Gov. Ron DeSantis gives update on Seaside condo collapse
DeSantis responds to White House claims climate change may have been a cause.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis told Fox News on Wednesday that global warming does not appear to have had an impact on the tragic condominium collapse in Surfside in Miami-Dade County, Fla. last week.
At least 147 people remain missing with 16 confirmed dead from the collapse. DeSantis told "The Story" he wants an investigation into what truly caused the tragedy.
On Tuesday, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm suggested during a TV interview that global warming and ocean water levels could have played a part in the destruction at Champlain Towers South, located along the famous beachfront strip, A1A.
"Obviously, we don’t know fully, but we do know that the seas are rising. We know that we’re losing inches and inches of beaches, not just in Florida but all around," the former Michigan Democratic governor said.
Granholm then transitioned her remarks into a pitch for President Biden's massive multi-trillion infrastructure plan as an apparent preventative measure against future collapses:
"We’ll have to wait to see what the analysis is for this building, but the issue about resiliency and making sure we adapt to this changing climate," she said. "Hopefully these infrastructure bills … will make [for] a huge step and allow America to lead again."
DeSantis pushed back on Granholm on Wednesday, remarking that while the recovery effort is foremost at this time, a study must be done to see if the cause of the collapse has implications for other Florida properties.
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"What we're not going to do is use this to advance any pre-existing agenda. There's no agenda here," he said.
"We want the facts, we want the truth and we want to know what needs to be done to protect other folks that may be living in other types of building."
DeSantis noted that his state has some of the strictest building codes in the country, given the annual battering it receives from tropical cyclones like that of Hurricane Andrew in 1992. That historic Category-5 storm still stands as the most destructive hurricane to hit Florida and wreaked havoc only a short distance southward in Homestead; causing billions of dollars in damage in Miami-Dade.