Crews have been busy clearing tens of thousands of miles of roadway and restoring power to millions in Florida after Helene hit the state as a dangerous major hurricane last week, Gov. Ron DeSantis said.
DeSantis held a news conference in Steinhatchee on Monday morning to provide an update on Helene's aftermath.
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DeSantis said power had been restored for 2.32 million customers in Florida, while 87,000 were waiting for restoration.
HURRICANE HELENE
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Tens of thousands of miles of roads have been cleared of debris and all state-owned bridges have been inspected and are ready for use, DeSantis said.
The state's emergency response team has conducted nearly 1,000 missions and could conduct around 1,500 more, the governor added.
"This is gonna be a massive effort," DeSantis said.
Hurricane Helene roared ashore late Thursday in Florida’s Big Bend region as a Category 4 hurricane with 140 mph winds. A weakened Helene quickly moved through Georgia, then soaked the Carolinas and Tennessee with torrential rains that flooded creeks and rivers and strained dams.
DeSantis said the state has recovery shelters for residents and is working to provide travel trailers for residents who want to live on their property while their home is under repair.
"Some homes are totally gone, which is obviously a very tragic thing, there's other homes that had major flooding," DeSantis said.
He also said an executive order signed Monday will allow businesses to return to normal operations while they rebuild.
DeSantis said President Joe Biden called him Sunday, but he couldn’t take the call because he was in a helicopter touring damage in the Big Bend area. But he told reporters that the federal government should focus on North Carolina.
“Florida, we have it handled,” DeSantis said. “We have what we need … Most of the effort should be in western North Carolina right now because you still have active rescues that need to take place.”
DeSantis said he's also sending rescue teams to North Carolina, where many Floridians have second homes.
“We’re going to be bringing people to safety,” he said. “I don’t think they have any major way to get out of those western North Carolina places right now. That’s going to require us doing the air missions.”
