Every Floridian should have a plan for this year’s hurricane season, DeSantis says
Advertisement
Read this article for free:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Digital Subscription
One year of digital access for only $205*
- Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
- Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
- Access News Break, our award-winning app
- Play interactive puzzles
*First annual payment billed as $205.00 + GST for one year. This annual subscription will automatically renew at $233.00 + GST every 52 weeks (10% off the regular annual price of $259.35). Offer available to new and qualified returning subscribers only. Cancel any time.
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Add Free Press access to your Brandon Sun subscription for only an additional
$1 for the first 4 weeks*
- Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
- Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
- Access News Break, our award-winning app
- Play interactive puzzles
*Your next Brandon Sun subscription payment will increase by $1.00 and you will be charged $17.95 plus GST for four weeks. After four weeks, your payment will increase to $24.95 plus GST every four weeks.
Read unlimited articles for free today:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 30/05/2025 (494 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Two days away from the start of hurricane season, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and the state’s top emergency manager joked Friday that they didn’t want to encounter each other again until the storm season ends in late November. Forecasts suggest that’s unlikely.
While the upcoming season, which starts Sunday, isn’t expected to be as topsy-turvy as last season, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says there’s a 60% chance it will be above normal, a 30% chance near normal and just a 10% chance it will be quieter than average. Relentless storms, including Debby, Helene and Milton, which landed in Florida last year, made for the third-costliest hurricane season on record last year.
“You just have to prepare and plan that we are going to have impacts,” DeSantis said at a news conference in front of shelves of generators at a Home Depot store in Jupiter, Florida. “If you plan and it doesn’t happen, you’re never going to have regrets. If you don’t plan and it happens, you’re going to immediately be saying, ‘Why didn’t I do this?’”
Ahead of any hurricanes headed toward the peninsula, Floridians should be prepared to have seven days of food, water and supplies for their households, including pets. If they need to evacuate, they don’t have to travel hundreds of miles when traveling just a few miles inland to a hotel or shelter works, officials said.
Floridians living on the coast should be familiar with their evacuation zone so they know which areas emergency officials are referring to if an evacuation is issued, said DeSantis and Kevin Guthrie, executive director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management.
The NOAA forecast calls for 13 to 19 named storms with six to 10 becoming hurricanes and three to five reaching major status with winds of more than 110 mph (177 kph). A normal season has 14 named storms, seven of which strengthen to hurricanes and three power up further to major hurricanes.
Normally, at the start of hurricane season, Floridians would be able to buy storm supplies under a state program that doesn’t tax items like generators, batteries, flashlights, tarps and coolers. However, that is on hold since the Florida Legislature hasn’t passed a budget, DeSantis said.
Despite enjoying a GOP supermajority in both chambers, legislative leaders failed to pass the one bill Florida law requires, the state budget, ahead of the scheduled end of the regular session at the beginning of May. Lawmakers are expected to return to Tallahassee in June to hammer out a spending deal ahead of the July 1 start of the next fiscal year.
“So we don’t have any tax holiday in place in the state of Florida,” said DeSantis, taking a jab at lawmakers who openly defied the Republican governor during this past legislative session in contrast to previous years of deference.
___
Follow Mike Schneider on the social platform Bluesky: @mikeysid.bsky.social.
