Biden lauds DeSantis as two leaders work to boost Idalia recovery efforts
President Joe Biden on Wednesday warned that Hurricane Idalia was continuing to wreak havoc on the southeast United States but lauded the work of emergency responders and state officials, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
The Democratic president said he and the Republican governor — himself a 2024 presidential candidate — have put aside politics to focus on protecting Florida’s residents, just as he says they did during recovery efforts last year after Hurricane Ian.
“I think he trusts my judgment and my desire to help, and I trust him to be able to suggest this is not about politics, this is about taking care of the people of his state,” said Biden, speaking from the White House.
Asked if he detected any politics in his discussions with DeSantis, Biden responded with a flat “no,” adding that he understood that might sound strange given “the nature of politics today.”
Biden, who spoke with DeSantis over the phone earlier in the day, still warned that residents in Florida and other affected states, including Georgia and South Carolina, must stay on alert as the storm makes its way across the southeast United States.
“We have to remain vigilant,” Biden said. “There’s much more to do.”
Hurricane Idalia made landfall on Florida’s Gulf Coast Wednesday morning as a Category 3 storm, pummeling the coastline with heavy rain and a strong storm surge. Federal officials say the region hasn’t been hit by such a powerful hurricane in more than 100 years.
White House officials have said that they directed 1,500 federal personnel to be positioned in Florida, including more than 540 members of search-and-rescue teams.
Deanne Criswell, director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, told reporters Wednesday that it was too soon to assess how much recovery efforts would cost.
“It will take several days to get a full understanding of what the initial assessment, the damage assessment is,” she said. “But it will take longer to get a full picture of the total amount of impact of this.”
Her biggest concern in the meantime is finding and helping any residents who didn’t evacuate as the storm approached the state.
“My biggest concern is those people who chose not to evacuate,” Criswell said. “And I know that our local first responders, the heroes that are out there in those local communities are doing an amazing job already of going into the areas where people did not evacuate and helping to get them to safety. And that is our priority.”
This story was originally published August 30, 2023 at 3:26 PM.