Gov. Ron DeSantis has activated the Florida National Guard and declared a state of emergency in 12 counties in the aftermath of severe storms that began ripping across the Peninsula Friday morning.
The counties include Baker, Columbia, Gadsden, Hamilton, Jefferson, Lafayette, Leon, Liberty, Madison, Suwannee, Taylor and Wakulla.
Thousands of households in each are still without power, according to the Public Service Commission, which reported at 3 p.m. that nearly 189,000 properties in the state await reconnections.
To deal with the post-storm tumult, DeSantis called on Maj. Gen. John Haas, the state’s Adjutant General, to activate the Florida National Guard.
He also ordered the Emergency Management Director Kevin Guthrie to execute the state’s Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan and other response, recovery and mitigation plans to deal with the crisis. That authorizes Guthrie to:
— Invoke Florida’s compacts and agreements with other states to accelerate recovery efforts.
— Seek assistance from federal agencies.
— Direct all state, regional and local government agencies, including law enforcement, to identify and place under Guthrie’s command to meet the needs of the emergency.
— Designate deputy administrators “as necessary.”
— Suspend the effect of any laws, rules or order that would prevent, hinder or delay mitigation, response and recovery actions.
DeSantis extended that last provision to all other state agencies as well. He also called for “sufficient funds” to be supplied through the state’s Emergency Preparedness and Response Fund to finance necessary operations.
Powerful storms packing winds near hurricane force struck the South on Friday, uprooting trees, crumbling chimneys and mangling structures from Mississippi to North Carolina and down to the Sunshine State.
At least one woman in Florida died after a tree fell on her family’s home, the Leon County Sheriff’s Office told the Associated Press. Hers was at least the fourth death from heavy weather this week; two people were killed in Tennessee on Wednesday, when another storm death was reported in North Carolina.
Since Monday, 39 states have been under threat of severe weather, which placed about 220 million people at risk by Thursday.
The hardest-hit county in Florida, outage-wise, was Leon. As of 3 p.m., more than 58% of its 152,432 properties were in the dark. More than half the homes in Lafayette and Suwannee and 41% of Hamilton County’s accounts were similarly situated.
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Material from The Associated Press was used in this report. Republished with permission.
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