very good y to contl that, do, be as to prepar as possible to limit amount > we will leave this to hear from governor rk scott, a hurricane ate from irma. governor scott: good afternoon, erybody. first, today, september 11, 16 years ago our country came under attack and thousands of innocent americans lost their lives. we will ver fort them and today we reflect on e memy of the love and loss. we're also reminded of the brery and selfless dedication of our law enforcement and first responders. some of which tragically lost theirives. i am always amazed of the resolve of law enforcement and we are seeing their commitment to families of our state today as they conduct search and rescue missions to keep people safe. today i want tohank the u.s. coast guard. i want to thank admiral schtz for making me on today's journey to assess the damage. we have a wonderful coast guard. we have a wderful military. and i can tell you i can't say engh about how they have shown up and they're continuing to show to do the right thing. our military not only defends the freedom of this country but they show up when there's a crisis. i just received a weather briefing on tropical storm irma's continued path through our state. it's been downgreated to a tropical storm. has sustned winds of 65 miles per hour. here's what we' seeing across our state. storm surge across south and southwest range from four to eight feet. monroe county experiencing 10 feet of storm surge at landfall. what's interesting about the storm surge, it's totally different than andrew. a lot of us remember andrew a we didn't see the storm surge in andrew. it was more of a wind event. in tampa we're seeing twto four feet of storm surge and it will last roughout the day. we are seeing three to six feet in the big bend. got signicant stormurge. we s a lot of damage. in central florida, the orlando area, we're seeinflooding due to torrential rain of more than a foot. in jacksonville and northeast florida, storm surge is three to fe feet on top of a foot of rainfall which is causing record and histocal flooding along the st.ohn's rive also explain to me ts morning in the weather briefing that hurricane jose is also pushing ter into the northern part of our ste which is preventing the water in flowing out as fast. i spoke to jacksonville mayor this morning and assur him resources are being deployed. fish and wildlife commission search and ee rescue teams. we wildo everything we can. the way i look at it as governor and all of think th way, we want to keep everybody safe through the storm and wanto keep everybody safe back to the storm and everybody back to a normal life as quickly as possible. also deployed a5-person team from the state emergcy operation center to the center in putna duvall and clay unties in response to this flooding. we will continue to send resources to jacksonville and any otr community in ne. rainfall exceeding a foot in many communities in northeast central and southwe florida. fortunately the heaviest rains have cleared the state. however, this rain caused flash flooding in nortast florida, rivers across the state contin to rise a standing water remains an issue over the entire peninsula. the bgest threat for this week airma leaveflorida will be river flooding and most of it will be ithnohern part of the state. stay tuned to local advisory for rir flood watches and warnings. families in southeast and northwest florida as well as the tampa bay area need to be especially vigant while riversill remain at flood levels. anwe will see that in the i-5 corridor. the heaviest winds have left florida but the entire peninsula experienced tropical form winds and hurricane gusts beingelt as far northeast as jacksonville. thankfully the threat of tornadoes have diminished. we received seven reports o tornadoes, including two in brevard county. the national weather service i working to look into this. it's important you check with local officials before returning home to make sure you can safely do so. don't go back -- don think just because this has passed you can run home. we got downe powernes acss the state. we have roads that are impassable. still across the state. we have debris all over the state. our goal, again, is don't put any more lives atisk. we aea went through this horrendous storm. don't put your lives at risk cause of downed pipelines, debris, impassable -- downed powerlines,ebris, impassable roads. i surveyed damage thrghout the west coast of florida and through the keys. here's what we saw. we saw the remnants of the storm surge along the west coast but we didn't see what we -- i didn't see the damage i thought i would see. we clearly saw homes that re messed up. we clearly saw roofs that were off. we clearly saw boats out of place and things like that. but i thght weould see more damage. there's stilllooding. there's still sand on the roads. but on the west coast, and this is confirmed by the mayors i have spoken to today, it's not as bad as we thought the storm surge wouldo. now, when you get to the keys, we were able to fly into the naval air station in key west which as of just a few hours before we landed had significant ter still on it. t they worked car that. we went over all that area. we saw lot of boats washed ashore. we saw any basically almost every trailer park, they're overturned. i don't think i saw one trailer park where almost everything wasn't overturned. saw a lot of flood mage. from talking to offials down in the keys, the water is not working. the seweis not working and there's no elericity. so it's ve tough. thnaonal guard, i think genel michael calhoun, they have gone all the way down to the ks. all the bridge are passable. the roads are passable. there is bridge damage, road damage. you can get down there. traffic,here's not a lot of traffic which is good. it's moving. my heart goes out to the peopl in the keys. i mean, there's devastation. it's -- and you know, i just hope everybody survived. it's hrible wha we saw. i know forur entire state but especially for the keys, it's going to be a long road. there's a lot amage. i know everybody wants to t back to normal. i know everyone