success. here's abc's senior white house correspondent cecilia vega tonight. >> reporter: president trump today sounding the alarm and promising his administration is ready for hurricane florence. >> we are totally prepared, we're ready. we're as ready as anybody has ever been. they haven't seen anything like what's coming at us in 25, 30 years. maybe ever. it's tremendously big and tremendously wet. tremendous amounts of water. >> reporter: but even as he prepares for the coming storm, the president is raising eyebrows by praising his team's response to the last one -- puerto rico's devastating hurricane maria. >> i actually think it was one been de.>> reporter:he pside ignoring the fact that maria was the deadliest hurricane in modern american history. >> i think puerto rico was incredibly successful. puerto rico was an incredible unsung success. >> reporter: his response criticized from the beginning.