The Florida Roundup - Hurricane Milton, PolitiFact checks claims, diary of an evacuee

Episode Date: October 11, 2024

This week on The Florida Roundup, we look at the widespread damage and the loss of life from Hurricane Milton. First, we checked in with NPR’s Greg Allen from Clearwater (02:18), then we heard from WUSF’s Kerry Sheridan about the impact in Sarasota (08:47) before turning to CFPM’s Molly Duerig to look at flooding in Central Florida (10:58). Later, we spoke with WQCS’ Chris Puorro about the deadly tornadoes Milton produced that touched down in Port St. Lucie (17:00) and Rep. Toby Overdorf whose district includes areas of St. Lucie and Martin counties (21:37). Plus, we heard from Florida Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis about filing claims in the wake of Helene and Milton (28:23). We also checked some recent claims related to FEMA funding with PolitiFact’s Katie Sanders (33:23) and heard the story of one St. Petersburg resident as they evacuated ahead of Milton (37:09).

This is the Florida Roundup. I'm Tom Hudson. Thanks for being here this week. There were the tornadoes. It actually came down our road and it took out about, I'd say about six or seven big farms, nurseries, flower farms, tree farms. Dozens of dangerous twisters spun out of the sky down to the ground. Joseph Chamas owns Gratitude Garden Farms in Loxahatchee Groves. It leveled barns to the ground. Greenhouses were completely twisted and thrown up in the air, gone. Yeah, and pretty much devastation. And then, you know, right next door, they're not touched.

So it was just a twister, a big twister that rolled through here and took out a bunch of farms. There was the relentless rain. One of the most profound things that I'm seeing out there is the flooding. Bill McDaniel is the city manager in Plant City. We have flooding in places and to levels that I've never seen, and I've lived in this community my entire life. It's absolutely staggering what we're seeing out there. There were the strong winds. We were fortunate we had a lot of wind so we do have that to contend with but we didn't get the rain you know or that large amount of storm surge. Sandra Tafumene is the emergency

management chief in Sarasota County, where Hurricane Milton made landfall Wednesday night. The good news we have to share is that we did not sustain the up to 12 feet of storm surge that was predicted. It was actually lower. We think it's somewhere between seven and eight feet from initial assessments. Hurricane Milton spent eight hours spinning across Florida, scarring beaches and roads, neighborhoods and downtowns with its hurricane force winds, historic rains and unprecedented tornadoes. More than two million customers on this Friday remain without power. Cell phone services spotty.

Getting online is tough. Did you evacuate? Maybe you opened your home to folks fleeing the storm's path. Do you need to get in touch with someone? Call us now, 305-995-1800. We're live statewide on this Friday after Hurricane Milton, 305-995-1800. Let's begin in Clearwater where NPR's Greg Allen is. He has been in the Bay Area for a good number of days. Greg, here on this Friday, you're near an apartment complex where hundreds of people had to be rescued from floodwaters.

Tell us what happened. Right, Tom. Well, this kind of developed in the early morning hours Thursday after the hurricane had passed over this area. But as you know, it dropped so much rain on Pinellas County, as much as 19 inches in some places, that rivers and creeks started to rise. Also, some people just got water coming in their homes. At the Standard Apartment Complex here in Clearwater, it kind of sits very low near the Alligator Creek,

and the creek started to rise. People say around 2 a.m. they saw water kind of coming up on the cars and they saw cars floating. They realized that that it was time to get out. They called the emergency 911, but they were told that since the storm was still passing over, they couldn't come out yet. So rescuers didn't arrive until much later. People here were saying around 6 a.m., and then they took out 540 people, many in boats, some in high-water vehicles. Some people waded it out in thigh-deep or chest-deep water in some cases. So it was kind of a bad scene. Today, we have a lot of residents here wondering when they can get back in to get their belongings, check on things, and they're keeping everyone out saying there could actually even be alligators still back there. Some residents are skeptical, but it is Alligator Creek.

After all, yeah, its namesake wasn't there just because of a tourist brochure, probably. Right. You mentioned 19 inches of rain in the St. Pete Clearwater area. What is the overall regional flood outlook here as we're a day and a half after Hurricane Milton? here as we're, you know, a day and a half after Hurricane Milton. Right. Well, we've been hearing from emergency managers and meteorologists about the threat of flooding continuing throughout this week. We know that up here in Pasco County, a little north of where I am, there was at least 100

people rescued from communities around the Ancloat River, which is rising. And I think a lot of people evacuated on their own, but still they were forced evacuations. They tell me up there that they think that that situation is stabilized. The river has crested. They think that everybody's out and needs to be so that they aren't anticipating a lot more evacuations today. We're seeing similar situations at the little Wekiva River and other tributaries of the St. Johns, which took a lot of water. We're hoping that maybe today, the next day, things will crest and get back to normal. But in the meantime, people have to watch out for flooding still. There was a different type of water that was a concern in St. Petersburg, municipal water.