wts to get started but you ha to be patient. you have tget the first responde in the keys. weavto get the water going again. we have to get electricity going again, the sewers gng ain. it will take a lot of time. i can tell everybody at the local level, state level, federal level, everybody is working hard. our ave members, local, state and federal vernment, national guard, litary members have been working around thelock toave people's liv. we got rescue teams with all sorts of equipment trying to make sure we don't lose anybody. if anybo's in harm's way, you can call your local law enforcement. you can call the state mergency hotline which is 800- 342-7479. somebody will show up. we are working with fema. i can tell you the white house has been outstanding. i talked to president trump three times yesterday. i talked to ministtor brock ng with fema already today. i talked to him multiple times yesterday. talked to so mancabinet levels. i was -- i talked to ve president pence yesterday. the white house and everybody at the federal level is showing up and they are going to -- my belief is they are going to show up and do everything they can. got -- the mission -- the reurces they're providing. the -- d.o.t. is working hard to clear the roads and inspect bridgeall across the state. we nd d.o.t. to inspect the bridges fore they go to th barrier islands. it was a top priority aftermath ue. if you don't need to be on the roads, don't get out. i mean, it's still -- there's still more -- againthere are powerlines, all sorts of things like tt that we're working on. t me just go on down. i've never used this to do this before. the u.s. navy, navey coast guard, everybody is going to be providing resources. e navy deployed the u.s.s. iwo jima, abraham and new york. power outages, we have 65% o the ste without power. it's going to ke us a long time tget power back. i have been talking to the utilies. i am doing daily calls. i have been talking to nursing homes all morning, assisted living, everybody needs their power back on. can tell you they're bringing in 23,000 members. this is just for t utilities are doing. not including what the federal government doing. not incling the support of the military. fuel. we're dog everything we can to get fuel back in the state. as youll know, we had fuel shortages last week. wet outages. we had a lot of shortages. we -- two big ports, tampa and port everglades, both them have fuel in their tanks that they had to have in the tanks during the hurricane. we're getting that t through our carriers. we're giving them law enforcementess courts, doing the same with the utilities to get trucks out as much as possible. we [no audio] we're getting those down here as much as possibl i will tell you everybody's going to work hard. the way think about it is we have to keep everybody se. we he to get -- we got to get our fuel back here. we got to t our roads open. we got to get everybody their elecicity back. i can't tell you anybody that's not working. my experience is everybodys working their tailff unfortunately everybody has to be patient. this is not an insigficant storm. this impacted -- what's different re it impacted our state. you could preposition one half the state. this one you couldn't. it was coming all the way dow the state. it was a lot of work. so i want to thank everybody starting with the president. i want to thank the federal government. i want to thank everybody at the local government. i want to thank everybody at the ste government. they have busted their rear. it's iide distinct opportunity to introduce somebody i have enjoy traveling with today and wit his leadership, the coast guard will be-on-believable partner this thi admiral schultz. admiral schultz: good afternoon. as our acting sretary, secretary duke said this morning, the department of homeland security is preparing for irma to arrive first in the caribbean and here in florida rough the good part more than a week. th coast guard has been reconstituting our forces day. we have our first aircraft back in miami in clearwater, helicopters that arrived from sea bus cutters and reconstituting our in force, bringing people back in the state. this has been a very challenging storm that it covered the state. we pl ouresources away so we can come back. this storm ped challenges there. search and rescue has been low. we had exceptional and joined exceptionalartnership with varying capable florida management today, with our o.d., national dense and national guard partns. and with our local responders. the coast guard is committed to the state of florida. and ll stand by for any estions. thank you. >> as you all know, we had a significant evacuation effort in the state. our highway patrol did an unbelievable job keeping t roads open, making sure evacuation roads were open. governor scott: wead shoulders but our highw patrol did a great job. now we have major general -- we have the major here from the highway patrol. >> good afternoon and thank you very much, governor. we appreciate your guidance, leadership andupport throughout this entire process. it's bn overwhelming. the admiral, general, support of the military personnel that are supporting local law. , our first responders has been nothing short of spectacular. on behalf of the florida patrol, ou anuncearra o roadways. help law enforcement, first respondersnd all of our refer could hey personnel, the fuel tankers, utility trucks and everyone that's going to be lvn isen preslee si uby ayg f e roadways unless absolutely necessary. most of all overnight to comply with the curfews that are in place. it will great enhance and help us accomplishing getting everyone back to a normal way of life. thank you. governor scott: i called up 7,000 members of our national guard. the national guard shows up when there's a crisis. they've been deployed over 100 times since 9/11. crisis like this they always show up. we are getting national guard from around the country. we have major general michael calhoun. major general calhoun: thank you, governor. i'd like to thank the coast guard along with some of our other sister services for our sister in