Yesterday a CNN reporter was trying to create controversy by asking if Governor DeSantis if he stood by the Lee County decision to only declare a mandatory evacuation the day before the storm.
But DeSantis was having none of that and corrected the record on what really happened:
DeSantis responded “Where was your industry stationed when the storm hit? Were you guys in Lee County? No, you were in Tampa. They were following the weather track and they had to make decisions based on that.”
DeSantis continued, pointing out that Lee County wasn’t in the cone until just over a day before: “In 72 hours they weren’t even in the cone. 48 they were on the periphery, so you have to make the decisions the best you can.”
DeSantis did stand with Lee County, backing them up by explaining that people had plenty of time to get to a shelter:
I will say they delivered the message to people. They had shelters open. Everybody had adequate opportunity to at least get to a shelter within the county. But a lot of the residents did not want to do that. I think probably for various reasons. Some people just don’t want to leave their home period, they’re island people, whatever. But I think part of it was so much attention was paid to Tampa that I think a lot of them probably thought they would get the worst of it…
“It’s easy to second guess them but they were ready the whole time and made that call when it was justifiable to do so.“
I love that DeSantis didn’t hesitate to stand with Lee County despite this CNN reporter trying to second guess them and stir up controversy. Even when she pushed back, he pointed out that on Tuesday morning they starting moving the track down to Sarasota, which was the day before it made landfall.