Hurricane Ian Is a Test for DeSantis’s ‘Florida Model’

Offstage after the press conference,

Ron DeSantis

had a different emphasis. “He came down to the city and kind of prepared all of us,” says Mayor

Erik Arroyo

of Sarasota. The two shared notes on the preparations they had put in place. They pledged to get the city running again more quickly than the days or weeks most believed it would take.

Mr. DeSantis had gotten an early start. To free up Federal Emergency Management Administration money for rescue work and debris removal, “he called it an emergency before it was even a tropical storm,” Mr. Arroyo says. That declaration came five days before Hurricane Ian made landfall.

At the time meteorologists projected that Ian would touch down as a Category 3 storm, rather than the 155-mile-an-hour Category 4 force it became. Nonetheless, Mr. Arroyo says the governor sent more state support than usual. “Since the last storm, a big difference is that Gov. DeSantis has the Florida guard,” he says, referring to the Florida State Guard, established in June. The governor ordered members of the state-funded civilian force to affected zones along with National Guardsmen. “They had hundreds of people in armories just ready to go.”

Two of the hurricane’s first recorded deaths were nearby in Sarasota County, and the mayor has surveyed heavy damage. Yet he believes the region dodged the worst, and by Thursday he was optimistic: “We are pretty much going to be up and running within 48 hours. We’re doing assessments now, searching for grid damage.”

Back in Tallahassee that evening, Mr. DeSantis briefed the press on the destruction in Lee County, search-and-rescue operations, and food and shelter options for displaced people. He acknowledged that the death toll is certain to rise. But he also echoed some of the Sarasota mayor’s optimism. “There have been more than 700 confirmed rescues,” he said. “Two hundred thousand accounts have…