getting this done so we can re-evaluate the national picture. [no audio] 000 guardsmen and over 200 shelters of the 500 shelters we have open. we have 900-plu guardsmen in th area with another 500 coming tonight. as the governor mention, we did go all the way down to the keys. there's light traffic. we are ensuring the roads are clear of debris. right now it seems to be working smoothly. we have search and rescue if they are not on the ground, fish a wildlife, search and rescue. thank you. governor scott: the federal vernme will be gat partner. you sent wonderful people to congress. we'lhear from ileana ros-lehtinen. ms. ros-lehtinen: we thank our first responders each and every day. today,/11 is an specially poignant day. we thank the firefighters, the police officers, all law enforcent personnel who walked into what was sure to be the day of their death. and that's the kind sacrice law enforcement and our military oicials mak each a every day. so we thank all of the brave men and women standing behind us that make eve day possible for us to liven safety a without fear. i want to tell theovernor that when dexter and i, we were survivors of huicane andrew 25 years ago living in the se hous boy, when you compare the fedel, state and local response during [ audio] it's been a -- no pun intended, a sea change in the positive way. 's been coordinated. it's been seamless. i know that constituents are frusated with the lack of gas and the lack of electricy but it's beea big problem. it was a huge orm. it going to take us a while to dig out of this. carlos curbelo and i are determined to goack to d.c. and work with our colleagues to find the funds needed for the hurricane relieeffort we found it for rricane harvey. we are going to band together nd find it for hurricane irma. [saking spanish] [no audio] so thank you, governor scott. governor scott: i'd be glad to answer any questions anybody has. [inaudible] north of the keys. if youet -- whatou saw in key west is -- you saw the boats damaged, you saw some houses damaged. you go up towards marathon, you saw any traer park, i don't think i saw trailer park where it didn't seem like everything was turned over. you saw flooding. you saw homes without their roofs and things like that. you saw lots of boats damaged. so -- but you -that's whe i saw the worst damag you could clearly see the storm surge. now, you know, it's -- the positive is i thought it was going to be even worse as far as 15-foot sto surge. i hope every -- you hope erybody survived. [inaudible] i tell you what. i apprecie the present -- he did a major declaration. he did prelandfall right after i asked h, i think the day i asked him. he did the major declaration. the homeland security, fema, the president, vice president, they've just been great partners. [inaudible] we are rescue teams going out just to make sure. my -- i was -- the flooding in jacksonville, we sent a lot this morning because we saw so much flooding there. so i know we have team out there. i don't he any personal knowledge right now if somebody is still stranded but i know we have rescue teams out. any fatalities you are aware of in the keys? governor scott: the local officials will announce any fatalities. >> are you prepared for the influx of floridians coming back? not a lot of gas. governor scott: we have to keep the roads open. highway safety, department of transportation is working hard to do that. pecially the evacuation routes. number two, we goto get the fuel back. we are working to make sure port tampa and port everglades to get in. there are tankers ready to come in t bring a lot of fuel but that will take some period of time because not only do we ge -- have to get the fuel in, we have to get the fueto the gas stations. that will take a few days to get caught up because people bought so much gas. i'm sure driving back they will buy a lot of gas again. on top of those things you have to be careful, there are so many downe powerlines. do you want to go to a house when you don't have power? just because the evaatn routes, we stl have the local roads. i know i tked to mayors around the states today and they are working hard to get e roads cleaned. i talked to this was today and they are doing the samehing. there's a lo to prepe before people rush back to their homes. inaudible] you know, here's the test. i don't -- don't want fatality. don't want anybody to die. i hope evebody listened to what we were talking about we will find out. i remember -- the days run together. i remember the morning of the -- when the hurricane was hitting, the roads were empty. and so i think people did leave their homes and get off the roads. e opened i think 600 shelters. people got into shelters which is positive. i shut down thechools friday thugh monday. allowed uso open up more shelters faster. it made it harder when the storm mov to the west because we had to rea very quicy to do that. but the local communities did that. american red crossame down. thousands of people volunteered. nurses showed up to help take care of our special needs patients. let me tell you, there's a lot work to do. i had phone calls allay long about nursing homes and assisted living that don't have their power. and so we got toork hard t get them their power back. you know, so i know i talked to th utilities today. they are doing it based on the biggest needs first. so there's some -- there's still a lot of work to do. the keys not having water right now, not having sewer, not having electricity, that's gog to take -- h can you live there? >> what medical issues are you concerned with rightow? governor scott: dot get hurt, first off -- don't get hurt, first off. don't do foolish things that get you hurt. we had hospitals closed with andrew. we evacuat hospitals. they have employees that are not bk to work yet so you know our hostals are not full staffed so our emergency rooms won't be fully staffed. you have to be really cautious of what you'r doing. but i know we did daily calls to the hospital and nursing homes. everybody that evacuated, we tried to work with them to make sure they have pns together how to get started again. i