President Joe Biden arrived in Florida on Thursday to survey damage to the state caused by Hurricane Helene last week — but Florida’s Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, was not there to greet him.
The president is on a two-day tour of Southeastern states ravaged by the storm, which took at least 200 lives as it ripped through the region. Hundreds more remain missing as emergency response personnel search across the devastated region for survivors.
Biden landed in Tallahassee shortly before noon, where he was greeted by Mayor John Dailey and other local officials. He then took a helicopter tour over the Big Bend, where Helene made landfall as a category 4 storm, packing 140 mph winds and pushing what officials called a “monumental storm surge” onto land, obliterating homes and businesses in its wake.
Aboard Marine One, the president flew towards Florida’s coast and briefly over the Gulf of Mexico before touring flooded coastal areas for roughly 45 minutes on his way to Perry in Taylor County, near where Helene came ashore.
Biden later walked through the hard-hit Keaton Beach community, accompanied by Republican U.S. Senator Rick Scott, who is running for re-election. He was also joined by administrators from the Federal Emergency Management Agency as well as local officials.
They walked past mountains of splintered wood, demolished homes, massive pieces of siding crumpled like paper and personal belongings strewn on the ground.
Biden stopped to talk to a couple who lost their home in the storm and were, according to the White House, currently living out of an RV parked on their driveway.
The man told the president he was pleased to meet him. “Glad ya you come down… glad to meet you… have a good day and be safe,” he said.
The president also had an extended conversation with Taylor County Commissioner Pam Feagle as they stood in front of her demolished lot.
Reporters traveling with Biden were not able to be close enough to hear most of the conversations, and Biden did not make remarks to the press.
The 100-mile stretch of Gulf Coast that runs from Cedar Key to Perry has been hit three times in 13 months by hurricanes and the damaging winds, water and power outages they brought with them.
Helene ranks as among the most destructive, with its impact extending south into the Tampa Bay region, where high winds and floodwaters damaged homes and communities, including Anna Maria Island and Bradenton Beach. Outside Florida, the storm wreaked havoc in Georgia and caused unexpected carnage in Western North Carolina, which Biden surveyed from the air Wednesday.
The White House said that DeSantis was invited to join the president during his Florida visit, but declined. Instead, DeSantis held another hurricane-related press event in the Tampa Bay area at roughly the same time.
The Florida governor told reporters that there was no particular reason why he was not with Biden in Tallahassee.
“No,” DeSantis said. “We had this planned.”
The disconnect between the governor and president is a departure from their collaboration in 2022, when Hurricane Ian made landfall in Florida and brought the two men together to survey the storm damage.
DeSantis also said he had missed a call from Biden after Helene hit and gave no indication he tried to call him back.
DeSantis and his administration have said that Florida has what it needs from the federal government to respond to the disaster caused by Helene, which has claimed the lives of at least 15 Floridians. Thousands remain without power in the Big Bend region nearly a week after the storm hit.
Georgia’s Republican governor, Brian Kemp, has also chosen not to join Biden during his trip to that state’s disaster site later this afternoon.
Wire stories and White House pool reports were used in this story.