Tag: Florida storms

Hurricanes Cost Florida Over $350 Million and 3,000 Jobs (So Far)

Buck Banks

$350 million; 3,000 jobs

Weeks after hurricanes Helene and Milton, Florida businesses and their employees are still paying a staggering toll, reports Tampa Bay Times. According to claims business owners have voluntarily filed with the state, $350 million in damages have been reported statewide. More than half was concentrated in Pinellas and Hillsborough counties, covering nearly 2,000 businesses, making them the hardest hit in Florida. As of Nov. 1, damages had forced about 2,300 people across those counties out of work temporarily. Another 700 had lost their jobs permanently.

Ron Versus Debby

Buck Banks
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis prepares for the storm. (Pensito Illustration)

Today Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis issued Executive Order 24-176, placing 54 Florida counties under a state of emergency, including Hillsborough County, where I live. A tropical wave, named Invest 97L, could become Tropical Storm Debby over the next 36 to 48 hours and veer up Florida’s Gulf Coast.

Gov. Ron is grandstanding (again). He’s trying to deflect attention away from his latest embarrassing “Stop Woke” loss in federal court and the growing media focus on his cruel and cynical mini-Project 2025 experiments on the Free State of Florida.

As a native Floridian and veteran of numerous storms, it seems to me to be a bit premature to start pulling on the white high-heeled shrimp boots, but I think Ron’s afraid of getting caught unprepared for what looks to be a rather large, wet, but (hopefully) not awful storm.

And it’s easier to declare a nearly statewide state of emergency than it is to head off a double-digit rate hike by Citizens Property Insurance, the state’s insurer of last resort for over 1.2 million policies.

Thanks, Ron. I almost forgot about all the book banning and climate change–denying you are doing for five seconds.

Off to the liquor store for hurricane supplies …