President Joe Biden on Wednesday pledged that the federal government will “be there every step of the way” to help Florida recover after Hurricane Ian passes.

What You Need To Know

  • Speaking at the White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health on Wednesday, President Joe Biden pledged that the federal government will “be there every step of the way” to help Florida recover after Hurricane Ian passes

  • President Biden's remarks came just hours ahead of the storm making landfall in Cay Costa, Fla., with max winds of 150 mph

  • The president also warned oil and gas companies: "Do not use [the storm] as an excuse to raise gasoline prices or gouge the American people"

  • The White House earlier Wednesday detailed the efforts the federal government has taken to prepare for Hurricane Ian, including pre-staging food, fuel, water, generators and personnel

President Biden's remarks came just hours ahead of the storm making landfall in Cay Costa, Fla., with max winds of 150 mph. Along with high-end Category 4 Hurricane winds, Ian will continue to bring catastrophic impacts, including life-threatening storm surge, and coastal and inland flooding to the Florida peninsula. As of Thursday, Ian was downgraded to a tropical storm. 

Speaking directly to the people of Florida, Biden warned that “the storm is incredibly dangerous” and is “life-threatening,” and urged the populace to heed “all warnings and directions from emergency officials.”

“Don't take anything for granted,” Biden said at the At the White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health on Wednesday. “Use their judgment, not yours. Evacuate when ordered, be prepared. Storm warnings are real, the evacuation notices are real, the danger is real and when the storm passes, the federal government's going to be there to help you recover.”

“We'll be there to help you clean up and rebuild to help get Florida moving again, and we'll be there every step of the way,” the president added. “That’s my absolute commitment to the people in the state of Florida.”

The president also issued a stern warning to oil and gas companies, urging them not use the storm as an excuse to raise prices on fuel.

"Do not, let me repeat, do not use this as an excuse to raise gasoline prices or gouge the American people,” Biden said, to applause from the gathered crowd.

“The price of oil has stayed relatively low and kept going down,” he said. “The price of gas should be going down as well. My experts inform me that the production of only about 190,000 barrels a day has been impacted by the storm thus far. That’s less than 2% of the United States daily production, impacted for a very short period of time.

“This small, temporary storm impact on oil production provides no excuse, no excuse for price increases at the pump,” Biden said. “None. If gas companies try to use this storm to raise prices the problem I will ask officials will look into whether price gouging is going on.

“America’s watching, the industry should do the right thing,” he added, calling on companies to “move more quickly now to bring down the price at the pump, because … the price of gasoline is down a great deal.”

“There's too much of a delay between the price and barrel of gas we produce oil and the price of gasoline at the pump,” Biden said.

Hurricane Ian is already bringing hurricane and tropical storm conditions to parts of the coast. Along with hurricane-force winds, it will bring catastrophic storm surge and heavy rainfall, which could lead to significant flooding through the end of the week.

The White House earlier Wednesday detailed the efforts the federal government has taken to prepare for Hurricane Ian, including:

  • Pre-staged 110,000 gallons of fuel and 18,000 pounds of propane, along with personnel and equipment to facilitate distribution
  • Moving in generators and installation and assessment teams “to provide temporary emergency power to critical infrastructure”
  • Pre-positioned federal responders to support emergency rescue, including 1,300 federal response workers, 300 personnel from the Army Corps of Engineers and multiple medical teams to Florida and Georgia
  • Established a Federal search and rescue coordination group under the purview of FEMA, including personnel from FEMA Urban Search and Rescue, the U.S. Coast Guard, the Department of the Interior and agencies within the state of Florida
  • Staged 3.7 million meals and 3.5 million liters of water in nearby Alabama

President Joe Biden spoke Tuesday with a number of local leaders in Florida, including Gov. Ron DeSantis, Tampa Mayor Jane Castor, Clearwater Mayor Frank Hibbard and St. Petersburg Mayor Ken Welch, while FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell in the last week spoke with Gov. DeSantis, along with Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster.

Biden “directed the heads of Federal agencies across the government to surge all available resources to the region in preparation for potential impacts and to support response and recovery efforts in the aftermath of the storm,” the White House said in a fact sheet. 

They also noted that the president approved an Emergency Declaration for Florida on Saturday, within hours of receiving the request from Gov. DeSantis, which will “support preparedness efforts and ensure resources are pre-positioned in advance of potential storm impacts.”

“At President Biden’s direction, FEMA is coordinating across the Federal government to support State and local preparations,” the White House wrote. “And, the President and the Administration urge everyone to follow the guidance of local officials."