Kelly Hayes
Gov. Ron DeSantis issued a state of emergency in Charlotte and Lee counties on Friday in response to the severe storms impacting the area and displacing at least 300 individuals.
DeSantis issued the state of emergency via Executive Order 22-17, which designates Kevin Guthrie, the director of the Division of Emergency Management, as the State Coordinating Officer in order to manage response, recovery and mitigation plans to aid those affected.
Last Sunday, the Southwest Florida counties were hit with heavy rain, thunderstorms and two confirmed tornadoes. The storms resulted in widespread power outages and damage across Charlotte and Lee counties, according to the Governor’s Office.
The Executive Order is effective immediately and is set to expire in 60 days.
.@NWSTampaBay confirmed an EF1 tornado touched down in the Gasparilla Mobile Estates off Gasparilla Rd. Sunday morning.
The tornado left 21 homes uninhabitable and did structural damage to another 18 homes. Thankfully, no one was injured. pic.twitter.com/wYx5Fs7fid
— Charlotte County (@CharlotteCoFL) January 17, 2022
In Charlotte County, a confirmed an EF1 tornado touched down in the Gasparilla Mobile Estates, leaving 21 homes uninhabitable and creating structural damage to another 18 homes. No one was injured, according to the National Weather Service.
As of Wednesday, the National Weather Service confirmed five tornadoes: an EF-2 in Lee County; two EF-1s in Charolotte County; and two EF-0s in Collier County..
While officials are still surveying the damage, following the storm Sunday, Cecil Pendergrass, co-chairman of the Lee County board of commissioners, said at least 62 homes were currently “unlivable.” And, an estimated 7,000 homes were without power.
According to The Weather Channel, tornadoes during January are uncommon in Florida. The state has only averaged two tornadoes in January over the last 20 years. There were two EF1 tornadoes in Leon County last January.
11 comments
zhombre
January 22, 2022 at 12:55 pm
Just another fascist, authoritarian move on the part of DeploraSantis who really doesn’t care about the welfare of Floridians. I know the brilliant progressive who post here will see right through this power grab cloaked as an emergency measure.
just a comment
January 22, 2022 at 3:59 pm
Floridians do not care about anything but a job a expensive home and its amenities. all at the cost of Alaska they do not feel a thing till my home got damaged or something.
nail
January 22, 2022 at 5:37 pm
It only took DeSantis 4 days to declare a disaster. When the condo collapse in Miami, he knew about it at 2am but had to be embarrassed by the Mayor and Biden to call a disaster at 6pm at night.
Anything not to go to the government, because he wants a FREE DUMB state, even to the detriment of the people. What’s the saying Goebbels used? “say it 3 times and repeat it again.” This is DeSantis’ motto for all the deplorable base.
Evan Miller
January 23, 2022 at 6:53 am
Spoken like a true socialist.
Richard
January 23, 2022 at 10:35 am
Are you saying that DeSantis should have done nothing?
Cindy Kroening
January 24, 2022 at 3:09 pm
Richard, I’m unsure that Evan Miller realizes that help, including financial, for emergency disasters IS AN EXAMPLE OF SOCIALISM (therefore he likely does not know the police, fire, ems, roads, etc etc etc are MORE EXAMPLES OF SOCIALISM)
Charlotte Greenbarg
January 23, 2022 at 7:31 am
The far left 🦜🦜🦜squawk away!
Charlotte Greenbarg
January 23, 2022 at 7:32 am
The far left 🦜🦜🦜squawk. 🤪🤪🤪
Gregory R. Barison
January 23, 2022 at 1:38 pm
Ah, socialism … a word that terrifies Trump’s under-informed minions. Without it, we would not have a US military or local police. That’s right, they’re funded via socialism: we all chip in by paying our taxes (except the billionaires) in order to pay for the military and police (and other things, like highways, bridges, tunnels, etc.). That’s socialism … pooling our resources to fund things we could not do on our own. But poor, fragile Trumpadoodles quiver and shake in fear at the mere utterance of the word. Lame!
Cindy Kroening
January 24, 2022 at 3:00 pm
Thank you for clarifying that the US already uses socialism and the good examples showing such. An addition would be federal and state assistance given to the red states paid for by the blue states (recipients are in all states but the red need money from the blue or could not support what they give out).
Medicare and SOCIAL security, health care coverage for low income….
The next time the word socialism is heard or viewed, hopefully at least some will acknowledge there are benefits of socialism regularly used in the USA already.
Andrew Finn
January 25, 2022 at 9:25 am
Maybe Emperor DeSantis could just sign an executive order banning bad weather. After all – he thinks he is God.
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