Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, discussing Hurricane Milton at a Thursday press conference, called out a Wall Street analyst who predicted the storm would cost the state $50 billion.
The Republican was responding to a question from a reporter who asked if the state had any sort of plans for the predicted losses from the storm.
“How the hell would a Wall Street analyst be able to know? It’s been dark all day. What, you’re just going to know that you’re going to do? I mean, like, give me a break on some of this stuff,” DeSantis said.
He then pointed to the “negative storm surge” in some areas off Florida’s coast where water was sucked out of the bay instead of producing a huge storm surge.
“I’m not saying there’s not going to be damage, there will be,” the governor said. “It cut across the state in a way that Helene did not.”
DeSantis added that he doesn’t think the state will see the same kind of damage that it experienced with Hurricane Ian in 2022.
“So, we’ll see. There’ll be a lot more that’ll need to be done to assess the extent of the damage, but what I think we can say is we have a lot of resources in play here in Florida,” he said.
CNBC earlier this week cited an analysis that put estimated damages at a cost of $50 billion or even $175 billion in a worst-case scenario.
“While too early to make insured loss estimates, a major hurricane impact in one of Florida’s most heavily populated regions could result in mid-double-digit billion dollar loss,” Jefferies equity analyst Yaron Kinar and others wrote in a note reported by CNBC. “A 1-in-100 year event is estimated by some to result in $175 [billion] in losses for landfall in the Tampa region, and $70 [billion] in losses in the [Fort] Myers region.”
The worst-case scenario of a heavy storm with a huge storm surge making a direct hit on Tampa did not come to pass with Milton.
“We have a lot of resources in play here in Florida to be able to mitigate and get people back on their feet and get the state moving again,” DeSantis told reporters. “I think it’s what people want. They want to get back in their homes, they want to see the roads clear, they want to see the bridges reopen. And so that’s what our sole focus [is].”