Florida Sen. Marco Rubio offered Fox News an update Wednesday on the effects and outlook of catastrophic Hurricane Ian, which made landfall in Lee County that afternoon.
“It’s going to be a long 36 hours,” Florida’s senior senator said on “The Five.”
“This is a slow moving storm. We’ve got all kinds of risks here where the storm surge has gotten a lot of attention; rightfully so –There’s going to be a lot of rain on already-drenched land. And so you’re going to have flooding that way.”
Rubio said there are now tornado warnings spanning across the state from the landfall area to east central Florida, which is generally flat – a factor conducive to such cyclone activity.
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More than 1 million Floridians are without power, as the storm’s effects are being felt from Lee, Charlotte and Collier Counties on the western edge of the state, and further inland through Hendry, DeSoto, Polk and Orange Counties, with evacuations being made as far over as St. Johns County on the Atlantic Coast.
Rubio said there haven’t been many updates from counties in the epicenter of the storm, as telecommunications break down, adding that images from civilians in those areas show why they should have heeded orders to evacuate.
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“Fortunately, it appears most people heeded those warnings, but some did not. So now it’s going to be some time before we can get there. And it is a storm surge event,” he said, adding that Tampa luckily missed the brunt of the storm, which would have been even more catastrophic in a dense, low-lying population center such as that in Hillsborough County.
“I still think there are hours ahead, as you can see in the images, of wind and other dangerous conditions there… [It] won’t be until midday tomorrow before we really start to get a full assessment of how bad things are,” Rubio added. “And frankly, there will be many, you know, first floors and one-story and two-story structures are going to become uninhabitable.”
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The senator said he has been in touch with FEMA Director Deanne Criswell, calling her agency “professional” and adding that there has long been a good relationship between the disaster responders and Florida officials.
“The coordination is about as good as I’ve ever seen it. And so there are all kinds of assets on standby and ready to come in and assist the state, whatever those needs are,” he said.
Power company linemen are already pre-positioning for when conditions are safe enough to begin work restoring electricity and telecommunications, Rubio said, while adding another aspect that will need attention is bulk debris removal from roads and property.
“I’m very satisfied [with FEMA],” he continued. “I think the cooperation has been excellent and always has been. But today, at this moment, it’s better than it’s ever been in terms of before a storm.”