The water service had been shut off. Sewer service was shut off. Sewer service is back online. So is the municipal water. But there's still a boil water notice in St. Pete until Monday. How goes the overall cleanup effort as you've been waking your way around that region the past day and a half? after weathering the storm on overnight Thursday, going out to look what you see, because the winds were just amazing, as you can imagine. But what we saw mostly were limbs and sometimes trees down, but I was staying in Brandon, Florida, which is a little bit west of Tampa, but right on the bay, I'm sorry, east of Tampa, but right on the bay. And homes did very well there.

As I drove through St. Petersburg, an older area, very low, got right on the bay. And homes did very well there. As I drove through St. Petersburg, an older area, very low, got a lot of water. Homes did very well. The problem would be if you had a tree fall in your house, and certainly people had that. We did see a lot of pictures of homes really close to the shore where that five to eight foot storm surge in places like Sarasota County might have done damage. But overall, the word we get from people is the damage was much worse on Helene. And all the debris you see out there is still left over from Helene, not from Milton. NPR's Greg Allen joining us here on the Florida Rondo from Clearwater. Greg, we'll let you get back to it and listen for your reports later on today on the network. Thanks so much. Oh, you're welcome.

Mary Ann has been listening in from Sun City Center. Mary Ann, how are you doing after the storm? I'm doing fine. We are very lucky here at Sun City that we sustain very little damage. Very good. You wanted to share some experience, though, difficulty in somewhat getting updates about the situation.

Well, that's kind of a pet peeve. I'm listening to your show or anybody and they say, well, if you want more information, go to our website. Well, here we are without power, without Wi-Fi. And I think it would just be nice if they would just tell us. Well, Marianne, it's the power of radio here with us. It's one of the, I think, greatest technologies. It's the original social media, after all. Well before there were websites, there was radio. And Marianne, we thank you for tuning in and joining us. You getting along okay? You have power? No, we're still without power. I've

got residents here in my HOA asking me when it's coming on i have no idea because yeah i have nothing to update me and i have nowhere to look uh but i was going to say i was thank god you were on the air throughout the storm because you were what's keeping me going well marianne that wind was blowing oh we're glad you came through the other side thank you for joining us uh unfortunately i don't have any information on specifically when sun city uh could get its power back but we know you and more than a million other floridians are still without power uh today on this front just every so often someone come on and says you know tico's working in this area and maybe give us some some updates and someone told me they got word that we got another storm brewing, and news to me, I have no way of checking this.

If that's what's happening, I guess we should probably know. We're getting the debris picked up from this one, so it won't cause damage if there's another one. Well, sure, sure. I will say there's nothing threatening the state of Florida right now in terms of tropical weather. I'm looking at the National Hurricane Center website because I do have connectivity here in our studio. There's nothing threatening over the next several days. There is a storm way out in the Atlantic

that just came off the coast of Africa that has about a 50% chance of development over the next 48 hours. And of course, Marianne, as you know, we are still well within hurricane season here. So stay tuned to your radio station, Marianne. Thank you for joining us here on the Florida Roundup. Let's go to Sarasota.

WUSF's Carrie Sheridan is there. This is where Milton made landfall near Siesta Key, Carrie, but did not bring with it the expected storm surge of up to 15 feet. Why not? Well, Tom, what we heard was that the storm, Milton, kind of fell apart on arrival. Sandra Tafumene, who you had on a moment ago, told us that the storm sort of broke apart. So since the bottom of it fell out a bit, it didn't have that power to really push up the storm surge and bring it inland, which emergency managers in Sarasota were really sounding the alarm before this,

saying it was going to be historic. They were expecting catastrophic impacts. They called for Zone A, B, and C to evacuate, which is really most people, you know, in Sarasota. The water was going to go way inland. So I don't think they were being alarmist. They were just telling us what to expect. And so I don't think they were being alarmist. They were just telling us what to expect.

