In Tallahassee we have hundreds upon hundreds of people responding here and then of course you know we have tens of thousands of people responding to the affected area.
You using your megaphone and your voice to try to get people to help is just so imperative and we thank you.
One of the things I know you did personally was help us get $100,000, which contributed to the $13 million that we have been able to raise through the Disaster Fund, FloridaDisasterFund.org.
That money is particularly helpful.
It's coming from private sector dollars.
And why it's so nice is because we are working with the Emergency Operations Center.
We're getting all of the needs that are coming in here, and they're working with the private sector entities to get money quickly Out to the ground in the affected areas and supporting those non-profits that are on the front lines.
So there's a lot of things that people can do, but primarily the funds is a great way to start.
So we're gonna put the link of course down below so that people can donate and I know that people in my audience have already and will continue to do so.
What about beyond donations in terms of actually physically helping?
I'm getting a lot of messages from people that they have some skills, they want to help, they want to get down to Southwest Florida.
Are you guys coordinating any of that or what can people do?
So one thing people have said is, I want to go down there, I want to get on the ground, I want to go instantaneously.
Just know that there is still a mission going on to rescue folks and we have the National Guard, we have the Coast
Guard, we have our first responders, law enforcement who are going around in those affected areas, and Fort Myers
Beach, and Sanibel Island, and some of the barrier islands, and they're going in to making sure that people are okay.
But what you can do is go to volunteerflorida.org. Once you get there, there's something called Volunteer Connect. That
is a portal that we are using as a pass-through to the non-profits that are again on the ground, on the front lines, and they
are looking for support.
So the American Red Cross is looking for boots on the ground because right now we have 600 trucks.
Some are already there.
Some are on their way from places like Louisiana.
We have a lot of resources that we have been staging here in the state of Florida.
We're getting them to those distribution points in Florida.
And then we're going to need folks in addition to the folks that are already there to distribute things like water bottles and food and blankets and tarps that we have.
And so that is a really great way.
VolunteerFlorida.org to figure out how you can help firsthand if you want to be on the ground.
And frankly, there's some other ways that you can donate your time not necessarily being there in Southwest Florida.
Are you guys kind of blown away by the devastation of this thing?
I mean, it sounds like we were super prepared, that the administration did everything possible, but the size of this thing, not only, you know, basically one tick below the Category 5, but the actual size of the hurricane, and now it's moving up South Carolina as we talk.
It's almost like there was almost nothing we could do in a way.
Well, no, I mean, the state of Florida was prepared for all contingencies.
I mean, unfortunately, this is something that we just know how to do is to prepare for these storms.
They run through a lot of scenarios here.
We have a great management director here at the EEOC who has gone through a lot of contingency plans.
So we had assets staged and ready to go in the form of food and water bottles and MREs.
We had 40,000 linesmen from Florida Power and Light and other places that were ready to go
to make sure that they were on the ground to restore things like power.
We have the Army Corps of Engineers that responded to a water problem down in Lee County.
They were there within a matter of hours.
At 2 o'clock in the morning, they showed up to try to make a difference.
So we had things staged.
But to your point about this storm, I mean, I think we all saw the cone.
There was kind of the cone uncertainty.
At one point in time, it was coming up towards the panhandle and then it shifted and went south.
I think what was really shocking about this storm was the size, the storm surge, and how slowly it came on shore and then slowly snaked its way up to northeast Florida and then as we see now exiting into the Atlantic and going up towards South Carolina.
And so it dumped a lot of rain.
There's been some flooding incidents.
All across the state, Seminole County, Volusia County, we're hearing about flooding.
And so it was just a monster storm that moved very quickly.
And when you were down there, when I was down there with the governor, we went and toured the area, Fort Walton Beach.
We wound up in a helicopter.
You could really see where the eye wall came on shore and some of the most affected areas were the northeast quadrant of the storm because that's where you saw that huge storm surge.
And so that's why you see a lot of issues and a lot of devastation which is heartbreaking in places like Lee County and Collier County and the northern part of Charlotte County.
Yeah well I just want to say you know I'm like the proudest new Floridian and I want to do everything possible to help my state and I'm so appreciative of obviously your husband and you and everyone here that's doing everything possible.
When people are donating do they have any direction as to where that money goes if they care about you know one particular area maybe that they lived in or is this just a mass fund and then you guys figure out what to do with it?
What we do is we vet a lot of these organizations and have partnerships and MOUs going into it, memorandums of understanding about what they do and what services they will provide given the needs that we are finding on the ground.
And so one of the great things that you could know about this fund is that it's going to go directly to the people who need it most.
Another great thing is I went in and we waived all of the processing fees.
There's not going to be a 3% cut from here.
We talked to Visa and American Express and PayPal was really great and they waived all those fees.
So you know when you're donating to that 501c3 that it is going to go directly to the folks who are on the ground executing the mission.
Great, well, listen, I know you're incredibly busy, and I'm guessing you probably have to get back out on the road soon enough, and we're just all with you guys.
If there's anything else I can do, as I said, we're gonna put the link down below.
Do you have any other thoughts before I let you go?
I mean, we welcome you with open arms as a new Floridian.
I know there's a lot of new Floridians have come here for freedom, and we just want people to know that we have your back.
Those who are suffering, I mean, we're going to be with you until this is done and you're on your feet and you're back and going back at things as they once were.
We're very resilient in Florida.
I couldn't be more proud, as you have said, to be a Floridian, watching the response and being down in Southwest Florida, seeing people come together, helping one another in need, not leaving people until they know that the job is done.
I mean, I am very proud to be a Floridian.
I'm very proud of the governor's response to this and very proud of the hundreds of people here at the EEOC and all of the first responders, the tens of thousands of people, not only from Florida, but all across the country that are coming to support the efforts.
And so, you know, it's awful.
It's tragic what's happened to so many people.
But I couldn't be more proud of the way that the state is responding.