US president offers support to people of Florida after Governor Ron DeSantis, a potential presidential rival, rejected a meeting with him.
US President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden speak with a woman during their tour of Hurricane Idalia’s destruction, Live Oak, Florida, US, September 2, 2023 [Evelyn Hockstein/ Reuters]Joe Biden, the president of the United States, has surveyed the destruction caused by Hurricane Idalia in the state of Florida but did not meet with Governor Ron DeSantis, a potential presidential rival, who opted not to come.
Biden offered support and condolences to those affected by Idalia on Saturday after taking an aerial tour and receiving a briefing from local officials as well as first responders in Live Oak, a town hit hard by the storm.
He saw houses with fallen trees on them and said that no one “intelligent” could doubt that climate change was happening.
“I’m here today to deliver a clear message to the people of Florida and throughout the southeast,” Biden said as he spoke outdoors, near a church that had parts of its sheet metal roof peeled back by Idalia’s powerful winds and a home half crushed by a fallen tree.
“As I’ve told your governor, if there’s anything your state needs, I’m ready to mobilise that support,” he continued. “Anything they need related to these storms. Your nation has your back and we’ll be with you until the job is done.”
But politics hung over Biden’s trip.
The president, a Democrat who has spoken to DeSantis multiple times this week, said on Friday that he and the Republican governor would meet in person. But DeSantis’s spokesperson said on the same day that the governor had no plans to meet Biden, adding that “the security preparations alone that would go into setting up such a meeting would shut down ongoing recovery efforts”.
The governor’s decision caught the White House off guard.
Asked if he was disappointed that DeSantis did not come, Biden said, “No, I’m not disappointed.”
“He may have had other reasons. … But he did help us plan this,” Biden told reporters. “He sat with FEMA and decided where we should go where would be the least disruption,” he added, referring to the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Hurricane Idalia has wrought havoc in Florida, leaving 250,000 homes without power and submerging properties. The storm has now been downgraded as it heads into Georgia – but storm surges and rainfall pose new risks.
Idalia is now a tropical storm – what has happened so far?
Flooded roads, evacuations and downed power lines – there’s no doubt Idalia has caused havoc in the US over the last 24 hours.
It was originally classed as a category 3 hurricane, but as the day comes to an end it has been downgraded to a tropical storm.
Here’s what has happened so far:
Idalia roared ashore early this morning with 125 mph winds and unleashed devastation along a wide stretch of the Gulf Coast.
Homes and vehicles were submerged, streets turned into rivers, and small boats were unmoored before the hurricane went sweeping into Georgia.
Almost 438,000 customers in Florida and Georgia lost power while rushing water covered streets near the coast.
The centre of the hurricane then moved inland, causing high winds to shred signs, send sheet metal flying and snap tall trees.
Idalia came ashore in the lightly populated Big Bend region, where the Florida Panhandle curves into the peninsula.
It made landfall as a high-end category 3 hurricane with maximum sustained winds near 125 mph.
There were no confirmed storm deaths in Florida, although fatal traffic accidents in two counties may end up being storm-related, Florida governor Ron DeSantis said.
State officials, 5,500 National Guardsman and rescue crews were in search-and-recovery mode, inspecting bridges, clearing toppled trees and looking for anyone in distress in one of Florida’s most rural regions.
On the island of Cedar Key, downed trees and debris blocked roads, and propane tanks exploded.
Florida residents living in vulnerable coastal areas were ordered to pack up and leave as Hurricane Idalia gained steam in the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico, and authorities warned of a “catastrophic storm surge and destructive winds” when the storm moves ashore Wednesday morning.
Idalia was packing sustained winds of 110 mph (177 kph) early Wednesday, after growing into a Category 2 system on Tuesday afternoon. It was projected to make landfall later Wednesday morning as a Category 4 storm with winds of at least 130 mph (209 kph) in the lightly populated Big Bend region, where the Florida Panhandle curves into the peninsula. The result could be a big blow to a state still dealing with lingering damage from last year’s Hurricane Ian.
The National Weather Service in Tallahassee called Idalia “an unprecedented event” since no major hurricanes on record have ever passed through the bay abutting the Big Bend.
On the island of Cedar Key, Commissioner Sue Colson joined other city officials in packing up documents and electronics at City Hall on Tuesday. She had a message for the almost 900 residents who were under mandatory orders to evacuate. More than a dozen state troopers went door to door warning residents that storm surge could rise as high as 15 feet (4.5 meters).
“One word: Leave,” Colson said. “It’s not something to discuss.”
Gov. Ron DeSantis repeated the warning at Tuesday afternoon news conference.
“You really gotta go now. Now is the time,” he said. Earlier, the governor stressed that residents didn’t necessarily need to leave the state, but should “get to higher ground in a safe structure.”
