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Gov. DeSantis: Thousands still without power after Hurricane Helene; Florida Disaster Fund activated

More than 200,000 Floridians were still without power Sunday morning after Hurricane Helene, according to Gov. Ron DeSantis.

During a news conference in Pasco County, DeSantis said that more than 2 million accounts have been restored, and added that Duke Energy expects power to be restored to most of their customers by midnight.

Eleven people died in Florida as Hurricane Helene made landfall as a powerful Category 4 storm in the Big Bend region late Thursday night, Gov. Ron DeSantis said Saturday morning during a news conference in Taylor County. The deaths included traffic fatalities and people directly impacted by the storm surge. Helene made landfall at Dekle Beach in Taylor County with maximum sustained winds of 140 miles per hour. There were no storm-related fatalities in this county.

“As you look around here, we see some homes that are now just rubble,” DeSantis said Saturday. “There’s a lot of damage that we’re seeing here.” Storm surges were “historic” according to DeSantis, exceeding those seen during Hurricane Idalia, particularly in Tampa Bay and the Big Bend region.

DeSantis: Housing crucial for residents in areas hardest hit by Helene

One major need for residents of Taylor County, where three hurricanes have hit in a 13 month-span, is what Hurricane Helene swept away: shelter.

Gov. Ron DeSantis, in Dekle Beach Saturday morning, stressed the need for housing assistance for the people whose homes washed away after at least 15 feet – perhaps as much as 20 feet – of storm surge washed away homes and more Thursday evening. “You see some homes that are now just rubble,” DeSantis told reporters. “If this is your primary residence you’re going to be displaced. There’s going to be a need for a housing mission.”

DeSantis spoke in Taylor County, where the category 4 storm made landfall, amid a backdrop of wooden pillars pointing upwards from the ground that once held a house.

It’s a familiar scene along that piece of the Big Bend coastline, which in the last 13 months has been hit by Hurricane Idalia (which topped out as a category 4), Hurricane Debby (category 1) and now Hurricane Helene.

DeSantis serves barbecue and prayers in Florida as another storm brews in the Gulf

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis slung plates of donated barbecue in the tiny town of Suwannee (pop. roughly 300) on Sunday as he continues visiting parts of the state smacked by category 4 Hurricane Helene last week.

He also told residents that another storm brewing in the Gulf of Mexico was “not something that you should be freaking out about.” The National Weather Service in Tallahassee early Sunday said “a tropical disturbance has a 50% chance of development in the western Caribbean over the next 7 days.”

Its social media post added: “It is too early to determine what, if any, impacts may occur in the northeast Gulf.” In Suwannee, a community near the mouth of the Suwannee River in Dixie County, DeSantis said “if it does form, we don't know how strong it'll be. We don't necessarily know what the track will be.”

That swath of the state, where the Panhandle curves into the peninsula, now has been traumatized by three major storms in the last 13 months: Hurricane Idalia (which topped out as a category 4), Hurricane Debby (category 1) and now Helene. Before he handed out barbecue, he added to the blessing over the food a prayer that the state be spared from the next Gulf storm.

Florida minimum wage hike beginning Monday involves complications, contradictions

It took years of debate, a constitutional amendment, legal wrangling and an approval by the state’s voters but Florida’s new minimum wage policy will finally go into effect on Monday, officially rising to $13 an hour, a mark many say is long overdue.

A 2022 referendum seeking the constitutional amendment got just enough approval by 6.39 million votes in favor as opposed to 4.11 million voters casting ballots against the measure. But the amendment cleared the needed supermajority criteria of 60% with 60.82% approving as opposed to 39.18% against.

While the constitutional amendment jacks up minimum wages from $12 an hour to $13 an hour as of Monday, it will keep rising annually until 2026.

“Each September 30th thereafter, minimum wage shall increase by $1.00 per hour until the minimum wage reaches $15.00 per hour on September 30th, 2026. From that point forward, future minimum wage increases shall revert to being adjusted annually for inflation starting September 30th, 2027,” the amendment reads.