remember after andrew, it' very difficult to restaff a hospital because you he employees withou hes. i had -- i think i had 500 employees without homes. how do you get them back to work when they don't even have their own house? it's going to take a while for our health care community to get ck to work. >> governor, the flooding from jacksonville all the way down othe peninsu and the southwest -- of governor scott: i know jacksonville is at historic flooding right now. it's going to a long time to get the flooding out. if you look at places where -- and i haven't seen the flooding. but some of the flooding comes in a day later, right? there is one -- there is a positive that's happening. remember we were worried about the water spilling over the dike where they're doing the repairs where we evacuated the communities down there? the initl assessment is more positive than that. they didn't get the wind they thought. that was just the early assessment. i'll get a briefing this afternoon but hopefully that means we he less flooding there. their issue i'm sure will be like all of us you don't have power. evacuated a lot of communities around the dike so it's going to continue to be important to get that dike fixed. >> governor, do you have any stimates [inaudible] governor scott: we don't have any estima what 'soing to cost. the way it works is we do it by county and it rolls up through -- start with their emergency management teams and they'll come and we will have assessment teams that will go out and help them. fema will be part of that. and we'll aork tother to me up with a number. inaudible] gornor stt: wel i think you have to listen to your local officials. you have to listen to the national hurricane service what they're saying. they're ing everything they can to tell us exactly what they believe is going to happen. our local officials are deciding what they're going to do based on trying to keep everybody safe. from my standpoint, if we saved one life it was all worth it. every life is important. >> thank you very much, governor, for your leadership. i have the pleasure of representing the florida keys inhe u.s. house of representatives and i want to bring senator flos who represents the florida keys in the state senate and ask her to and with me. mr. curbelo: the florida keys are going to need aot of help and we are blessed to have a wonderful governor and very expective administrator at fema who is well aware of what the situation isn the gund starting to look like. obviously the president, the vice president have also been on top of that. for that we're very grateful. but we keep getting this question about how much thiis going ost and we don't have an exact estimate but i can guarantee you this. it's going to cost billions upon billions upon billions of dollars to help the florida keys, florida's southwest coast and obviously me of our residents here in miami-dade and broward counties recover. and administrator long who, again, is doing a wonderful job, just told me a few minutes ago they have enough funding to get them through september. what would tell all of my colleagues -- and i know congresswoman ros-lehtinen joins me in this, we cannot fund an agency like fema month-to-month. fema needs solid, long-term funding so they can effectively respond to this crisis, to the crisisn texas and to future crises that we can expect given thate're still in the middle of hurricane season. so one of my big goals -- and i will let speer ryan know when i talto him later today -- one of my big goals is by the end of the year to have a robust funding package for fa so they don't have to operate with this uertainty and so that they can help our residents get off the ground. this is going to be very difficult. i'm frightened for what we're going to see a little later today in the florida keys. and i think the feder government needs to step up, support governor scott and support all of our local heroes. some of them behind us here, who are going to be working day and night to help the florida marathon, est, summerlin. all of the communiti ravaged by this storm, including our friends on the west coast of thstate of florida. so that's my message to my colleagues and we will get righto work on it on wednesday when we get back to washington. robust, long-term funding for fema. senator flores: thank you. thonly thing i'd add specifically to the question of the cost. i think from the state perspective we know particularly in the florida keys the overwhelming majority of the residents are insured by citins insurance company. citizens insurance is backed the state of florida. what we heard very initially is that citizens is still of course trying to fure out how muchhis will cost as far as the people that will have to make the- will be making claims. we have to ensure is citizens have the fundingecessary to be able to pay tho claims. i thinkhat people to have morehan anything at this moment is patience to make sure the citizens' adjusters will have time to go out there directly. we feel this storm is not as bad it could have been, that citizens will not have to go into actual assessment mode into asssing people who are not citizens propertyholders s something that could be paid for within the reserves they ha right now. citizens' reserves is approximately $9 billion. so the question that we have to figure out in the ne couple of days is of that how many of citizens' policyholders, specifically in the keys, were essentially at a total loss that will havto -- that money will have to come from them. so early on we know this -- it could have been a lot worse, but were all wking together to make sure that the response is done swiftly and in the aftermath, as people are looking to rebuild their hom, that they ve patience with officials as they go in and try to assess the damage so we can make sure those claims are pa in a timely manner. thank u. governor scott: thank you. any questions for u all right. thanks, everybody. >> a look now at today's 9/11 commemoration in shanksville, pennsylvania, honoringhe 40 passengers and crew who died on united airlines 93 and was lily bound tthe capitol that d