Florida won't stop people from rebuilding on their beachfront and other properties that were damaged in Hurricanes Helene and Milton, Gov. Ron DeSantis said Friday.
"People had their property," the GOP governor said in remarks in St. Petersburg. "They have a right to do with what they want to do with it. And it is tough when you have two back-to-back storms. No question," reported Florida Politics.
People work their "whole lives to be able to live in environments that are really nice," he added.
"They have a right to make those decisions with their property as they see fit. It is not the role of government to forbid them or to force them to dispose or utilize their property in a way that they do not think is best for them," said DeSantis.
North Florida, which has been hit hard by three storms in 13 months, has faced a "very tough battle," the governor added, but the "demand to live in a beautiful part of the world" will spur property owners to rebuild.
Even after Hurricane Ian, the "most significant storm that we've had," people were asking if anyone would want to live in Southwest Florida; but "[w]ithin two weeks, you had people buying up homes," said DeSantis. "I mean, people wanted to get down there."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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