The recent flood in Fort Lauderdale, Florida may not have been enough to drown out Gov. Ron DeSantis’s presidential aspirations, but they sure left his public image among many voting Republicans waterlogged.
On April 12, 2023, the city of Fort Lauderdale endured a historic 25.6-inch rain dump, causing massive city-wide flooding.
The very next day. Gov DeSantis issued an Executive Order 23-65 declaring a State of Emergency in Broward County, which automatically triggered the Florida Division of Emergency Management to deploy to the region.
FULL COVERAGE: Fort Lauderdale Flood
The DeSantis administration was Johnny on the Spot the day after the rain stopped and put all the state’s resources into play, but the Governor did not show up as he usually does.
When Hurricane Ian made landfall in 2022, Gov. DeSantis flew in the very next day to assess the destruction and made numerous subsequent trips to the region.
When the condominium tower collapse in Surfside occurred, DeSantis immediately flew from Pensacola to South Florida, landing hours after the collapse took place.
Where was DeSantis after the rain fell?
The day after the rain fell, DeSantis was in Tallahassee working and signing the controversial 6-week abortion ban bill before traveling to Virginia to address the students at Liberty University on April 14th.
DeSantis continued traveling the country but then held a press conference on April 17th to address the ongoing drama with Disney. The event was held in Lake Buena Vista, which is 30 minutes north of Fort Lauderdale.
DeSantis quickly returned to Tallahassee upon the conclusion of the event.
At this point, 5 days after the rain event, residents of Fort Lauderdale and surrounding areas were frantically looking for gas to fill their vehicles.
The gas shortage was now affecting Miami-Dade and Palm Beach Counties.
As much as they could, both Senators Marco Rubio and Rick Scott took on leadership over the flooding. Sen. Rubio was out driving around looking for gas stations to direct people to.
On April 18th, I asked the Governor’s office,” What is going on in Fort Lauderdale? There is no gas anywhere! I can’t move my car, had to drive 10 miles last night to find a gas station to fill up a 2-gallon tank of gas. People are stranded with no gas. It's been like this for days.”
DeSantis’s office responded by addressing the issue, stating that they were aware of the growing problem, and acknowledged that there was an issue with the gas filling terminals at Port Everglades.
Still, with the crisis reaching a fever pitch, DeSantis still did not fly down to Fort Lauderdale.
Every single gas station in and around Fort Lauderdale was out of gas because fuel trucks could not replenish the fuel that was expended.
Contrary to what some media outlets reported, it was not the panic buying of fuel that caused the shortage
Broward County Commissioner Michael Udine confirmed that 10 of the 12 fuel terminals at Port Everglades were down. More terminals eventually came online in the following days.
Commissioner Udine later issued his final fuel shortage update on
"Update...This will be my last on the fuel issue...11 of 12 terminals operating. By days end all 12, will be restored. Gas tations are all being replenished. Two tankers at port unloading, four tankers offshore. Thank you to @PortEverglades@FLSE teams for their hard work," stated Udine.
Let this sink in. On April 20, only 53% of gas stations were operational.
Things looking much better..
53% of stations are good in Miami/Fort Lauderdale
74% of stations are good in West Palm Beach/Fort Pierce..... Trucks are rolling normally through @PortEverglades (still have a few terminals down) but supply getting out and there is gas to fill up https://t.co/lD1wigfI5U— Michael Udine (@Michaeludine) April 20, 2023
State Senator Shevrin Jones called out DeSantis earlier this week on traveling to Japan and not Fort Lauderdale. Sen. Jones should now better that it only takes 1 hour to fly from Tallahassee to Fort Lauderdale.
.@GovRonDeSantis took a 19 hour flight to Japan, but couldn’t take a 1 hour & 50 min flight to Fort Lauderdale. 🤷🏾♂️😒
— Shevrin “Shev” Jones (@ShevrinJones) April 24, 2023
The Governor’s office said that they had emergency fuel trucks stationed in Orlando and were ready to deploy them.
That never happened, and DeSantis still did not take the 1-hour flight from Tallahassee to South Florida.
On April 20 and 21. DeSantis was able to fly to South Carolina and Ohio for political events.
RT Friday, April 21, 9:34PM https://t.co/3CzQswbMci
— Broward County, FL (@ReadyBroward) April 22, 2023
Is there a coincidence that these two states are either earlier presidential primary states or battleground states?
Shortly after having lunch with his family in Troy, Ohio, DeSantis took off on his International Trade Mission trip to Japan, South Korea, the United Kingdom, and Israel.
DeSantis surrogates tried to run cover for the governor, stating on social media that Trump supporters were propagating the lie that “Ron DeSantis was absent leaving people with empty gas tanks.”
One DeSantis supporter stated gas stations were “back to normal the next morning,” adding that “tankers were leaving the port and heading to gas stations.”
This assertion and claim were patently false.
On April 14, the day after the flood, ALL Fort Lauderdale area gas stations were running out of gas and eventually ran out of gas within a day or so.
My SUV ran out of gas at a WaWa gas station because I could not find fuel on April 18, as I mentioned above. Fuel did not start coming online until around the 20th of April.
The flooding was not DeSantis’s fault, nor was the fact that tankers couldn’t fill up at the port and deliver fuel to gas stations.
The problem for DeSantis here is the optics of not setting foot for at least 10 minutes in Fort Lauderdale and holding a press conference, or even assessing the flooding.
DeSantis finds the time to fly around the state to announce bill signings, attend gas station openings, and find time to visit small restaurants, but couldn’t find the time to fly to a region of the state hit with catastrophic flooding?
Bad optics.
DeSantis has set the bar very high for himself, and people expect him to be there when they need him, even if there isn’t much for him to do, and they don’t appreciate seeing him campaigning around the country instead of visiting flood victims in his state.
This has left a bad taste in many staunch DeSantis supporters’ mouths.
In speaking to one Fort Lauderdale police officer last Thursday, (April 20th) he told me that he and his fellow officers were using high water vehicles in and around Broward Health Hospital days after the rain fell, asking,” Where was the governor?”
The police officer is a huge supporter of DeSantis’s governorship but supports former President Donald Trump’s 2024 presidential run.
Interestingly enough, President Trump, who lives just 45 minutes north on Palm Beach Island, also did not come down to visit flood victims either.
This was a major failure by both Trump and DeSantis.
It’s Tuesday, April 25th and neither Trump nor DeSantis have been to Broward County since the flooding.
