TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Ahead of Tropical Storm Debby’s expected Monday landfall, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis spoke with Scripps News correspondent Forrest Saunders about expected impacts and the state's preparation. Here’s a transcript of that Sunday interview.
Forrest Saunders: Obviously, you guys have spent the last 48 hours and beyond preparing for this thing. Do you feel like the state is as prepared as it could be for this thing?
Gov. Ron DeSantis: Oh, without question. I mean, you know, this is something where we monitor this stuff, we did the state of emergency before it was even an organized storm and, and these guys know what they're doing. We have a plan, we always try to figure out what we did last time. What else can we do.
So, for example, one thing I mentioned at the press conference, we're deploying these these flood prevention devices around the utility substations, because the view is, hey, the water is going to go up, if we can prevent some substations from being flooded, that means it's going to be less people lose power, or at least easier to restore the power. And of course, there's up to 17,000 linemen that are going to be available to help with power restoration efforts. So, you know, we know the drill on this, we were very proactive, and we're looking forward to being able to to help Floridians who are in need.
Tropical Weather
Evacuation orders in place along Big Bend as Debby approaches Florida
FS: It sounds like you're really prioritizing power? I mean, obviously, last time when we had Idalia, this was a rural part of the state. And there was a lot of concern, because the power lines were down in different spots, and you didn't have a whole bunch of homes were out power, but you had a lot of homes that had power out and it took a while to restore them because you had a lot of line down.
RD: Well, even that though, I mean, the massive amount of debris because of the winds, that was a very rapid restoration effort considering it was almost a category four storm. These winds are not going to be as strong as Idalia. But there's going to be so much water that that's just going to impact a lot of things that are going around. Now, of course, our first priority is any type of search and rescue that would be needed. So we have teams stationed, I have the National Guard, the State Guard, Florida Fish and Wildlife, local law enforcement. They're there.
If there's massive flooding around someone's house and they need to be rescued. That's going to be the first thing we can do. But for the broader community, we want to make sure that the services are back up and running, that makes everything else you need to do easier. And I spoke to the mayor of Tallahassee earlier today and I mentioned Hurricane Hermine. He wasn't mayor, I wasn't governor. But you know, there were people in Tallahassee without power for weeks on a relatively weak hurricane. And there wasn't the effort to get get the restoration quick. And he agreed, you know, he's already talking to utilities, he's gonna accept mutual aid, we're going to be working together, because we do want to get the power restored.
Tropical Weather
Hurricane Debby: Storm strengthens to Category 1
FS: You feel like the property insurance market's ready for this thing?
RD: Well, I mean, if you look at the numbers, we've had eight companies come out, we did reforms at the end of 2022. People are now writing articles about 30-some states have had higher increases in premiums than Florida has, since we did those reforms. The average rate that's been filed over the last 90 days, about 1.9% increase, that's less than the rate of inflation. People are putting more capital in, you know, you see State Farm in California, they're doing a 50% increase. Here, they basically did similar rates as last year. Reinsurance was down from the year before. So the market is in much better shape, here in the summer of 2024, than it was in the summer of 2022, when we were hit by Hurricane Ian.
TRACKING THE TROPICS: Hurricane Center | Hurricane Guide
FS: Anything else that you think is important to get out there?
RD: This going to be a lot of water. And it may be something that it passes over you and there may be some some standing water. That, of course, it's something to be concerned about. But you could also see flooding in the days after because you have rivers, you have a bunch of different bodies of water that are at different levels, they rise differently. So it may not just be a one-day event. So just listen to your local officials, we'll be providing updates throughout this.
Most of the models said it's going to go through Southeast Georgia, into the Carolinas, and maybe even they are going to get more dropped on them than we get in Florida. But there's also possibility that it could turn around and come back, go west. So that's possible. We hope that doesn't happen. So just stay tuned and understand this may not just be a one-day event where it passes through and then that's it. There may be flooding and there even may be some storms that come on the back end if the storm does turn around.
