If you tried to top off your gas tank on Wednesday morning in Plant City, you would have found the gas stations on empty. After Milton hit Wednesday night, matters got even worse. The Port of Tampa lost power, and it would not be restored until Friday evening. So, fuel could not be offloaded from ships. Even if gas stations could take fuel deliveries, hundreds had no electricity.
Governor Ron DeSantis came to Plant City to hold a press conference at the Plant City Stadium. With a backdrop of three rows of fuel tankers pumping gas directly into cars, DeSantis spoke to a row of television cameras. Plant City native and Attorney General Ashley Moody, Mayor Nate Kilton, Vice Mayor Jason Jones, Fire Rescue Chief Sidlauskas, PCPD Chief Mills, Deputy Chiefs Duralia and Centanni, County Commissioner Christine Miller, and State Senator Danny Alvarez joined the governor at the podium.
“This is one of our fuel distribution sites,” DeSantis said. “We always say prepare for the storm, have fuel, have all this. We have a lot of fuel that we have brought into Florida to help people get through the rough patch until the private sector resolves the issue. I see a lot of people waiting in lines for the gas stations that do have fuel, and these are really long lines. This depot is one of three that opened this morning.” The cars in line got 10 gallons of free gas. “We have done fuel support in the past, but we have never done it to this scale, and that is on top of the amount of fuel we have provided directly to service stations. We want to be able to use the fuel reserves that we provided and get those into people’s tanks.” The state reserves of 1.8 million gallons of diesel and 1 million gallons of gas is in the process of being distributed. Florida Highway Patrol escoreted tankers to their distribution locations.
Throughout Florida, the state government provided 15 truckloads of shelf-stable food, 10 truckloads of water, 5 truckloads of ice, sleeping trailers for 200 people, and 14 high-water rescue vehicles to pull more people from rising waters. Additional trucks of ice have come in from out of state. By Saturday morning, the state and county had cleared 12,000 miles of roads. The Florida National Guard is supporting 19 counties. The state has 115 active missions, and 39 points of distribution of food and essentials. “It is not easy to do, but people are rising to the occasion, so we will absolutely get through this,” DeSantis commented.
In Hillsborough County, there were 517,000 power outages, which is 73 percent of TECO customers. By Saturday morning, power had been restored to 56 percent of Hillsborough County. TECO news indicated electricity would be restored to 75 percent of locations by Tuesday at midnight, and nearly 100 percent would have power by Thursday at midnight.
The governor offered residents information on resources, including Hope Florida, to enlist organizations that will help Floridians clear debris off property—the telephone number is 1.833.GET.HOPE. The state activated its emergency zero interest bridge loan program. Businesses can obtain up to $50,000, agriculture up to $100,000, and cattle ranchers and citrus growers up to $150,000. The link to apply for these loans is www.floridajobs.org/ebl.
“I am so grateful to our strong Governor DeSantis for being able to put this together to make sure that people in our hard hit community have the resources to get back on their feet,” Plant City Mayor Nate Kilton said. “This is so important to have resources like this available at Plant City stadium for a couple of days. There are so many folks gathered around here that are so supportive of Plant City in this devastating time of unprecedented flooding. We are grateful for all the support and effort of our non-profits and others coming together to help out.”
The City of Plant City has an ongoing program providing hot meals to residents impacted by Milton. Police, Fire, officials, and residents joined in to cook and serve the meals. On the first day of the program, the Rotary Club of Plant City brought huge grills and cooked chicken. Laurel Lee, U.S. Congresswoman for the 15th District, came to lend a hand. “I am out here tonight with elected officials, community leaders, and neighbors helping neighbors in Plant City, doing a hot meal food distribution to residents who are in need,” she commented. “There are many residents of this community who have lost everything—have lost their homes, and really are in so much need of assistance. So, I can say our congressional office stands ready to help in any way we can the residents of this community and this district. And it is really a great thing to see so many local area residents come out to help tonight.”
City Commissioner Mary Thomas Mathis took orders and passed food through the windows of the vehicles driving through the service lines. “It is an honor to be able to assist our citizens in their need,” she said. Check the City of Plant City’s Facebook page for any future hot meal locations and times. On Sunday and Monday, the City of Plant City also hosted a community closet where residents could obtain free new clothing to replace what they lost in flooding.
Several businesses stepped up to help. One was Alan’s Air Conditioning, owned by Brian and Tiffany Lewis. “I have been here 43 years, but I have never seen anything like this,” Tiffany said. “We have borne the brunt of storms, but this was the worst. People are helpless. We wanted to help out people, so, we went to Sam’s Club on Friday when it opened, and got paper goods, paper towels, toilet paper, and wipes. We happened to have two pallets of water.” Friends, employees, and the Lewis’s Bible study set up a tent in front of Alan’s Air Conditioning and gave it all away to the 500 vehicles that came by—with additional things including snack food, and games for kids because some people had lost everything. “We hoped it would bless whoever we could give it to,” Tiffany added. Some who got the supplies cried. “It was moving. We were able to do something for the community, but it blessed our hearts.”
Fortunately, a truck from Texas loaded with food found its way to Plant City and asked to set up at Alan’s. To add to the supplies Tiffany and Brian were giving away, the Texans gave out food. The driver told Tiffany, “God told me to go.”
On Monday, to get people started cleaning up their water damage, Lowe’s handed out 400 buckets filled with a dozen items like cleaning materials, gloves, water, and trash bags.
“This is something that Lowe’s does to set up some support for our communities largely impacted,” store manager Zack Long said. “The biggest thing is to try to help our communities stand up. They have graced us with their patronage. We try to give back whenever we possibly can. This is the one of the coolest things I have ever been a part of.”
“I just want to emphasize how amazing this community is—they have come together,” PCPD Deputy Chief Joseph Centanni said. “Not being from here and coming from another state, to see this is amazing, and the greatest support I have seen any community do in my 30 years of law enforcement.”