And what happened was when the storm got here, it just fell apart a little bit and we were spared. And so what are the conditions here on this Friday on the barrier islands that did take the brunt of the storm surge that was there? Yeah, I mean, they suffered in Helene just about two weeks ago. A lot of overwash, a lot of water, a lot of storm surge, flooding businesses. And now that's all happened again. So I spoke to one of the fire chiefs who went out to the barrier islands right after the storm. And he said, you know, a lot of debris had remained from Helene that hadn't been picked up yet. So that just got pushed everywhere. And places that had flooded had flooded again.

just got pushed everywhere and places that had flooded had flooded again. But I guess the impact wasn't as severe since it had already gone through something terrible. So a lot of places were in ruin already. What do you know about the ability to get back to those barrier islands? They just opened limited access today. So there is some ability to get back, but they really don't want people going out to see the damage or being there if they're not supposed to be there. Yeah. Carrie, we'll let you get back to reporting. Thanks so much for sharing what you've been seeing and reporting. Carrie Sheridan with our partner station WUSF in Sarasota. Let's go to Orlando and check in with Molly Duregg. She is with our partner, Central Florida Public Media. Molly,

on this Friday, the theme parks are open again. So a bit of a return to what is normal after Milton, Florida's busiest airport, the Orlando International Airport, also reopened today on this Friday. What's the state of damage in the Orlando greater area? Absolutely. Good afternoon. Thanks for having me. So as Governor Ron DeSantis has said this week with Milton, Florida really avoided the worst case scenario. At least that's what he said. But for some folks, I mean, it really seems like East Orange County and East Orlando neighborhoods seem to have taken the brunt of the damage with this storm. It's actually where our station is based. And actually one of our colleagues, very unfortunately, lost their roof in one of the tornadoes, but fortunately was not there. Fortunately it was at the station, was safe. That's what's most important. But just to show that, you know, there was there there has been devastating impacts in certain pockets there and Volusia County as well. A little bit north of Orlando, they're taking the brunt as the east side of the storm moved through,

where we saw the most violent tornado activity, the most violent thunderstorms, and in some cases, some of the most violent winds as well. That's right, yeah. My colleague, Lillian Hernandez-Caraballo, reported on a neighborhood yesterday in the east part of Orange County

that was totally trapped by water right off of Rouse Road near University Acres. Mailboxes looked like they were floating on several feet of water. And there are rescues that had to be made out of that neighborhood during the height of the storm. And that's a low lying area that apparently floods like every time there's a hurricane. There are other parts of the city that we've covered that have been reporting flooding happening more often and more severely, not necessarily just during those extreme storm events. And sometimes it seems as though residents say that it may be due to development, it may be due to construction projects in the area and diverting water differently.

And just a side note, their higher stormwater rates just took effect in Orlando and Volusia County right at the start of this month. And actually better drainage and flood mitigation are huge reasons like behind those increases. So this is something they're aware of and working on. Stormwater fees, the tax fee that residents pay to try to stay dry or at least dry out as fast as possible after some heavy rains. What about some regional flooding threats beyond Orlando and Orange County in that central Florida area? As we heard from our colleague, Greg Allen, on the other side of the peninsula, still significant flooding threats,

Pasco County, North Pinellas County here, you know, more than a day, day and a half after the storm. What about Volusia County and some of those surrounding areas? Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, it's really heartbreaking seeing some of, hearing from some of the folks up there who have had flooding happen. With Ian, I have numerous families that literally just got back into their homes from Ian, seriously, in the last couple of months, or finished repairs in the last couple of months. And the pictures and just several feet of water engulfing the homes destroyed. It really is heartbreaking to see. But there's up to more than 15 inches of rain in the county, close to 16. There is at least 170 high water rescues, according to the

county's emergency management director. And yeah, there's still some roads that are impassable. They had a curfew that expired earlier today that was in place last night, but they're still very much taking precautions, roads that are impassable with high water and some roads that there's a road expired earlier today that was in place last night, but they're still very much taking precautions, roads that are impassable with high water and some roads that there's a road somewhere up there that looks like it basically collapsed. So there's definitely, it's definitely going to be a long road ahead, unfortunately, for some of those residents. Molly Durig covers the environment in Orlando for our partner, Central Florida Public Media. Molly, thanks for joining us here on the Florida Roundup. Kathy's been listening in in Sarasota. Kathy, how are you doing? How's the

house? How's the family? Oh, everything's fine. We had a lot of limbs. Fortunately, we're near Lino Beach, but we're just past the area that had to evacuate, so we were quite lucky that way. We had lots of limbs, and I have a lot of animals so you know I have three dogs and eight parents and I mean everybody was quiet during the storm it was like eerie nobody was squawking nothing so you know we were fortunate but what I have to say is I grew up on Anamaria Island yeah and my family used to have a beach house there. And I'm telling you right now... Okay, I'm crossing the street. It sounds like you're either walking or driving,

so be careful, Kathy. Make sure your eyes are on the road. Yeah, I know. I think the police didn't like that I just went on ahead, but I'm okay now. Yes, I want to say something. The bureaucracy is part of the problem that they haven't been helping people in all these hurricanes. I think we need a change, and the change has got to be administration, guys.

