Dorian claimed 3 lives in Florida; 2 died while prepping for storm

Hurricane Dorian’s colossal winds only skirted Florida’s coast, but the human cost became clearer Thursday as the state confirmed three storm-related deaths and suggested that county medical examiners might have more to report.

The state confirmed that David Bradley, a 68-yearold Indialantic man, died Sunday while putting plywood on the windows of a beachside condominium. The death was first reported by Florida Today.

Police said Bradley was standing on a ladder in a screened-in balcony facing the sea when he fell through the screen three stories to his death.

A second confirmed death was that of 55-yearold Joseph Waldon of Ocoee, who fell to his death while trimming tree limbs on Monday ahead of the storm.

Waldon had climbed about 15 feet into the tree with a chain saw and, as he was cutting branches, a limb hit him and he fell, Ocoee Battalion Fire Chief Edwin Youman told WKMG in Orlando.

Waldon was not using a ladder. His family said he was attempting to trim the limbs to prevent it from falling onto the house in strong winds.

Gov. Ron DeSantis said Thursday that an elderly man who had been taken to an emergency shelter died there, but he could offer no additional details. The state announces hurricane-related deaths after the fatalities have been confirmed by local medical examiners.

The storm “was a close call,’’ DeSantis said at his final media briefing on the monster hurricane.

He estimated the damage to Florida would be “tens of millions of dollars,’‘ mostly from flooding and beach erosion but reminded Floridians it could have been worse.

“There will be damage but the damage will be less than what was experienced during Hurricane Matthew,” he said.

DeSantis urged Floridians to pray for those in the Carolinas, who were still facing the wrath of Dorian, and offer aid to those in the Bahamas where the blistering winds destroyed thousands of homes and many people remain missing.

He said the state has sought an amended disaster declaration to allow counties such as Miami-Dade and Broward, which opened shelters for residents in anticipation of the storm, to be reimbursed by the federal government even though Dorian did not make landfall there.

“South Florida heeded the call,” said Lt. Gov. Jeanette Nuñez, a Miami native. “We initially were looking at impact, and as the governor mentioned, South Florida took this very seriously and so they indeed incurred some costs in preparing. We eventually were taken out of the cone, but I think that speaks to the volume and level of preparedness that we need to maintain.”

DeSantis said he has asked President Donald Trump to allow for federal reimbursement of those costs because the counties did what federal emergency-assistance officials asked them to do and prepared.

“The idea they would be left holding the entire bag, that sends the message to maybe skimp on that next time,” he said. “What that will end up leading to is, when a storm does hit, the damage will be worse from the federal perspective because they’ll have to pay more money.”

As of Wednesday night, 41 counties reported spending $55 million in stormrelated expenses, including $10 million by Miami-Dade, according to the state Division of Emergency Management.

DeSantis said the president has said “we’re going to help you out with whatever you need — not getting into the details.”