Tallahassee
Gov. Ron DeSantis defended his decision to send state resources and the National Guard to other states instead of clearing debris along Tampa Bay streets ahead of Hurricane Milton.
Speaking during a news conference in Tallahassee on Monday, DeSantis said the personnel and resources sent to North Carolina or Tennessee as part of Operation Blue Ridge were part of rescue missions, not post-storm cleanup.
“You had people that were dying in the mountains there, and we’re all Americans, and we step up and we do the right thing,” he said. “None of the resources we did are debris removal.”
Three days after Helene, DeSantis began sending members of the Florida National Guard, State Guard and four other state agencies, along with aircraft, boats, water trucks, Starlink internet devices and 18 4x4 trucks to the area, according to the state’s announcement. The personnel included bridge inspection teams, temporary bridge materials and “cut and toss” strike teams.
DeSantis on Thursday also dispatched guardsmen to the state’s ports to “maintain order and, if possible, resume operations” in response to the longshoremen’s strike. The strike ended that night.
Those resources have now been recalled to Florida as the state and local governments scramble to remove tons of debris from Helene before Hurricane Milton makes landfall this week near Tampa Bay.
Furniture, rotting wood, appliances and other remnants of Floridians’ lives still line curbs and roadways along Pinellas County and beyond. With Milton currently a Category 5 storm bringing the potential of storm surge of 10 feet or more, the debris could become deadly and make it difficult or impossible for emergency responders to reach some victims, local officials have said.
DeSantis has ordered “all hands on deck” to clear the debris, requiring dump sites to be open 24 hours and ordering the Florida National Guard on Saturday to help clean up.
In the last 24 hours, the state has removed almost 500 truckloads of debris — 9,000 cubic yards — just from the barrier islands in Pinellas County, DeSantis said Monday.
“Let’s get as much of that debris removed as humanly possible,” he said.
Division of Emergency Management Director Kevin Guthrie said Sunday that the state’s emergency planners have been tracking Milton and planning for it for at least two weeks.
“We’ve been working this scenario,” Guthrie said. “Long -range models have been indicating something for about the last 14 days.”
“That’s what’s making us very effective in the response,” he added.
DeSantis defended the decision to not clean up debris earlier because that task has long belonged to local governments. The local governments receive reimbursement from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to pay for the cleanup.
“The debris is a local responsibility,” he said.
DeSantis has criticized the local response, noting multiple times on Sunday that one Pinellas County dump site was locked early that morning, forcing state trucks carrying debris to cut the lock.
But he also praised the city of St. Petersburg, which he said was working well to get the waste out. He urged local governments to throw all their resources together and to operate on a 24/7 schedule, like the state has been.
It’s unlikely all the debris will be cleaned up by the time Milton makes landfall on the state’s Gulf Coast, expected sometime Wednesday evening.
Pasco County Administrator Mike Carballa said that under normal conditions, it might take two to three months to clear the amount of wreckage left by Helene.
Clearwater Mayor Bruce Rector said Sunday that only 5% of debris had been cleared from Clearwater Beach.
This story was originally published October 07, 2024 2:41 PM.