the gut check. Usually these are the same people who wait it out and have hurricane parties and stuff, but these people are now saying, this one I’m going to evacuate. I’m going to go. You’ve lived here most of your whole life. I mean, where does this storm leave you as a native Floridian?

Well, what it leaves me is someone that grew up in Pinellas County and we never got hit by a major hurricane when I was growing up. In fact, they really haven’t been hit by a major hurricane directly in a long time. When we look at hurricane preparation for the state, we look at that landfall in the Tampa Bay area as potentially one of the most significant storms that we can face. And that’s not just, we would say, what if a category five hit, but even a strong cat three in the storm surge. I mean, this is a vulnerable area to the surge. So this is not something that was not necessarily a game planned for, this is the main thing that you game plan for. And I know Kevin, when he was the deputy, they were doing exercises on this event going in there, and I think people realize there are certain parts of the state that may handle some of this stuff better than other parts of the state.

(53:45)
I’m not saying you can’t have surge in the panhandle, but it kind of surges. And if you’re beyond that, Pinellas County is a peninsula. Tampa Bay, you have rivers, you’ve got all this stuff on the bay. There’s just so much that that surge can do. And so I think you don’t want to have to had Helene, but I think Helene also oriented people. If a storm a hundred miles off the coast can lead to feet of storm surge, then what about a storm that goes directly in? And then I also think you have people who have kind of seen this, as I mentioned, you go further south on the West Coast. Hurricane Charlie was supposed to be the gut check for Tampa. It went south. Hurricane Ian, a lot… I mean, I was in Pinellas County I remember 48 hours before Hurricane Ian. Everyone was ready.

(54:34)
Then we went to Sarasota the next morning thinking, okay, maybe it’s gone further south. And then it ended up going all the way down making landfall in Lee County. So I think folks in Southwest Florida, places like Charlotte, Lee, I think they’re like, okay, you can say that that landfall is going to be in Bradenton Beach. And first of all, if that’s the case, you’re still going to get some impacts on that and you could potentially have serious surge, even a hundred miles down the coast, but it also could wobble further south and we could even get a bigger impact. So I think Floridians between those two, they get it now. I mean, I’m also just looking at Pinellas County place I’ve grown up, if you have a storm of this magnitude, it’s not just… Obviously we want to protect people, we want no loss of life.

(55:23)
It will create a lot of property damage, but it’s a type of storm that potentially can have an indelible impact on a community. There are some hurricanes we deal with that it stinks to have to deal with it. You pick up and you move forward. Then there’s other storms like a Hurricane Andrew, like a Hurricane Michael in Panama City, like Hurricane Ian in Lee County that just leave a mark. And so I think people when they see that 180 mile an hour, and I know it’s weakened since then, and it’s projected to be even weaker by the time it reaches, but that’s not guaranteed. This has the potential to be a type of storm not only that presents danger right now, not only can have a serious damage, but also can have kind of that indelible mark on a community. So we are praying for the best. I know a lot of people have had Floridians in their thoughts and prayers.

(56:13)
There’s no way we’re going to get out from this in terms of not having an impact. If it could jog south and just go out somewhere, we would love it. That’s not going to happen. So let’s pray that it’s as weak as possible between now and then, but we are preparing for it to be as strong as possible. And that is exactly how our response is going to be. Okay. We’ll have more updates later in the day.