Tybee Island, Ga., resident Bryan Moore helps his friend board up his house on the island, Tuesday, Aug. 29, 2023, ahead of Hurricane Idalia. (Stephen B. Morton/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP)
Not everyone was heeding the warning. Andy Bair, owner of the Island Hotel, said he intended to “babysit” his bed-and-breakfast, which predates the Civil War. The building has not flooded in the almost 20 years he has owned it, not even when Hurricane Hermine flooded the city in 2016.
“Being a caretaker of the oldest building in Cedar Key, I just feel kind of like I need to be here,” Bair said. “We’ve proven time and again that we’re not going to wash away. We may be a little uncomfortable for a couple of days, but we’ll be OK eventually.”
Tolls were waived on highways out of the danger area, shelters were open and hotels prepared to take in evacuees. More than 30,000 utility workers were gathering to make repairs as quickly as possible in the hurricane’s wake. About 5,500 National Guard troops were activated.
Hurricane Idalia gained fury over the Gulf of Mexico on Tuesday as it crawled toward Florida’s Gulf Coast, forcing evacuations in low-lying coastal areas expected to be swamped when the powerful storm hits on Wednesday morning.
Idalia was generating maximum sustained winds of 105 miles per hour (169 kph) by early Tuesday evening, and its intensity will ratchet higher before it slams ashore, according to the Miami-based National Hurricane Center (NHC).
By that time, the storm was forecast to reach Category 3 strength – classified as a major hurricane, with maximum sustained winds of at least 111 mph (179 kph) – on the five-step Saffir-Simpson wind scale.
The hurricane was upgraded on Tuesday evening to a Category 2 after its top wind speeds surpassed 95 mph (153 kph), feeding on the warm, open waters of the gulf.
Idalia’s most dangerous feature, however, appeared to be the powerful surge of wind-driven seawater it is expected to deliver to barrier islands and other low-lying areas along the coast.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who is seeking the Republican presidential nomination next year, urged residents in vulnerable communities to heed orders to move to higher ground, warning that the storm surge could cause life-threatening floods.
“They’re expecting some fatalities, so I don’t want to be one of them,” said Rene Hoffman, 62, of Steinhatchee, Florida, a coastal town in the area where Idalia is expected to make landfall. She owns a food stand that she lashed to her husband’s pickup truck to keep it from washing or blowing away.
“This is scary, you know, to think that water could come this high,” she said as she gathered her prescription medications and prepared to leave her home. “We’ve never had water up here before.”
The NHC said Idalia’s center would likely hit Florida’s coastline somewhere in the Big Bend region, where the state’s northern panhandle curves into the Gulf side of the Florida Peninsula, roughly bounded by the inland cities of Gainesville and Tallahassee, the state capital.
Sparsely populated compared with the Tampa-St. Petersburg area to the south, the Big Bend features a marshy coast, threaded with freshwater springs and rivers, and a cluster of small offshore islands forming Cedar Key, an historic fishing village devastated in 1896 by a hurricane’s storm surge.
Most of Florida’s 21 million residents, along with many in Georgia and South Carolina, were under hurricane, tropical storm and storm surge warnings and advisories. State emergency declarations were issued in Florida, Georgia and South Carolina.
At the White House, U.S. President Biden said he and DeSantis were “in constant contact,” adding that he had assured the governor federal disaster assistance would remain in place for as “long as it takes, and we’ll make sure they have everything they need.”
Gulf energy producers were taking precautions as well. U.S. oil company Chevron evacuated staff from three oil production platforms, while Kinder Morgan planned to shut a petroleum pipeline.
Idalia-related disruptions extended to Florida’s Atlantic coast at Cape Canaveral, where the Tuesday launch of a rocket carrying a U.S. Space Force intelligence satellite was delayed indefinitely due to the hurricane.
Idalia grew from a tropical storm into a hurricane early on Tuesday, a day after passing west of Cuba, where it damaged homes and flooded villages.
A man places plywood in front of a store ahead of the arrival of Hurricane Idalia in Cedar Key, Florida, U.S., August 29, 2023. REUTERS/Marco Bello
By Tuesday evening, the storm was churning about 155 miles (250 km) southwest of Tampa as it crept northward.
Idalia is in line to become the fourth major hurricane to strike Florida over the past seven years, following Irma in 2017, Michael in 2018 and Ian, which peaked at Category 5, last September.
UP TO 15 FEET OF STORM SURGE
In Sarasota – a city hard-hit by Ian last year – Milton Bontrager’s home was boarded and stocked with food, water and a generator.
“I don’t panic, I prepare,” said Bontrager, 40, who runs six charter fishing boats in Venice along the Gulf Coast near Tampa.
He stopped taking customers out days ago so he could secure the boats. His biggest craft is tied down to a floating dock with 16 lines and equipped with battery-powered pumps that turn on automatically if the boat starts taking on water.
