Florida Gov. DeSantis Announces Over $1 Million In Tornado Relief, Slams Lack Of Federal Help

 

Photo credit: Gage Skidmore/CC BY-SA 2.0, via Flickr

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R-FL) announces over $1 million of tornado relief for Charlotte and Lee counties. Secretary of economic opportunity Dane Eagle, Corey Simon from Volunteer Florida, the CEO Ashley Mayer, CEO Charlotte Community Foundation, Ellie and Tony, Castles also joins DeSantis during a press conference.

DeSantis while addressing a news conference said:

So, we have announced through Dane Eagle, that once we got denied for federal, we found different types of state programs that we were able to do. Now, that may not fit every single need but what was the total to that 7 million? $7.4 million and so we were excited to be able to do that but we also said, you know, we want to make sure that we can do more and so we are looking at what our options are and you know, quite frankly.

We decided through Volunteer Florida that we would be able to raise some money and get some relief into the hands of the folks who need it because the people are dealing with a lot of different things. The damage was not necessarily uniform. Some totally lost. Some need repairs. Some need temporary housing. There's a whole bunch of different things. So, we did that. We opened up applications. We had 4-3 households that applied for support. 

We were able to raise 1.1 million dollars so far. We the Republican Party of Florida kick in a hundred thousand. We also had a lot of different businesses across Florida that have put in significant amounts of money as well. So, we thank them. So, today, we were able to hand out to those 43 households ten thousand checks to all of them that applied and so that's a big deal. And so I want to thank the Charlotte Community Foundation for being the landing spot for folks to be able to contribute money to.

They have been handling the collection and the disbursement of donations. We are able to hand out a number of the checks just there in the mobile command center. And so they're doing that and that's really really important. And so we know more than 43 residents were impacted by this. So you have the ability to apply. We are not necessarily done raising on this. If we need to do more, we will, and if people want to contribute, we would encourage them to do it and both donations and applications for assistance can be made at Florida Disaster Org backslash assistance. 

So, if you do that, contribute or if you're somebody that was affected, you know, we would want to do that. You know, I think this is just what we do. You know, we're very down here. You know, if you deal us a bad hand, we're going to figure out what we need to do. After I do this, I'm going to be going up to Ocala. You know, they just got hit by some significant tornadoes that had some significant some cases even more significant than here. 

We have not yet been denied by Biden-Harris Admin. for assistance on that but you know, we're going to be ready to do whatever we need to do, but we want to be able to help those folks as well. Now, we have appealed the Biden administration's decision. We have not gotten any results on that but I know Byron Donald, the congressman here, has been really strong on that. So, I just want to thank Byron for helping us at the federal level. 

We're going to continue to fight for Floridians and we are going to continue to fight for people in Lee and Charlotte counties. So, I have this check that we're going to actually formally present. So, do you guys want to come and kind of hand, you know, accept this on behalf of everybody? Sure So, this is again, this is not exhaustive but over 1.1 million dollars that is $2 and 50 cents. We'll get you a cup of coffee somewhere. Go ahead and take it Outstanding. Yeah. Thank you. Alright. 

Now watch the complete press conference and listen to the views of some other speakers:

Governor DeSantis announces more than $1.1 million for residents of Charlotte and Lee counties who were impacted by tornadoes.