Ron DeSantis: 37,000 Linemen Will Be Ready; ‘Never Had This Many Resources Prior to a Storm’

Florida will have at least 37,000 linemen at the ready — and perhaps a few thousands more — as Hurricane Milton barrels toward the west coast, Gov. Ron DeSantis announced Tuesday morning.

He made the promise while delivering an update at the State Emergency Operations Center in Tallahassee.

“Hurricane Milton is expected to make landfall on the west coast of Florida sometime between Wednesday evening and early Thursday morning,” DeSantis said, noting that the storm has moved a bit slower than initial projections showed. Regardless, the governor — who is widely heralded for his efficient response to hurricanes — warned Floridians to not get “wedded to the cone,” because the storm may very well wobble. Further, the cone of uncertainty only applies to where the actual eye of the storm could go. It is not a projection of widespread impacts.

“Just know it’s possible that it could hit north of Tampa Bay, could hit Tampa Bay, could hit south of Tampa Bay, somewhere in southwest Florida. But wherever it makes landfall, there’s going to be impacts far beyond what the cone actually shows,” he emphasized, noting that 51 counties are under a state of emergency. Even counties as far northeast as St. Johns are under a hurricane warning as of Tuesday.

DeSantis walked through some of the preparations the state is taking, still “actively addressing storm-related resource requests.”

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“We are currently fulfilling close to 1,000 missions to support our local communities, that includes everything from tiger dams and generators to staff support as well as food and water and tarps. We’ve also deployed more than 11,000 feet of flood protection systems,” he said.

“We’ve also done things like generators to support special needs sheltering operations, of course, Starlink internet –all counties have access to Starlink internet devices, and can use those as they see fit. More than 350 ambulances and more than 30 paratransits are in operation. We also have another 144 in staging that can be used if the need arises,” he said, explaining that Florida is also “amassing fuel reserves ahead of Milton and staging it to be utilized as needed.”

He said the state has been dispatching fuel as individual gas stations have been running out, but he made it clear that there is no fuel shortage in the state.

“We have been dispatching fuel over the past 24 hours as gas stations have run out. So we currently have 268,000 gallons of diesel, 110,000 gallons of gasoline. Those numbers are less than what they were 24 hours ago, because we’ve put a lot in, but we have an additional 1.2 million gallons of both diesel and gasoline that is currently in route to the state of Florida,” he said, emphasizing, “Now there is no fuel shortage.”

“Fuel continues to arrive in the state of Florida by port, and what we’re doing to bring it in on the ground, but lines at gas stations have been long. Gas stations are running out quicker than they otherwise would, and so that is causing the state of Florida to help assist with the mission to be able to get fuel to the gas stations, so that Floridians have access,” he said, explaining that Florid Highway Patrol escorted 27 fuel trucks to impact areas overnight.

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Debris removal missions are continuing, DeSantis said, also touting those state assets which includes over 300 dump trucks.

Prior to landfall, 8,000 National Guard for the state of Florida will be activated, the governor continued, thanking other states, such as Texas, for sending resources and aid.

“We have already on hand 34 different search and rescue aircraft. We’ve never had this many resources prior to a storm,” DeSantis noted.

“Linemen and power restoration resources are being marshaled in advance of the storm, as is our standard practice,” DeSantis continued, revealing that they have “in excess of 37,000 linemen that are either in or en route to the state of Florida.”

He continued:

As most people know, Kane Helene left a lot of damage in some of our neighboring states, and there have been a lot of linemen surged into those states, still working on major power restoration. So some of these linemen are coming into Florida from as far away as California. So I know people like to see the site of the linemen staging coming. … Some of them have traveled a long way to be able to be here and to be able to help get the power back on. We are hoping that that number ends up in excess of 40,000, so that’d be significantly more than what we had staged for Helene, which was a very rapid restoration. Of course, this storm could present much different challenges. I would like to say that the electrical co-ops, they have staged 4,200 linemen, and their goal is to have 7,500 just themselves, between these co-ops by landfall.

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The storm currently has maximum sustained winds of 150 mph, according to the latest update.