I mean, from the bottom to the top. We even stopped that four-story parking garage they were trying to build because the greedy builders in Florida, they wanted to build. They wanted to build a four-story garage right there on Manatee Beach. Hideous. Instead of seeing the beautiful beach. I don't want my island to look like Manatee. I mean, like a Miami beach, okay?

So, all these Ys have bought their... You can't have that kind of language here on the radio, and I appreciate you sharing your passion after such a storm, and we understand perhaps where that passion is coming from, but we do want to continue to make it civil here on the floor, Doronda. But, Kathy, thanks for joining us from Sarasota. Let's go to the Treasure Coast, which really suffered because of the tornado warnings and a record number of tornado warnings and tornadoes touching down.

WQCS is our partner station there. Chris Poro is with us in Fort Pierce. Chris, tornadoes in St. Lucie County killed several people. Tell us the extent of the damage. Yeah, thanks, Tom. We have six confirmed deaths as of this morning from Sheriff Pearson, the sheriff of St. Lucie County. All of the deaths that we have currently confirmed are in the Spanish Lakes Country Club Village. That's in Lakewood Park. That's just a couple of miles north of Fort Pierce. It's a retirement community,

That's just a couple of miles north of Fort Pierce. It's a retirement community, a 55-plus mobile home community. Part of the problem, Tom, was the storm was still hundreds of miles away at the time. People were preparing. People were putting up their shutters. People were gathering their last things. their last things, they really didn't think that this huge tornadic activity was just going to come out so soon. You know, everyone was, people worked, they were driving home from work. So it was a little surprising that it happened so soon. We saw the tornadoes start down in Broward County at around 10 a.m. and moved moving forward. And, you know, it was it was it

was surprising. And we saw the record number of tornadoes. It really was an incredible outbreak, unprecedented, the single highest number of tornado warnings issued in the state of Florida in a single day ever and the second highest in a single day for the entire country by the National Weather Service. Chris, I want you to hold on. We have to take a break here, but we want to hear more about some of the immediate aftermath of those terrible tornadoes in St. Lucie County as you are listening to the Florida Roundup from your Florida Public Radio Station. More to come. This is the Florida Roundup. I'm Tom Hudson. Thanks again for listening. The deadliest impact from Hurricane Milton appears to be from the tornadoes it spawned

hours before and more than 100 miles away from where the storm eventually made landfall. Dozens of tornadoes touched down, many along the Treasure Coast. WQCS's, our partner station there, Chris Poirot, still with us in Fort Pierce. Chris, what are some of the immediate needs that these communities, such as Spanish Lakes Country Club, Mariner Sands, a community in Stewart that also experienced a tornado, what do they need, what are they receiving? Well, I think the important thing right now is, according to the sheriff,

as of yesterday afternoon until last night, it's still a rescue operation. You know, it's it's widespread. There's there's a lot of debris. So there's still some accountability. And, you know, to make sure that everyone who can be saved will be saved. It's it's it's tricky because this is the time this is a seasonal community. So this is the time when a lot of people are coming back. So exactly when they come back, were they there? Did they come down and evacuate? Are they still at their summer residence if this is a seasonal home for them? So that's what the focus is right now. It's still on rescue. Beyond that, I know that St. Lucie County has extended their shelters to allow the residents that have

been displaced to have shelter at this time. And that is incredibly helpful. I believe one of the schools, you know, is that wasn't even scheduled to be a shelter is being transitioned to one. And additionally, you know, we also need to remember it wasn't just this area that was hit. There were so many tornadoes in various places. Some people, thankfully, it looks like the loss of life was contained to one tornado. But according to Sheriff Pearson, there were serious injuries from people that were driving on 95 while the tornadoes were going across that were just, like I said, getting home, putting up their shutters when this thing kind of flew out of nowhere. Yeah, folks making the last run to the gas station or the grocery store. It really caught everyone off guard that it happened so soon.

