Gov. DeSantis questions whether Emergency Operations Center will survive Helene

As Hurricane Helene moves toward Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis is warning that the capital city is under particular threat, and that threat could be especially existential for the government’s nerve center during the potentially catastrophic “main event” of the storm’s impact.

“You’ve seen storms, but you probably haven’t seen one that’s going to be a Cat 3-plus when it’s coming on,” DeSantis warned.

Noting some Division of Emergency Management (DEM) employees would be in Escambia County to “continue the continuity without any major interruption,” DeSantis said the Emergency Operations Center in Tallahassee “has never really been tested in terms of how it would handle a major hurricane.”

The Governor said the state hasn’t been properly funded, suggesting the building has had the same roof since Lawton Chiles was Governor. He didn’t clarify why the building hasn’t been upgraded given the state’s budget surpluses in recent years.

“The walls apparently were built to Category 5 specifications, but back in 1996 they didn’t have enough money to make the roof Category 5 specifications. So apparently the roof can handle 128-129 mile an hour winds. So it should be fine. But we’ll see.”

DeSantis spent much of his remarks casting doubt on how the state capital will weather the storm, which could barrel into the city as a major hurricane.

“It’s heavily wooded,” DeSantis said Thursday of Tallahassee, with “trees everywhere.”

“It’s one thing to be able to withstand wind hitting the house. It’s a much different thing (if) you’re going to try to withstand a massive tree falling on your house,” DeSantis said. “You could have 120-125 mile an hour winds that are coming through this area. And that is really significant, particularly in an area that is heavily tree lined, as this place is.”

The Governor noted his own family was getting ready for the storm.

“The rule of thumb is if you can pick it up, put it up, bring it inside. We’ve brought a lot of stuff inside at our place here in Tallahassee, baseball gloves, bats, all these other things. Get it inside the house. It will go flying around,” DeSantis said.

Last year, Hurricane Idalia knocked down a tree at the Governor’s Mansion, so the First Family has dealt with impacts before.

The Governor also noted that DEM “has partnered with Uber to provide free rides to shelters for Floridians in counties with a declared state of emergency,” and he urged people who needed transport to use the promo code “Helene Relief” to get a free Uber ride to a shelter in areas where a state of emergency has been declared.

Additionally, Elon Musk is helping out “with the Starlink internet system.”

“As internet goes out, if that’s needed, we can deploy the Starlink devices and get the internet. I’ll tell you it’s really, really good internet. You need the device to be able to do it. But once you have that device, if you’re able to link on to it crystal clear. It worked very well after Ian,” DeSantis explained.

“Hopefully we won’t need it. But if we do need it, it’s definitely going to be able to do what needs to be done to get you guys back online, particularly our small businesses.”