TALLAHASSEE—After rumors circulated that Gov. Ron DeSantis was avoiding President Joe Biden, the Florida Governor said he spoke to the President last night to ask that he approve a major disaster declaration ahead of Hurricane Milton.
Gov. DeSantis will also have Kevin Guthrie, the Director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management, send a letter to President Biden asking for federal assistance with the removal of debris leftover from Hurricane Helene, which rocked the Sunshine State less than two weeks ago.
"My job is to use all the levers available to me as governor to be able to help prepare and respond to this storm," he said at a Tallahassee press conference Tuesday morning. "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," DeSantis continued, revealing the contents of his and Biden's conversation late Monday night. Last week, rumors that DeSantis was avoiding Biden sprung up after the Governor said he missed the President's phone call because he was "in the air", and then, days later, scheduled a press conference in a different county when Biden visited Florida after Helene.
Though he and Biden finally spoke via phone last night, DeSantis has not spoken to Vice President Kamala Harris, though the two have traded insults from afar after NBC reported that DeSantis was purposely ghosting Vice President Harris because her phone calls "seemed political." He denied ever receiving a call.
Harris, in turn, accused DeSantis Monday afternoon of "playing political games" in between major hurricanes, calling the situation "utterly irresponsible" and "selfish." In a response aired on FOX News, DeSantis accused Harris of being "selfish" and playing "political games", theorizing that she is "trying to get some sort of edge" in her campaign to be president by "politicizing the storm."
Hurricane Milton is projected to hit the Bradenton-Tampa Bay area as a Category 3 storm sometime between Wednesday night and Thursday morning—almost two weeks to the day since Helene slammed into the Big Bend as a Category 4 storm. On Monday, Milton became a staggeringly powerful Category 5 storm with 185 mph maximum sustained winds, though it has since decreased to a Category 4 storm with sustained winds peaking at 145 mph.
It's projected to cause 5 to 10 feet in storm surge and is currently 560 miles southwest of Tampa. 51 counties are under a state of emergency with 21 enforcing some sort of evacuation order. Because of mass evacuations, DeSantis said, the average speed on parts of I-4 and I-75 was just 20 mph and was 150% busier than normal.
Hundreds of thousands of gallons of gasoline and diesel have been used by Floridians trying to escape low-lying areas, resulting in many gas stations running out of fuel entirely. However, 1.2 million gallons of fuel are currently en route to replenish the depleted stations.
"This has the potential to be a type of storm, not only that provides present danger, not only can have serious damage, but also can [make an] indelible mark on a community," DeSantis warned.
