It feels like people forget that North America’s hurricane season really extends through October and November. We’ll keep getting stronger and stronger hurricanes later in the season too, because the water – especially in the Gulf – is so warm, so late into the year. Two and a half weeks ago, Hurricane Helene made landfall on the Florida panhandle and then ripped its way through Georgia, North Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee and Kentucky. The issue with a weakened, slow-moving and massive hurricane making its way up the Appalachian Mountains is that Helene just dumped feet of water throughout multiple states and caused massive flooding. It wasn’t wind damage, it was the flooding.

Well, not even three weeks later, and another huge hurricane is about to make landfall. Hurricane Milton is churning its way through the Gulf of Mexico. It is likely a Category 5 making landfall on the Yucatan Peninsula right now, and then it will hit the west coast of Florida as a Cat 3 on Wednesday. Meteorologists are using terms like “explosive” and “life-threatening surge” and “terrifying.” Florida officials have ordered mandatory evacuations for most coastal towns and areas. President Biden already declared a state of emergency, which frees up federal resources to get ready to move as soon as possible. It would not surprise me if the National Guard had to be called up. Apparently, President Biden did the emergency declaration without speaking to Florida’s Governor Ron “Pudding Fingers” DeSantis. DeSantis has been dodging President Biden and VP Kamala Harris’s calls for a while now:

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is not taking calls from Vice President Kamala Harris about storm recovery just over a week after Hurricane Helene hammered parts of his state. A source familiar with the situation said he was dodging the Democratic presidential nominee’s calls because they “seemed political,” according to a DeSantis aide.

“Kamala was trying to reach out, and we didn’t answer,” the DeSantis aide told NBC News.

The same person said “not to my knowledge” when asked if DeSantis had spoken to President Joe Biden.

Last week, DeSantis said Biden had called him, but he was flying at the time so could not take the call. Biden was in north Florida last week to survey storm damage, but DeSantis was holding a news press conference that had already been scheduled in another part of the state so they did not meet. A source familiar with the planning said that the Biden team had invited DeSantis to the event in north Florida. DeSantis has been in direct contact with Federal Emergency Management Director Deanne Criswell.

[From NBC News]

So it’s not like Ol’ Pudding Fingers is avoiding every federal official – he’s in contact with FEMA, and God knows, he wants all of the federal disaster relief funding and FEMA help he can get. But he’s too chickensh-t, too weak and too stupid to actually show a modicum of respect towards Pres. Biden and VP Harris. When White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was asked about DeSantis’s childishness, she told reporters: “It’s up to him if he wants to respond to us or not.” Not only did DeSantis avoid speaking to Pres. Biden over the phone in recent days and weeks, Pudding Fingers also avoided Biden during Biden’s visit to Florida last week to view Helene’s damage.

Photos courtesy of Cover Images.