Mayors praise Florida’s flood response as Trump-friendly critics rip DeSantis travel

Critics aligned with Donald Trump — including the former president’s son — attempted to make Ron DeSantis’ handling of floods in South Florida a political issue Thursday, attacking the Republican governor for traveling out of the state despite heavy rainfall.

The criticisms came even as local officials in hard-hit areas, including some Democrats, praised the state’s response to the storms, which dumped as much as 26 inches of water in parts of Fort Lauderdale and led to dozens of rescues from cars and homes in Broward County.

The former president’s son, Donald Trump Jr., tweeted Thursday that DeSantis should not have left Florida. Some Democrats joined in as well.

“Fort Lauderdale is under water and DeSantis is campaigning in Ohio right now instead of taking care of the people suffering in his state,” he wrote.

In a broader political context, his attacks against DeSantis aren’t unusual: Trump and his allies have regularly attacked the governor for months in anticipation that DeSantis will eventually decide to run against the former president in the 2024 GOP presidential primary. Early hypothetical polls of the race show Trump and DeSantis are leading the field of potential candidates, often by a wide margin.

The governor, in fact, was in Ohio on Thursday as part of a nationwide book tour that has seen him visit Georgia, Pennsylvania, and Michigan, among other places. He is scheduled to visit New Hampshire on Friday, a state that holds the GOP primary’s second nominating contest.

But the governor has also been in contact with local officials while in Ohio. A Broward County spokesperson, Greg Meyer, confirmed Thursday afternoon that DeSantis spoke with County Mayor Lamar Fisher and informed Fisher that he has signed an emergency declaration in response to the flooding. The governor also spoke with Mark Gale, CEO of Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, which was closed Thursday due to the torrential rains, according to DeSantis’ schedule.

Meyer said the county has not yet submitted its damage estimates to the state. But the governor’s declaration seemingly came just hours after Broward County declared its own state of emergency Thursday.

READ MORE: Chest-high water, boat rescues after ‘unprecedented’ rainfall in Fort Lauderdale area

A DeSantis spokesman dismissed the criticism.

“It’s wrong for the media and political critics to rush to politicize every natural disaster,” said Bryan Griffin, a spokesman for the governor. “The governor left yesterday, and the unprecedented flooding intensified later in the night. He returns today.”

The state emergency response apparatus, Griffin added, is in “full swing responding to the flooding.”

The criticism from Trump’s son doesn’t appear to be part of a larger effort from the former president’s campaign. As of Thursday afternoon, Trump himself had not mentioned DeSantis’ response on his own social media outlets.

At a press conference earlier Thursday morning, Fort Lauderdale Mayor Dean Trantalis said he hadn’t heard yet from DeSantis. But he declined to criticize the governor, saying state agencies have been providing assistance, including in the form of airboats from the Fish and Wildlife Commission.

“I’m not sure if the governor himself needs to be involved, but the state agencies have been very helpful in working with us to take on this challenge,” Trantalis said.

A few hours later, Trantalis told the Miami Herald he was contacted by Jimmy Patronis, Florida’s chief financial officer, who asked what the city needs.

Trantalis, a Democrat in a non-partisan seat, said he also spoke with representatives for the White House and U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, as well as U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg.

City leaders in Broward County are now working to estimate monetary damages to submit to the state, Trantalis said, so local governments can later receive federal reimbursement for their recovery efforts. Broward County, Fort Lauderdale and the city of Hollywood have each issued their own emergency declarations.

Hollywood Mayor Joshua Levy, also a Democrat, agreed state officials have responded appropriately so far.

“I’m not putting this on the governor. Everyone has all hands on deck,” he said. “I don’t think it’s time to point political fingers. It’s time to respond to the disaster.”

U.S. Rep. Jared Moskowitz, a Democrat who represents parts of Broward County and was previously director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management under DeSantis, said the timing of DeSantis’ emergency declaration one day after the worst of the rainfall seemed to be “standard protocol.”

He noted that this type of flash flooding, unlike a hurricane, is difficult to address with emergency measures ahead of time. And he said he wasn’t concerned that DeSantis was out of town as search and rescue efforts continued.

“We got the disaster declaration today,” Moskowitz said. “That’s all that matters.”

Miami Herald reporters Grethel Aguila, Alex Harris and Omar Rodríguez Ortiz contributed to this report.

This story was originally published April 13, 2023 at 5:12 PM.