Gov. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla., defended his state's response to Hurricane Ian, and added that the "national regime media" did not help storm preparations by reporting tracking models that predicted landfall in the Tampa Bay area.
Hurricane Ian on Wednesday made landfall on Florida’s southwest coast in Lee County, south of where some forecasters had predicted it would hit.
Following a Monday press conference in Cape Coral, Florida, DeSantis was asked whether there would be any "accountability in the media" for its incorrect reporting.
"Quite frankly, you have national regime media that they wanted to see Tampa, because they thought that would be worse for Florida. That's how these people think," DeSantis told Florida Voice in an interview published Tuesday.
"They don’t care about the people of this state. They don’t care about the people of this community. They want to use storms and destruction from storms as a way to advance their agenda. And they don’t care what destruction’s in their wake. They don’t care about the lives here. If they can use it to pursue their political agenda, they will do it."
When a CNN reporter Sunday asked DeSantis why Lee County's mandatory evacuation order was issued just a day before landfall, the governor responded: "Well, where was your industry stationed when the storm hit? Were you guys in Lee County? No, you were in Tampa."
DeSantis on Monday continued defending Lee County officials.
"To go back and say, 'Lee County did this bad or that bad' … first of all, it’s not even appropriate to be doing that right know," DeSantis told Florida Voice. "If you want to do that when the dust settles, we can talk about that and obviously you need to bring facts to the table and need to explain the track and why people were focused on Tampa. That’s fine.
"But, you know, at the end of the day, there’s so many other things that people need right now. They don’t need any more pissing contests."
The governor said the state's response team was ready to act after seeing where the hurricane actually made landfall.
"Everyone in this state that’s in the emergency management was plugged in on this thing the Friday before when we declared the state of emergency. It was full mobilization," he told Florida Voice. "And then the question is, where’s the storm going to go and how are you going to react.
"I said the whole time, 'It’s unpredictable. Everyone needs to be on alert.' And I think people were on alert."
DeSantis commended first responders and regular citizens for helping people impacted by the storm.
"We’ve got people from all over the state, all over the country, that has descended on various parts of Florida, but particularly here, to help folks," DeSantis said. "Many of them didn’t have to be asked – they just wanted to come and help. It’s been incredible."
© 2024 Newsmax. All rights reserved.