Duval Times

BRADENTON, Fla. – Today, Senator Rick Scott received a briefing at the Manatee County Emergency Operations Center on Hurricane Debby recovery efforts from local law enforcement leaders and emergency management officials. This week, Senator Scott is traveling to impacted areas to meet with local leaders and ensure Florida’s families and communities are getting every resource needed to respond to and recover from the storm. Later today, Senator Scott will visit Steinhatchee.

Senator Rick Scott said, “I want to thank the Manatee County Emergency Operations Center, Sheriff Rick Wells and the first responders working around the clock to ensure Florida families here have what they need to stay safe and recover from Hurricane Debby. This storm brought intense rainfall and flooding to communities in Manatee County, and it’s all hands on deck to get neighborhoods back on their feet. Last week, I met with Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Administrator Deanne Criswell in Washington to discuss hurricane preparedness and will be working closely with her and the FEMA Region 4 team to ensure Florida has a reliable federal partner as work begins to respond to and recover from Hurricane Debby. As I always say, you can rebuild your home, but you can’t rebuild your life. I urge families to continue to follow the directions of local authorities and stay safe. If there is one thing I know, it is that Floridians are resilient and we will get through this together.”

Over the weekend, before Hurricane Debby made landfall, Senator Scott and Senator Marco Rubio sent a letter to President Joe Biden urging his immediate approval of the State of Florida’s request for a pre-landfall emergency declaration. The request was quickly approved following their outreach to the president.

Senator Scott encourages all Floridians to visit his website for helpful hurricane preparedness resources and make a disaster readiness plan today. See the latest updates from the National Hurricane Center at nhc.noaa.gov or @NHC_Atlantic on Twitter, and from the Florida Division of Emergency Management at floridadisaster.org or @FLSERT on Twitter.