It's something to remember for next time that even though we always say the storm is this far away from landfall from the coast, if they're this big, those tornadoes can spawn that far away. Yeah, very dangerous situation. Chris Sporo with the partner station in Fort Pierce. He's the station manager at WQCS. Chris, thanks for your time today. Toby Oberdorf is the Republican member of the Florida House of Representatives representing parts of Martin and St. Lucie counties that were affected by these tornadoes. Representative, thanks for your time. You with us? Yes, sir. What can you update us, as Chris talked about today, still being a rescue mission? What can you share with us in terms of rescue missions?

Well, to update you on that, we had urban search and rescue teams from as far away as West Virginia and Ohio that were helping out with our various search and rescue, whether it was Martin, St. Lucie, Palm Beach, Okeechobee, or Indian River. To give you some idea, we had literally had hundreds of these individuals here. As of this morning, we have been able to release those teams and signed off to allow them to go elsewhere. Uh, the, the urban search and rescue is complete. And, uh, unfortunately we, we have confirmed that six individuals did pass away within St. Lucie County. And, uh, those were from, uh, the tornadoes, those fatalities. They were from the tornadoes. Um, all the, all the individuals have been identified and they

were all within the Spanish Lakes community. How about how many homes and businesses were damaged? Have you been able to get a tally? Well, in Martin County, we have well over 600 structures that were damaged and 200 of them were catastrophic damage. In St. Lucie County, we are still in the process of counting. St. Lucie County, we are still in the process of counting. There were, from all accounts, 17 separate tornadic events in St. Lucie County, approximately 7 to 10 in Martin County. And the National Weather Service is now working to identify the EF level associated with those tornadoes and figuring them out. When I was in the Emergency Operations Center yesterday, they had mapped out most of the confirmed paths within

St. Lucie County, but we're working on some others that were not confirmed. The human tragedy is paramount here, Representative. I know you've also done work on the policy side when it comes to insurance. The number of tornadoes was a record for a single day. How do you anticipate insurers to respond to this come renewal time? This tornadic event, I mean, nobody had ever seen anything like this. Of course, I spoke with a variety of individuals and had that had been doing emergency management or things like this over uh 20 some odd years none of them has seen anything

like this as far as the insurance goes number one if you have repairs that are that are set for your home uh you're under florida law that we enacted um approximately months ago, in no way, shape or form can any insurance company drop you during that time of repair. And in fact, you have 60 days after that repair has been completed before an insurance company would be allowed to take some action, such as choosing to dropping your policy. As far as the continuation of policies, we have currently nine new insurance companies that have come in prior to this storm. We have others that are in the process of being approved. We were able to, for the first time ever, or not the first time ever, in the first time in about 15 years, we actually had the catastrophic side of insurance go way up because our reinsurance rates were so

drastically low. As a result, we were in very good shape prior to the storm coming in. And I think we will remain that way. We really had a very strong insurance market going into our season. Representative Overdorf, we'll invite you back on the program to talk more about this in the aftermath of this storm. But we're thinking of you and your community. Thanks so much for joining us. Toby Overdorf, Republican member of the Florida House, representing parts of Martin and St. Lucie counties. Now, Helene and Milton have come as the home insurance market here in Florida already was one of the most expensive in the nation. The state's insurance commissioner told the Tampa Bay Times the industry is, quote, poised to weather the impacts of the storm.

Jimmy Patronis is the chief financial officer of the state of Florida and is ultimately responsible for insurance regulation. Hi, Tom and guests. I want everyone to vote. How can I volunteer to help people get their ballots submitted? I am new to Florida. Many of the volunteer activities I have done in other states are illegal in Florida. How can I legally help? So this is the wrong piece of sound there. Our apologies here. We were able to speak with the CFO Patronus just yesterday as he was part of urban search

and rescue efforts throughout the state of Florida. We were able to discuss the insurance regulation in the state here as obviously there have been many, many questions about insurance premiums, the expense and coverage. And there have been several special state legislative sessions over the past couple of years to respond to the insurance market in Florida, as well as to respond and to regulate Citizens Insurance Company, which is the state-backed insurance company of last resort. Citizens is the state-backed insurance company, meaning that is the place where Floridians who cannot get insurance in the private market can get wind cover insurance as well as standard HO3 home insurance if that is at all necessary. Citizens is provided with the ability to levy a fee on other insurance premiums in the private market to make up for shortfall of money, and then, of course, is also backed by state taxpayers.

