Governor Ron DeSantis held an 8 a.m. media briefing on Tropical Storm Elsa with forecasters and emergency operations managers. DeSantis passed along some points of concern as Elsa approaches Florida’s west coast.
“Now, storm surge will be a concern," DeSantis said. "There is a storm surge warning in effect for 12 counties between Taylor and Lee on the Gulf coast and that obviously may impact some folks who live in those low lying areas.”
Gov. DeSantis went on to warn people to be aware of flash flooding stemming from heavy rainfall. He said at this point emergency managers don't anticipate any evacuations, but he did warn of possible power outages and urged people to be safe if using a portable generator after the storm, as they are emerging as a leading cause of death in hurricanes.
Florida Director of Emergency Management Kevin Guthrie, who had been in Surfside overseeing the condo collapse recovery efforts, went to Tallahassee where he is now directing logistics for this storm response.
Guthrie said only a few counties had requests for things like bottled water and extra personnel to help in the response. About 6,000 utility workers are on standby in case of power outages, and a contingency of Florida National Guardsmen have also been activated.
“As a part of the Governor’s initial roll out we did call up about 200 Florida National Guardsmen, maybe about 250, but, we do have them on standby. The majority of them are at our logistical staging center down in Orlando helping to push commodities out of that warehouse,” said Guthrie.
DeSantis said he will hold another briefing after the National Hurricane Center’s eleven o’clock update, and WGCU will bring you the latest from that as well.
