But as someone who has lived on the west coast of Florida for 32 years, and went through the eerie experience of the eye of Hurricane Milton passing directly over our Sarasota house last week, I can testify with great confidence that competent leadership is imperative, particularly when the going gets tough.
Fortunately for Floridians, there is no governor or state leadership team more competent than Gov. Ron DeSantis, who's been tested over and over. But it’s not just a bean-counting sort of competence. It’s a constitutionally-based, conservative, principled competence where the leadership understands the differing roles of government at the federal, state and local levels, and hires people of like minds and abilities.
Florida’s state government, and each municipality, are in charge of hurricane preparedness and recovery. The state coordinates, alongside local officials, and brings resources to bear as required. Federal agencies such as the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) are there to help. But they don’t actually “manage” emergencies, they manage paperwork and signups for benefits down the road — something Gov. DeSantis has pointed out repeatedly to uninformed media people.
So it was the state of Florida that pre-positioned more than 50,000 powerline workers to be on the ground in safe areas and ready to start repairs right behind the storm. This was by far the largest such effort in U.S. history and included trucks from as far away as California and Canada. And it resulted in incredibly rapid power recovery. Virtually the entirety of Sarasota and Manatee counties, with a combined population approaching one million people, lost power. But within five days, almost everyone had power again.
And so it is the state of Florida that is slicing through red tape and permitting for Port of Manatee repairs, as it is one of the primary sources of gas in the state from Texas across the Gulf of Mexico. And it was the state that convoyed tankers with police escort to get to gas stations sooner and the state that has established sites for residents to get 10 gallons of gas free directly from tankers.
It was the state that prepositioned an enormous amount of equipment. For example, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission, including 47 airboats and shallow draft boats, ATVs/Side-by-sides, 132 high-water capable four-wheel drive vehicles, 29 high-water capable swamp buggies and UTVs, 3 SOG support trailers and 4 aerial surveillance drones. The Florida National Guard had in place four rotary wing aircraft, 500 high-wheeled tactical vehicles, and over a dozen boats. All of this and so much more, right down to an Executive Order allowing early prescription refills, was done ahead of Milton.
Florida saw exceptionally high evacuation numbers. But there were still about 2,000 people and 225 animals that needed rescuing by Florida Urban Search and Rescue Teams and the Florida National Guard. You know who didn’t rescue people? FEMA and the federal government. Because, as Gov. DeSantis understands, that is not their role. He called FEMA more of a bank account for withdrawals. That’s valuable in financing the rebuilding, but it is irrelevant to the storm’s immediate aftermath and any rescuing.
And so it was into this that Kamala Harris, one of the most inconsequential and unserious people ever to enter national politics, inserted herself. Enough ink has been spilled on her debacle, but the DeSantis slapdown is worth repeating: “She has no role in this, in fact, she's been vice president for three and a half years, I've dealt with a number of storms under this administration, she's never contributed anything to any of these efforts,” DeSantis said on Sean Hannity. "She has no role in this process. I'm in contact with the President of the United States. I'm in contact with the FEMA director, I'm obviously managing all of our state agencies. We're supporting all our local governments.”
What Milton, and Helene before it, showed, more than anything, is never, ever put your trust in the federal government to save you. They will not. But you should not be alone. It is the responsibility of local and state governments. DeSantis is probably the most competent governor in America, but he is building on a string of Republican governors from Jeb Bush to Rick Scott who all helped create an amazing response structure in Florida. DeSantis has just taken it next level.
Rod Thomson is a former daily newspaper reporter and columnist, Salem radio host and ABC TV commentator, and current Founder of The Thomson Group, a Florida-based political consulting firm. He has eight children and seven grandchildren and a rapacious hunger to fight for America for them. Follow him on Twitter at @Rod_Thomson. Email him at [email protected].