The CFO, Jimmy Petronas, told me in our conversation that he does not think that Citizens is going to have to levy either of those fees in the case of coverage for Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton. insurance premiums not only creep up, but really skyrocket up over the past several years as lawmakers have instituted a number of reforms in hopes of, number one, slowing the rate of those premium increases, and number two, attracting more competition to the state of Florida in the effort to try to bring more competition and more price competition for homeowners here in the Florida. So we will try to bring that interview to you as soon as we can here on the Florida Roundup as our conversation continues and our coverage in the hours and days after Hurricane Milton continue here. Here's that conversation now with the Chief Financial Officer of Florida, Jimmy Petronas. CFO Petronas, thank you for joining us. The state issued an emergency rule just before Hurricane Milton made landfall requiring insurance claims adjusters to explain any

changes that they may make to a homeowner's loss estimate and document those changes. This is a significant rule. Why was this emergency rule instituted? The point I wanted to make sure is that we hold everybody accountable. We just passed a law that it is illegal for a desk adjuster to change those claims. So we want to say, you know what, we want to create a paper trail. Anybody who starts playing in the claims process, we want to have names and signatures on those to make sure that the customer has full transparency, understanding what they're being represented to them and also back to their carriers because it is what it is. It's chaos. It's a disaster. And incomplete

documents turn into claim disputes. Claim disputes turn into delays, and delays turn into litigation. And that's what I do not want. So the more transparency we have, the quicker and cleaner the claims process is. Is this rule retroactive to those Floridians that were damaged by Hurricane Helene just two weeks ago, or is it only those impacted by Milton and perhaps storms going forward? So I've posed that question to my general counsel, and he is looking into it. So you mentioned that the goal of this is transparency. How is this new rule going to impact how much and how soon people get insurance checks? I don't think it's going to delay anything. The main thing that we see during storms are incomplete documentation.

You've got those adjusters out in the field that are pros. They get everything accurate, 100%. And then you've got those out there that can't seem to submit a single document that's complete and everything in between. So all we're trying to do is create a more completeness process so that when, you know, when I've got a document and all these parties have signed off on it, then, you know, I can go and grab the neck of the insurance company by the back of the neck and look, everybody signed off on this. Where's the problem? You know, so if the adjuster is signing off on it and I've got some type of industry standard

software to ensure that, you know, the prices are being fairly represented and that the policyholder is getting a fair deal. That's, that's good. Cause I mean, I can't personally look at every single claim in the case of like the hurricane Ian, it was 800,000. So, so sometimes I'm an emergency order. So by gosh, we got the emergency order in place. Let's go ahead and do this just to make sure that we're protecting the policyholder, which at the end of the day, that's my number one goal.

More transparency can mean more detail, and this rule requires adjusters to provide a written estimate. They have to write down the numbers, and they have to itemize the repairs. Might that level of detail, though, delay payment ultimately? Tell me what is wrong with having a detailed report that that's a horrible question you just asked what is wrong with having a detailed report so to be clear cfo i'm not criticizing having a detailed report i'm asking is the level of detail might delay payment that's all i'm asking whoa and and all i asked you and and and and and i asked

you what's wrong with having a detailed report? You know what? If the games that get played on both sides of this thing that I'm trying to eliminate, and if it's factually accurate, somebody wants to sign their name to it, you know what? Then we have somebody we can go after. This is the problem we had in previous times is now we get new data submitted or new evidence submitted and it drags out investigations. I said, no, I don't want to drag out investigations. I want to know exactly who

is responsible for what document I'm looking at. And you know what? It's going to make people think long and hard about cutting corners and being sloppy with their work. Because at the end of the day, the policyholder deserves to have quick, swift response to the closing of their claim. Two major storms in the state in two weeks. Do you anticipate any insurance companies being unable to pay claims? No, no, not at all. The storm that we had with Helene was a flood event. As of the data I looked at, I don't know, four days ago, five days ago, there was 44,000 flood insurance claims filed. This storm, all the reports I've been getting from my urban search and rescue folks is, you know, in the case of everybody was very fixated, me included, on Tampa Bay. I think we're

fortunate from a lot of ways that the damage from this storm could have been a lot worse. Now, where we are going to see some real trauma is St. Lucie County with the tornadoes. But again, that is not as widespread as what a hurricane can do. That is the chief financial officer of Florida, Jimmy Patronus. I'm Tom Hudson, and you're listening to the Florida Roundup from your Florida Public Radio station. Election Day continues to near. Voting is underway in some cases, and we're examining claims each week with our partner, PolitiFact. Lots to talk about regarding hurricane and disaster recovery claims. Katie Sanders is the

