By JIM TURNER
News Service of Florida
TALLAHASSEE – The Category 4 Hurricane Helene unleashed its wrath on Florida this week, packing 140 mph winds and making landfall Thursday night near the Taylor County community of Perry.
The fast-moving storm caused deaths and widespread property damage, while closing bridges, schools, courts and businesses. North Florida’s rural Big Bend region — and more specifically Taylor County — got hit by a hurricane for the third time in little more than a year.
“We’re going to have support there,” Gov. Ron DeSantis said Friday morning. “It’s not easy, but we’ll get through it.”
The storm knocked out electricity across the state and caused massive storm surge up and down the Gulf Coast. Hurricane-force winds extended 60 miles from the center. The state said Friday morning that Helene had caused at least two deaths — a total expected to rise as rescue and recovery efforts continue and counties post numbers.
The effects on Florida’s property-insurance market likely won’t be as severe as if Helene had made landfall in a more heavily populated area.
In an analysis released before the storm hit, the global reinsurance broker Gallagher Re estimated Helene could cause $3 billion to $6 billion in private insurance losses and as much as $1 billion in losses in federal flood-insurance and crop-insurance programs. That analysis also looked at damage from the storm in other states, such as Georgia.
Florida Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis called the analysis “speculative numbers,” made early in the track forecasting.
“I don’t think it’ll be that big of a loss,” Patronis said Thursday before Helene hit. “Again, the biggest population center we have that’s affected is, in this case, Tallahassee. It won’t be that type of a number. But, now, Gallagher (Re) insures more than the state of Florida. If this storm continues its path and runs into an Atlanta, yeah, there could be a number much larger and greater.”
Meanwhile, the state’s Citizens Property Insurance Corp., which is the largest property insurer in Florida, might avoid major losses.
“The bulk of active Citizens’ policies are in the Florida peninsula, especially in the Tampa, Orlando and Miami metro areas,” the Gallagher Re analysis said.
ADVOCATING ADS
With vote-by-mail ballots already starting to trickle in, supporters of a proposal to enshrine abortion rights in the state Constitution squared off in court with the DeSantis administration over a state website and ads that counter the ballot measure.
On Wednesday, Daniel Marshall, a lawyer for the Floridians Protecting Freedom political committee, told Leon County Circuit Judge Jonathan Sjostrom that the state has “unconstitutionally entered the debate” over what will appear as Amendment 4 on the November ballot.
“First, it has abandoned any semblance of neutrality and instead is now engaging in electioneering and advocating against the amendment through ads on TV and radio and on the internet,” argued Marshall, an attorney with Gainesville-based Southern Legal Counsel, Inc.
Also, the state Agency for Health Care Administration website “contains false and misleading information” about the proposal, Marshall said.
DeSantis has spearheaded efforts to defeat the proposed amendment, which in part would bar laws that “prohibit, penalize, delay, or restrict abortion before viability or when necessary to protect the patient’s health, as determined by the patient’s health provider.”
The state website includes numerous warnings about the proposal. As an example, it alleges the measure would “lead to unregulated and unsafe abortions.”
Clark Hildabrand, an attorney for the DeSantis administration, argued that the government hasn’t done anything to prevent the proposal from making it onto the November ballot and that it is “commonplace” for officials “to opine” about proposed amendments.
“Plaintiff tries to recast a fair vote to mean that a vote is unfair if any government official says anything anywhere about the proposed amendment that the amendment sponsor disagrees with or thinks is misleading. That is not the law,” Hildabrand said, adding that the “Florida Constitution allows, even requires, public agencies to express their views about public policy.”
Sjostrom said he’d “do his best” to make a ruling soon. The Floridians Protecting Freedom committee is leading efforts to pass the ballot measure.
MORE PROTECTION FOR MANATEES?
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has proposed nearly doubling the acres designated “critical habitat” for Florida manatees, potentially bolstering protections in areas ranging from Wakulla Springs in Northwest Florida to the upper St. Johns River in Northeast Florida.
The proposal came after the Center for Biological Diversity, Defenders of Wildlife and the Save the Manatee Club filed a lawsuit in 2022 to try to force upgraded habitat protections. The federal agency later reached a settlement and agreed to propose revised critical habitat for manatees by this month.
“For too long, we have degraded and destroyed the Florida manatee’s habitat through pollution, dredging and blocking access to the natural warm water springs vital to its winter survival,” Jane Davenport, a senior attorney at Defenders of Wildlife, said in a prepared statement Monday. “When finalized, the proposed critical habitat expansion will give federal, state and conservation groups the information and impetus to ensure the beloved Florida manatee’s full recovery.”
The proposal involves 12 coastal and inland areas of the state and focuses on places where manatees go for warm water in the winter and on relatively nearby areas where they forage for food.
STORY OF THE WEEK: Category 4 Hurricane Helene slammed into North Florida after causing massive storm surge along the state’s West Coast.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK: “We plan to ride it out, unless it says it’s going to be a Cat 5 coming for us. Then, we’ll for sure get in the truck and leave.” – Wakulla County resident Danny Spears ahead of Hurricane Helene making landfall.
