Shortly before sunset this evening, as the search and rescue missions continue throughout the western impact zone, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis held a press conference in Cape Coral to provide the latest updates and new information for the people in Southwest Florida (SWFL). Toplines:
♦ Cape Coral, Pine Island and Sanibel only have 3% power restoration. Lee County Electric Cooperative (LCEC) is overwhelmed and refusing to pay the mutual aid costs for assistance. LCEC is making people suffer. The Florida Governor has seen enough. The state is stepping in.
♦ Effective tomorrow, up to 3,500 personnel from Duke Energy are being redeployed into Cape Coral and Lee County, the State of Florida will pick up the bill for the mutual aid payments LCEC is unwilling to support. As a result, the power restoration timeline for Cape Coral is now moved from October 23rd to October 8th.
♦ Effective tomorrow, 50 generators from the Florida Dept of Emergency Management are being moved into Cape Coral to service water and sewer issues created by LCEC unwillingness to restore power. Lift stations will be powered by state generators until Duke Energy personnel take control and do the work LCEC is unwilling to do.
♦ Effective tomorrow, The Florida Dept of Transportation and the Florida Army Corp of Engineers will begin rebuilding an interim bridge for Pine Island Road access. A temporary bridge is expected to be completed by the end of the week, allowing Pine Island residents to cross into the mainland. Lee County can then figure out a permanent solution.
♦ Effective immediately, the Florida Dept of Transportation will begin a parallel operation with Lee County Transportation to outline a temporary bridge and transit system to reconnect access to Sanibel Island from Punta Rassa (South Fort Myers). Governor Ron DeSantis said there’s no reason to wait a year for a permanent fix to begin. The state will pick up the tab for a temporary bridge system, as Lee County begins the process of figuring out what to do.
♦ The Florida National Guard will begin airlifting utility crews into Sanibel and Captiva Islands to begin restoration assessments.
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All good decisions by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.
Ancillary NOTE: Remember what I said yesterday… “On a practical note, I see the millionaire/billionaire boating class are being told they must remove their status yachts from a couple of major locations.”…. 24 hours after that notification to the white wine spritzer crowd, the Florida State DOT now says they will build a fast temporary bridge and local municipal port operations (barges) will not be needed. These issues and rapid responses are related.
The White Wine Spritzer Crowd are the major DeSantis donor crowd. Tell the SWFL millionaires/billionaires they need to move their yachts and suddenly a temporary bridge is being built by the State of Florida. Hey, don’t get me wrong, I ain’t bitchin’, but I also ain’t stupid. Everything is always related to the economics of the thing.
There are plenty of other US ARMY Engineer assets (Regular, Reserve and National Guard) from the neighboring States. They have air lift compatible (by Helicopter and above) assets to provide: Power, Water, Water Filtration, Construction, even boats, et al, to assist upon request.
There are also other US Army: Aviation, Logistical, Medical and Military Police Assets able to support as well from the same sources.
Hopefully Sock Puppet JoeBama’s pen & cell phone made those available and Governor DeSantis has made or will make the requests, as needed.
I say hopefully, because the democrats put Sock Puppet JoeBama in front of the media a few days ago to say the US Government has failed in Puerto Rico … 4 weeks after the fact.
Fortunately the INFRASTRUCTURE and INFRASTRUCTURE REPAIR assets are privatized and able to handle the disaster unlike the corrupted disaster in Puerto Rico as it was 4 years and 40 Billion Dollars ago in 2018 during the last Hurricane in Puerto Rico.
I told LCEC in March, that we needed to vote out all the board members when they didn’t compensate me enough for the kw my solar system sent them last year. I told them they were ripping us off.
…”Everything is always related to the economics of the thing.” -Sundance
Yes, and while we may all have issues with DS, at least he sees this point clearly, as opposed to the current batch in DC.
I don’t see any reason to bad mouth DeSantis over this. I don’t care what the motivation is as long as he’s doing the right thing.
Who is “bad-mouthing” DeSantis over this?