managing editor at PolitiFact and joins us now. Katie, there are loads and loads of claims about the Federal Emergency Management Agency in the past couple of weeks, and they've been growing since Hurricane Helene and now Milton. Here's the former President Donald Trump making this claim last week at a campaign rally in Michigan. All her FEMA money, billions of dollars on housing for illegal migrants, many of whom should not be in our country. So the former president repeated versions of this claim that FEMA has spent billions of dollars on illegal migrants. Katie, what's the truth of this? There's really not a lot of truth here. And I think the bottom line to this claim he's repeated

many times is that money was not stolen by the Biden administration to help migrants overstorm victims. His pants on fire, which is our rating for when a statement is inaccurate and also ridiculous. There have been also plenty of claims about FEMA and how it pays storm victims, especially the agency's $750 payments for essentials. This is actually the first hurricane season for these payments that they're called serious needs assistance. One video on TikTok had a guy claiming he claimed to be a FEMA inspector, and he said that the money is actually a loan.

In that contract, if you do not pay the money back, it is a loan, a loan. And even if it's just a dollar or $750, if you don't pay it back, they have the right to seize all of your property. All right. So first of all, no verification that this guy on the telephone speaking is a FEMA inspector. But what about, Katie, this $750 serious needs assistance money from FEMA? Is it a loan? It's not a loan. It's an initial payment. And then people have other options from there. We've seen $750 being misrepresented in several ways after Vice President Harris brought it up at an event recently. It's an initial payment. It is not a loan. And there's no land seizure element either. These are just wildly false claims that have really distracted from relief. false claims that have really distracted from relief. FEMA has published a website about rumor response in hopes of fact-checking its claims of disaster recovery. What do you think of the efforts that FEMA has had to undergo here? Well, it's not their first time having to debunk storm related issues after a big event, but the administrator said it's been the worst case

of misinformation after a storm they've ever seen. And that's certainly consistent with what we're seeing. I think the thing to keep in mind is that the government should be doing what it can to counter false narratives. But if you're somebody who's distrustful of the government, you're probably not going to believe that very much. So it's just really important for all of us, really, not just fact checkers, but journalists and citizens to promote truth and dig deeper for legitimate sources when emotions are high and people are scared. Very much so. And a lot is on the line. Katie Sanders is the managing editor at PolitiFact. Katie, thanks for sharing your thoughts with us. Much appreciated. Always appreciate the fact checks as well.

Happy to be here. Thanks so much. If you've got a claim you'd like us to fact check, you can always reach us online, radio at thefloridaroundup.org, radio at thefloridaroundup.org, and we'll put the fact checkers on it in the weeks ahead. You're listening to The Florida Roundup from your Florida Public Radio station. This is The Florida Roundup. I'm Tom Hudson. Brandon Meyer faced the question hundreds of thousands of Floridians asked themselves this week. Do I stay or do I go? Do I stay in my home

as a major hurricane is taking aim or do I evacuate? He lives in St. Petersburg, just blocks from the water. Brandon is a visiting lecturer at the University of Florida and a journalist with our partner station WUFT in Gainesville. He knows how to make decisions when facing danger. You see, he was a Marine who spent five years in Iraq and Afghanistan. He's hiked the Appalachian Trail twice. And he wanted to document Hurricane Milton as it threatened to hit his hometown, but he wasn't going to do it from his house. He had a plan. It's 6.40 p.m. on Tuesday evening.

In less than 24 hours, a Category 5 storm could roll over my head. I'm here at home in Northeast St. Petersburg doing dishes. I've got all the chores wrapped up. I've turned up the AC, I've locked all the doors, shut all the windows, cleaned up the back porch, folded the laundry, packed up the car. Riding out the storm here at the house is completely out of the question. We sit at nine feet above sea level. The house has never flooded before, but projections have storm surge reaching 10 to 15 feet.

We're only five blocks away from Tampa Bay. Even if it didn't flood, the house is from 1917. It's balloon frame construction. It likely wouldn't survive a direct hit from the storm. Now I'm leaving my home for what might be the last time to ride out the storm in a condo overlooking Tampa Bay. And that's it. Now I'm driving towards downtown and all the buildings are in the horizon here. There's just not a lot of lights on inside of these units. I can probably count them of the condo.

