‘We’re not leaving until this gets done’: Biden visits Florida in wake of hurricane
He survived Ian in a tree as his mobile home flooded. Are trailer parks too risky? By Linda Robertson Miami Herald
FORT MYERS BEACH, Fla. — President Joe Biden spent Wednesday afternoon in southwest Florida surveying damage inflicted in Florida by Hurricane Ian, and pledged a sustained U.S. effort as the region continues its recovery and begins to rebuild.
“I wanted to tell you in person that we’re thinking of you and we’re not leaving. We’re not leaving until this gets done. I promise you that,” the president said at Fisherman’s Wharf in Fort Myers Beach. “After the television cameras have moved on, we’re still going to be here with you.”
“I promise you: We’re going to be here every step of the way,” he added during remarks in front of twisted wood of what was, until the hurricane, the outside dining area at Dixie Fish Co. restaurant.
He spent about three and a half hours in the region, viewing the destruction from the air; getting a briefing on the response and recovery efforts from federal, state and local officials; talking to first responders and recovery workers; and meeting with people affected by the storm.
At Fisherman’s Wharf, the president, first lady Jill Biden, Gov. Ron Desantis, and the governor’s spouse, Casey Desantis, spoke with residents.
The president embraced several of the people whose stories he heard.
“So many families in these communities, their homes are destroyed,” Biden said after speaking with the residents and smallbusiness owners.
He lamented what the storm did to Fisherman’s Wharf, where there used to be thriving restaurants and shops. “Now they’re wiped out.”
“This historic, titanic and unimaginable storm just ripped it to pieces. You’ve got to start from scratch,” he said. “It’s going to take a lot of time, not months or weeks, but years for everything to get squared away in the state of Florida.”
Biden’s personal meetings — with residents and business owners affected by Hurricane Ian, plus crews working on rescues, restoring power, distributing food and water and removing debris — represent one of the most important parts of a president’s job: serving as the nation’s consoler in chief.
Biden asked people to remember those affected by all sorts of national disasters. “When you hear it happen somewhere else, remember this is the United States of America. We’re all in this together.”
He said it was difficult to comprehend the level of the disaster in southwest Florida, but said he could relate to the uncertainty — about rebuilding, about insurance, about myriad other questions — because his home was severely damaged by lightning years ago.
Bill Veach, a member of the Fort Myers Beach Town Council, said he told Biden that he’d lost his home full of memorabilia from 35 years of marriage to his wife, but not the “man cave” he had built on top of the garage because he had built it according to the latest codes.
Hurricane Ian made landfall as a Category 4 storm on Sept. 28. The president visited Lee County, hardest hit by the hurricane. According to The Associated Press, Ian has resulted in at least 84 people confirmed dead, including 75 in Florida. Dozens who died were from Lee County. The Florida trip came two days after Biden visited Puerto Rico to inspect damage inflicted by Hurricane Fiona.
The president, the first lady and Lee County Commission Chairman Cecil Pendergrass surveyed storm-ravaged areas from Marine One, the presidential helicopter. The Bidens then went to Fisherman’s Wharf, where they were joined by the governor and his wife in font of what once was Dill’s Bait and Tackle. The two couples shook hands and exchanged a few quiet words.
“Have you ever been to Sanibel?” the governor asked. Jill Biden nodded.
Outside what remained of Bonita Bill’s waterfront café they gathered around cardboard diagrams and pictures.
The White House announced Wednesday a doubling of the time — to 60 days from 30 days — that the federal government will pick up 100% of costs for search and rescue, sheltering,
feeding, and other emergency measures to save lives.
Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Deanne Criswell told reporters during a briefing on Air Force One that there isn’t yet a cost estimate for the previously authorized or newly expanded assistance.
“We are still very much in the life saving and stabilization mode. They are just beginning the assessments of what the actual extent of damage is to the infrastructure. It’s going to be in the billions. How many billions? I don’t know yet. But it will certainly be in the billions. And perhaps one of the more costly disasters that we’ve seen in many years,” Criswell said.
“The funds are going to be there for as long as we need to support (efforts in Florida),” Criswell said.
Biden approved the state’s disaster declaration request before the storm hit the state, an action Desantis has praised. Nearly 4,000 federal personnel are on the ground helping with storm recovery efforts, the White House said.
By Thursday, Biden said, three more disaster centers would be open in Lee County. He said he was told on Air Force One while flying to Fort Myers that people are waiting for hours on the phone trying to get help. He said personnel would be added to reduce wait times and urged people to seek assistance online or at in-person centers.
Inevitably, there’s also a political dimension.
The interaction between the president and Desantis was keenly watched. The Republican governor is a fierce critic of the Democratic president, though he has temporarily paused his attacks on Biden as Ian threatened, then slammed the state. It’s in both men’s interest to avoid appearing overtly political, and instead show they’re acting in the public interest.
FORT MYERS BEACH, Fla. — Shawn Hunte figured he would weather Hurricane Ian the same way he weathered countless storms as a shrimper on the flooded, tilted decks of bucking boats in high seas.
But Ian was “Mother Nature kicking ass,” he said. It swept him in a raging current through his San Carlos Island trailer park to the top of a 15-foot tree, where he clung to the trunk for three hours as a fleet of runaway boats from an adjacent marina floated by.
“I took a beating up there,” Hunte said, pointing to a denuded royal poinciana and an upended Jacuzzi that he used as a platform when it became wedged in the branches while he wielded a leather couch cushion as a shield against flying debris. “The water rose so rapidly, and when it was up to our necks we jumped out the door, grabbed whatever we could find and held on til kingdom come. And it almost did, man, it almost did.”
Like the hundreds of mobile home parks dotting Southwest Florida, Sunnyland’s collection of motley, immobile trailers and RVS was not built to withstand the 150 mph winds and 10 to 12 feet of storm surge that slammed coastal communities last Wednesday.
While construction standards were toughened for flimsy mobile homes that failed 30 years ago during Hurricane Andrew, Ian was a Category 4 monster that caused unprecedented flooding. In the aftermath of Ian, as in the aftermath of every major storm, the damage in trailer parks is extreme.
Should dangerous older parks be phased out — particularly in highrisk coastal areas? Or should a vital source of affordable housing for retirees, service industry employees and agricultural workers be preserved — but built back stronger?
Ian will renew the debate over what to do about a style of living that is both famous and infamous in Florida. There are more than 800,000 mobile or manufactured homes in the state housing 12% of the population and about 37,500 in Lee County alone, where 54 deaths, most by drowning, had been reported as of Monday.
Hunte would like to stay here, even after his harrowing experience during Ian.