Stephanie Murphy: Take Dorian preparations seriously

Democratic U.S. Rep. Stephanie Murphy stopped at a couple of sand bag loading locations in Central Florida Thursday to lend a hand and urge people to take Hurricane Dorian seriously.

“Central Floridians absolutely need to take this seriously,” Murphy said. “This could be the strongest storm that hits Central Florida in 30 years. And as we all know, hurricanes can lead to significant damage from falling trees to flooding.”

Murphy made stops at an eastern Orange County sand bag loading site in Blanchard Park and in Seminole County’s Boombah Sports Complex in Sanford.

As evidence that Central Floridians are taking the storm seriously, her late-morning arrival at Blanchard Park came after the Orange County site already had run out of sand bags and was preparing to donate its last truckload of sand for the day. This came after more than 4,500 bags were donated to residents and filled on Wednesday.

“I’m out here to lend a hand today, but mostly to encourage people to prepare for this hurricane,” she said.

She also blasted reported plans by President Donald Trump‘s administration to transfer FEMA money to border security.

Murphy and other members of Congress met Wednesday with officials of the Federal Emergency Management Agency and she said they assured  her and other members that they were prepared.

However, she noted those preparations are for post-storm responses, and she wanted people to focus on pre-storm preparations. She referred residents to the websites of U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the Red Cross, and Orange and Seminole counties emergency management offices, which she said had great information.

“The other thing is I’m going to be in close contact with our local leaders to make sure we can pull down the necessary federal resources to keep our community safe as well as to respond to the hurricane,” she added

Murphy said the complaints she had heard from local leaders about the slowness of FEMA’s responses to previous storms, Hurricanes Irma and Michael, particularly with reimbursements to local communities. She said that is something that “we will have to focus on on the other side of this storm, once we has come through it safely.”

Murphy also reacted strongly when asked about reports that the administration is moving FEMA disaster recovery money into building the southwest border wall.

“I think it’s irresponsible and possibly illegal to usurp Congress’s appropriations authorities,” she said. “And we’re in the middle of hurricane season. It’s totally irresponsible to reallocate monies that are much needed by communities like ours to prepare for and respond to hurricanes.”