Ron DeSantis again urges Floridians to ‘knock on wood’ as hurricane season heats up
TALLAHASSEE, FLA. 5/5/23-Gov. Ron DeSantis during a news conference after the 2023 legislative session concluded, Friday at the Capitol in Tallahassee. COLIN HACKLEY PHOTO

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If the comment sounds familiar, that's because it is.

Knock on wood.

That’s the take Ron DeSantis is offering with regard to hurricane season, which is nearing its peak.

The Governor told a crowd in Central Florida regarding hurricane season that “it doesn’t even matter if it’s active or not terribly active, it’s really what hits us or doesn’t hit us.”

“I mean, that’s what we’re concerned about. So you can have a very active season. Maybe we don’t get impacted or you can have a mild season, but if we get impacted by just one big one, it does that. So knock on wood. We’re in the high season right now,” he said at the JW Marriott Orlando Grande Lakes.

If the comment sounds familiar, that’s because it is. He used it during a Boston radio interview during his presidential campaign last year as he courted New Hampshire voters.

“I think what’s going to happen is because we did those reforms, it now is more economical for companies to come in. I think they’re going to wait through this hurricane season and then I think they’re going to be willing to deploy more capital to Florida,” DeSantis said last summer on the Howie Carr Show referencing the state’s troubled property insurance market.

“So, knock on wood, we won’t have a big storm this summer,” DeSantis added.

The comments, which were first reported by Florida Politics, were picked up by lots of other media in the days after the Governor’s interview in which he was referencing potential damage to a state he wasn’t even in at the time.

Ultimately, DeSantis withdrew from the presidential race ahead of that New Hampshire Primary.

A.G. Gancarski

A.G. Gancarski has been the Northeast Florida correspondent for Florida Politics since 2014. He writes for the New York Post and National Review also, with previous work in the American Conservative and Washington Times and a 15+ year run as a columnist in Folio Weekly. He can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter: @AGGancarski


5 comments

  • Cheesy Floridian

    September 4, 2024 at 2:13 pm

    I’m still waiting for my home insurance to come down

    Reply

    • Alexa is Biased

      September 4, 2024 at 3:13 pm

      Home insurance everywhere’s has gone up. You can blame DeSantis all you want in Florida. Take your anger to Joe and Kammy for the other 49 states. By the way, your insurance is never going down. M8neine has done nothing but go up where I have lived for 33 years.

      Reply

  • Margie Stein

    September 4, 2024 at 2:20 pm

    I am still waiting for my insurance company, Castle Key Insurance, Subsidiary of Allstate to pay my claim from Hurricane Ian… 2 years ago.

    Reply

  • Andrew Finn

    September 4, 2024 at 2:28 pm

    And as we approach the peak of hurricane season (September 10th) we have had five named storms, two of which hardly ranked a name. The “Department Of Death And Destruction” that makes the annual prediction were (so far) wrong, or as usual once again. I guess forecasting by dart board doesn’t work too well. —— but but but climate change !!!!!!!!!!!!

    Reply

    • Alexa is Biased

      September 4, 2024 at 3:11 pm

      Yup. Ocean waters off the coast off Africa are cooler than normal. Scientists can’t explain why, but they certainly have their opinions on other climate related things.🤔

      Reply

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