Ryan Nicol
Gov. Ron DeSantis and Lt. Gov. Jeanette Nùñez on Thursday praised preparation efforts in South Florida as the region braced for possible impact by Hurricane Dorian.
Dorian ended up mostly dodging the state. But projections late last week showed the storm on a collision course with South Florida.
“I think people in South Florida took a lot of precautions, which is a good thing in terms of what we were facing,” DeSantis said Thursday during a media briefing at the state’s Emergency Operations Center.
“I mean, you saw people in Miami-Dade rushing to the gas station; water flying off the shelf. People were getting it from Amazon.”
Those worst-case scenario projections had Dorian on track to hit somewhere near Palm Beach County before turning north and cutting through the entire state.
“We initially were looking at an impact, and I think, as the Governor mentioned, South Florida took this very seriously and so they indeed incurred some costs in preparing,” Nùñez noted.
“Eventually we were taken out of the cone. But I think that (readiness) speaks to the volume and the level of preparedness that we need to maintain.”
Over the weekend, however, those projections were amended, that Dorian would remain offshore. Indeed, that ended up being the case.
But even after the projected track shifted, evacuation orders were still issued for parts of South Florida near the coast and Lake Okeechobee.
That prompted uncertainty throughout the region almost up to the point the storm officially passed.
Though South Florida did not feel severe impacts from the storm, the Lieutenant Governor still praised the area for taking the early threat seriously and preparing for the worst.
“I think South Florida heeded the call,” Nùñez said.
