At an appearance in hurricane-wrecked Sarasota, he promises not to ‘virtue signal’.
By Johannes Werner
Original Air Date: October 18, 2024
Host: Thursday morning, Gov. Ron DeSantis made another stop in storm-wrecked Sarasota, this time at Booker High School. He was there to praise the robust recovery after Hurricane Milton, specifically the quick reopening of schools. He also handed $100,000 State Emergency Fund checks to foundations working with school districts in the region.
Johannes Werner: During the press conference at the school’s performing arts center, WSLR News also got two questions answered by the governor. The first one was about climate change. He gave a clear and concise response.
Ron DeSantis: Thank you. Any questions? Yes.
JW: Johannes Werner, WSLR News. When will we hear the words climate change from you?
RD: Chance of me virtue signaling for people in the media is zero. So do not count on that—
Audience: *applause*
RD: —song and dance. I get you have an agenda. I understand that. I think you should be more honest about what that would mean for people: taxing them to smithereens, stopping oil and gas, making people pay dramatically more for energy. We would collapse as a country. So this whole idea of climate ideology driving policy, it just factually can’t work. And so in Florida, our energy is going to be affordable and reliable. That’s what you’re going to do. That’s the only way you can adequately respond to things like we just saw with the storms that get people hooked back up.
JW: The other question was about flood insurance, or rather the lack thereof. Only 25-35 percent of properties damaged by recent flood events in Florida had private coverage, according to first assessments. That has prompted industry observers to urge state legislators to jump into action.
In his response, the governor directed flooded property owners to federal help.
RD: In terms of the federal flood insurance … so there’s two things. One, at a disaster recovery center, you can do flood claims at the federal DRC, that’s not run by the state. This is obviously a federal program. You can do that. You can also pursue federal flood flood claims at the insurance villages that are being run by the state CFO, Jimmy Patronus. So that will also have private wind carriers as well. And there was some wind damage from Milton. I would say in this area off the lean of the Tampa Bay was almost entirely from the surge at which it can also be normal homeowners. But a lot of flooding inland with Milton. So if you go to either those federal flood insurance disaster recovery centers, or you can go to the insurance villages, they can work through that.
JW: Johannes Werner, reporting for WSLR News.
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