(TheLibertyRevolution.com)- Hurricane Ian, which was barreling through Cuba and making its way to Florida, was reported to be a giant test for Governor Ron DeSantis, according to national security website 19FortyFive. The natural disaster was making its way to the Sunshine State as a Category 4 hurricane, just short of Category 5. It was expected to knock out a large swath of the state’s power and cause havoc and destruction along its way. How DeSantis responds to this hurricane will be a telling sign on his leadership capability during a natural disaster.
DeSantis issued a state of emergency ahead of the hurricane and notified the areas that needed to evacuate days before the storm was expected to touch the coast of Florida. Two million residents were reportedly ordered to evacuate, and 90 nursing homes had their residents relocated. Efforts to restore power, should it be knocked out, were already underway and 5,000 guardsmen were activated.
“Florida’s top officials said that bridges are now closed in some of the areas facing the greatest threat: Collier, Charlotte and Sarasota counties on the west coast,” POLITICO reported. “Scores of Floridians evacuated ahead of the massive storm, but for those that didn’t, they are now being directed to stay indoors at the risk of facing maximum winds clocking in at 155 miles per hour.”
“If you are in any of those counties, it’s no longer possible to safely evacuate,” DeSantis said. “It’s time to hunker down and prepare for this storm.”
President Biden was criticized for not directly calling DeSantis but calling various mayors of Florida first but the two did communicate after the governor said at a press conference that the president had not yet called him.
“I’m happy to brief the president if he’s interested in hearing what we’re doing in Florida,” DeSantis said. “My view on all this is like, you’ve got people’s lives at stake, you’ve got their property at stake and we don’t have time for pettiness. We gotta work together to make sure we’re doing the best job for them, so my phone line is open.”
