Complete Obliteration’: DeSantis Says Hurricane Helene Damage Worse Than Idalia

Officer Nate Martir, a law enforcement officer from the Florida Fish Wildlife and Conservation Commission, holds an American flag that was lying on the ground amid debris, while patrolling from a high water capable swamp buggy, in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, in Cedar Key, Fla., Friday, Sept. 27, 2024. AP Photo/Gerald Herbert TAMPA—Florida’s Gov. Ron DeSantis said Hurricane Helene’s “monumental storm surge” caused far greater damage than last year’s Idalia. “Clearly you saw storm surge in excess of 15 feet,” DeSantis said to reporters in Taylor County’s Dekle Beach on the morning of Sept. 28. “So that is much, much more significant than what we’ve seen in recent storms like Idalia that hit and certainly Debbie, and that is really, really destructive. So, as you look around here, you see some homes that are now just rubble.” >ad He said some of the damage he saw while flying over the affected coastline on Sept. 27 en route to Cedar Key was “complete oblite...