Gov. DeSantis travels around Florida in the aftermath of Helene

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis traveled across Florida in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene.

At 9 a.m. Friday, he appeared in Tallahassee, where he gave his first update after Helene made landfall Thursday night.

During this press conference, he confirmed a second death due to the storm. The latest was in Dixie County, where a tree fell on a person’s home. The first was confirmed late Thursday night when a sign fell on top of a car as it traveled on Interstate 4 in Tampa.

Currently, there are at least 40 deaths across four states due to the storm.

Helene was the third hurricane to make landfall in rural Taylor County in a little more than a year. The other two storms were Hurricane Idalia in August 2023 and Hurricane Debby in August of this year.

“To have something that was even bigger than those two storms causing a lot of damage, I think it’s a sense of trauma for the community,” DeSantis said. “It’s demoralizing because, it’s like, we worked on this, and now we could be potentially worse off than we were before.”

At 1:30 p.m., he was in St. Pete for a media availability event, where he was joined by Florida Division of Emergency Management Director Kevin Guthrie Major General John D. Haas, Adjutant General of Florida.

At 4:15 p.m., he made an appearance in Perry, Florida, in Taylor County, where the hurricane first made landfall, at around 11 p.m. Thursday. Perry saw extensive damage from Helene.

DeSantis said he is worried that communities that have to rebuild after storms might feel traumatized.

“It’s one thing to have to deal with really major damage, but when you’ve already been rebuilding from one and have this, that takes a toll emotionally and mentally as well,” said the governor. 

At 5:15 p.m., he traveled to Cedar Key, where he held another media availability event.