I haven't made a final decision yet about staying or leaving. I'm going to get a good night's rest and then I'm gonna reevaluate what things look like. If the projection is really bad, if it's coming right for us and it's still cat 5, I'm likely gonna head out of town. There's still time to evacuate in the morning. Home sweet home. The condo I'm in is on the 27th floor of a building that's just south of the St. Pete Pier. The entire east side of the condo is just floor-to-ceiling windows, and it gives you this incredible 180-degree panorama. and it gives you this incredible 180 degree panorama. If you were in a reporting on a historic hurricane hitting Tampa Bay, you'd be hard pressed to find a better spot

to do it from. The sun had set on Tampa Bay and the Gulf of Mexico. It was calm. The eye of Hurricane Milton was still about 24 hours away from making landfall in Florida. Brandon was in a condo that was inside the forecast cone. I'm Tom Hudson. You're listening to the Florida Rondo from your Florida Public Radio station. Well, it's coming up on 9 o'clock Wednesday morning. I'm looking down at the marina right now. Outer rain bands are just starting to hit.

We're getting a little bit of wind gusts. I've been looking at the trajectory of the storm here, and it looks like it's going to hit somewhere between Sarasota and Bradenton, which puts it about 50 miles south of here. I made my decision to stay. I spoke to a couple of friends last night who are kind of a voice of reason for me. I have, obviously, an increased tolerance for risk, and those two friends understand that and they help me identify any blind

spots when I'm negotiating with myself. I feel completely safe right now. I'm not concerned. The building's gonna hold up. The windows are incredibly strong. They're gonna hold up. It's just now we wait so 12 to 18 hours we should have the storm in full effect here It's 11 o'clock and I've decided to take off. So I'm about to head down the elevator and get in my car and then drive to Gainesville. It's 1140. I'm on I-275 headed north. I'm on the causeway leading up to the Howard Franklin Bridge. One of my concerns about staying was that all of these bridges are going to be shut down. They're all going to have to be re-inspected, and I don't know how long that's going to take.

And I don't know how long that's going to take. On the causeway here, looking off to my right, there's Tampa Bay. There's just white caps everywhere. The winds are at least getting the waves going. There's no spillage over the roadway. So it's been about 12 hours since the storm went through and I'm on my way back to St. Petersburg. My thoughts right now are trying to envision what the neighborhood looks like. I received a photo this morning from a neighbor, just an angle view of the house, the house looks okay there's trees down all around it's one of the more historic neighborhoods

in town it's famous for its tree cover a bunch of banyan trees and old live oaks there were three live oaks in the backyard that I was worried about I still don't know what condition those are in. Well, I'm pulling into the neighborhood now. The stop light at the intersection closest to my house, that's completely gone. Everyone's been really polite driving, although you have to be careful because their eyes aren't necessarily focused on the road today. They weren't wrong about all of the tree damage here.

It's not necessarily trees that have fallen down, but a lot of limbs. I'll turn onto my street. This road's pretty clear. We've got some people working on their roofs. A lot of standing water and just tree limbs everywhere. I'm going over a, well, it's not live, a power line. And I'm pulling up on the house right now. Alright, let's have a look. House looks good. Landscaping looks good.

Outside of some leaves in the yard. You wouldn't even know a hurricane went through here. On the front porch, house is nice and cool. Windows are intact. Big surprise back yard here. Doors a little tight. All right. I have some pool work for sure. There's a giant limb in the pool. Tons and tons of leaves and it looks like it's done a pretty good job turning the pool water green. Oh, we're in good shape. We're in good shape. I think we lucked out. Yeah, it's really, really relieving. Brandon Meyer is with our partner station, WUFT. That is our program for this week. It is produced by WLRN Public Media in Miami and WUSF in Tampa. By Bridget O'Brien and Grayson Docter.

WLRN's Vice President of Radio and the program's Technical Director is Peter Mertz. Richard Ives answers our phones. Our theme music is provided by Miami Jazz Guitarist Aaron Leibos at AaronLeibos.com. Engineering help each and every week from Doug Peterson, Jackson Harp, and Charles Michaels. Now, these are folks we thank each week, names you may not recognize, but they are instrumental, vital in making this program. And this week, Charles Michaels passed away. I worked with Charles for more than a decade. He was a master of technology. He was dedicated to the mission of public radio. A few years ago, I walked into a shopping mall near Miami and saw something I hadn't seen for years.

A Radio Shack store. An actual Radio Shack. I snapped a photo. I sent it to Charles. I knew he'd appreciate it. You see, Charles loved sound. He loved helping make sound. And our world is a little quieter now without Charles. Our love and condolences to his wife, Jean, and his family. Thanks for calling, emailing, listening, and supporting Public Radio. I'm Tom Hudson. Have a safe weekend. Thank you.