DeSantis Responds to Claims FEMA Can Keep People From Their Homes

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks during a press conference at the State Emergency Operations Center in Tallahassee, Fla., on Sept. 26, 2024. Chandan Khanna/AFP via Getty Images

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Wednesday responded to claims on social media suggesting that federal officials will not allow residents back in their homes after Hurricane Milton, which is now a Category 1 storm and is expected to move east over the Atlantic Ocean later Thursday.

The governor denied those claims, saying that his administration is in charge of the hurricane response, not the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). It’s not clear where those rumors originated.

“We live in an era where if you put out crap online, you can get a lot of people to share it and you can monetize that. That’s just the way it is,” DeSantis told the news conference, adding that “in the state of Florida none of that stuff would ever fly.”

“FEMA is not leading this show, we are leading this show here in the state of Florida,“ he said. ”We’re marshaling whatever assets are available to us, we’re leveraging that.”

DeSantis said that there will not “be anything where FEMA is ever going to be able to keep you from your home,” before adding a word of caution.

“Be careful about the nonsense that gets circulated, and just know that the more titillating it is, the more likely somebody is making money off it,” he said. Those people don’t care “about the well-being and safety of the people that are actually in the eye of this storm, it’s all just trying to monetize what they’re doing,” the governor continued.

A page on FEMA’s website says that the federal agency “cannot seize your property or land” after a natural disaster or after a person applies for federal disaster assistance.

“If the results of the inspection deem your home uninhabitable, that information is only used to determine the amount of FEMA assistance you may receive to make your home safe, sanitary and functional,” the FEMA page says.

Hurricane Milton made landfall Category 3 storm on Wednesday evening, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC). The storm was once a Category 5 but has since weakened, although it is still considered a “major” hurricane.

The storm prompted the evacuation of millions of people along Florida’s Gulf Coast this week. Officials had warned that people living in storm surge-prone areas along the coast should flee or risk death.

Power outages as of Thursday morning are rampant. More than 3 million Floridians lack electricity, according to Poweroutage.us.

FEMA’s response, meanwhile, has been criticized by Republicans in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, which caused significant devastation in western North Carolina. Republicans have noted that the agency in April allocated over $600 million in funding for illegal migrants after Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told reporters last week that FEMA is running out of funding.

There have also been reports from North Carolina residents who have claimed that FEMA has blocked off roads or has not provided enough relief in Helene’s aftermath. The Epoch Times has been unable to independently verify those claims.

The director of the agency Deanne Criswell has pushed back on the criticism by telling ABC News on Sunday that such statements are “not helpful” and are “demoralizing to all of the first responders that have been out there in their communities helping people.”

On Tuesday, Criswell said that FEMA “have enough funds to absolutely get through the response” for both Helene and Milton, but might run out of cash by the end of the fiscal year.

“We don’t have enough money to continue throughout the rest of the year,” she told Fox News, adding that her agency has been “able to anticipate last year, this year, and even going into next year, that we are not going to have enough to pay all of the recovery bills.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.