Lee County Electric Coop needs to have a day of reckoning.
point of order: notice Sundance PROVES he has no axe to grind with DeSantis. This thread is ample proof and evidence that it IS ONLY TRUTH that is worth publishing. I know this has been annoying to some in the recent past. Get over it. I mean it. No one here ENJOYS speaking the inconvenient truths about presidential candidate hopefuls. But it MUST BE DONE. Why? Because NO ONE ELSE IS DOING IT! That reality has been the “norm” for such a long time, that no one really had any basis to compare. Until President Trump arrived. That is when the curtains were ripped down, exposing for a vast majority of Americans who the king makers are, and how these politicos launch their stock into the national election. We are no longer innocent and can be blissfully and pretend to ignore what has gone on for far too long: special interest, small groups AND NOT THE WILL OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE MAKE PRESIDENTS. This must change. Each of us has our own self interest at stake and it’s not a trivial debate. Compare this to the billions upon billions of dollars financing the entire spectrum of political campaigns, from NGO’s, to sovereign wealth funds, from foreign powers, and dark pool money. None of that represents you. That money is almost exclusively purposed to make kings and establish paid IOU’s. Very little if any of that money represents your values or even produces work from this government that represents you. This is how we got to this nightmare in this country. It’s a money trip.
The truth is that few candidates will actually win a race in america without major financing. It can be done, but not enough at one single moment in time to reshape the purpose of a WE THE PEOPLE government.
Remember this: it started with grass roots…over 12 years ago give or take. This is the lesson of how WE THE PEOPLE can make a difference. To be precise, President Trump would have never happened if it had not been for a significant and powerful large groups of Americans who wanted and demanded change. And today, we stand at a threshold, the same one we started 12 years (or more?) ago. We can not cling to bad ideas and status quo. Picking the lessor of two evils is a devil’s bargain. This is not how you win the changes you want. It never can be that. It is literally producing the same problems over again.
I praise Desantis often for his great work in Florida. There are few other governors with fortitude and intelligence. But I cannot overlook his king makers. Those tens of millions of dollars did not come from WE THE PEOPLE. That should make everyone very concerned. At least to understand the donors and how they operate and what is likely to be expected in return. Do the dive. Do not be afraid to be skeptical of a good leader. There IS a difference between a state leader and a national leader. the power in comparison is galactic in difference. THIS is why I remain skeptical about DeSantis.
noting: not one single reporter to date has ever asked why desantis has taken almost all of his political financing from small groups interests…tens of millions of dollars. While his WE THE PEOPLE money is miniscule in comparison. Why hasn’t a reporter asked THAT question? (spoiler: they never ask this question of ANY candidate, because the dirty secret that no one discusses is THAT IS THE ACCEPTED PRACTICE!)
let it sink in.
God Bless America
God Bless America
May God Bless Floridians as they work to recover from this temporary setback.
The De Santis / Tucker situation might be a valuable attitude adjuster for Americans who require absolute conformity to their political views or you are the enemy.
Happens here a bit, I suggest.
Both have “sinned” yet each seems to be the game’s outstanding ball carrier today.
Eclectic individuals do not sit well inside ‘all or nothing’ political philosophies.
I believe we are fortunate to have them around.
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2022/10/happened-rep-jim-jordan-now-side-big-techs-censorship-conservatives/
Et tu, Brute.
Governor DeSantis is a doer and problem-solver like President Trump.
Reminds me of the Wollman Rink.
As the idiom goes, “many hands make light work”.
The ants are coming. A just retired lineman friend from my neck of the woods is en route to help “move rocks”.
Governor Ron DeSantis is a good man and one hell of an organizer. Presidential material.
bverwey
Excellent catch Sundance. Nobody impacted by this tragedy will complain. It’s all God’s anyway and he works his will through all kinds of men.
Thank you forever Governor DeSantis. S you are awesome S.Lemke
Good old Sanibel, let the contractors on island prior to residents to appease the wealthy. Us normal folks have to wait or find a boat to get to the island and walk to our homes (carrying food, water, etc). It’s all about the evil controlling with the almighty dollar.