Florida Representative criticizes DeSantis for delay in seeking federal aid for flood victims

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A man walks out of a flooded neighborhood Thursday, April 13, 2023, in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier, File)

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On Saturday, Governor DeSantis announced he is seeking federal aid for victims of the Broward County flood earlier this month. One Florida legislator is wondering what took so long.

More than two feet of rain flooded parts of Broward County on April 12th. The one-in-one-thousand-year rainfall event damaged about a thousand homes and forced airport closures.

A week and a half after the flooding, DeSantis said he would ask the federal government to declare Broward a disaster area. This would make residents eligible for financial assistance.

However, Broward County representative Hillary Cassel wonders what took so long.

“It took the governor over a week to ask for that assistance and he is yet to visit the district and my community that is in desperate need of help!”

Cassel, a property insurance attorney, says she immediately knew the disaster declaration was necessary.

“We’ve known since the very beginning we were going to need federal support because, as a property insurance attorney, I know that property insurance, individual homeowners policies are not going to cover these claims. These claims are as a result of flood, most of these people are not in flood zones so they do not have flood insurance.”

DeSantis has recently been traveling both nationally and internationally. Many believe he is gearing up for a presidential bid.

“It is very clear that it is more important to him to run a national campaign, go overseas, talk about foreign issues, and he has left the state of Florida literally high and wet.”

 

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