Update 7/6/21 4:52 p.m. : Gov. Ron DeSantis has issued a new emergency order. Franklin County is no longer part of the governor's state of emergency. The following additional counties have been added under DeSAntis' order: Baker, Bradford, Clay, Duval, Nassau, Putnam, and Union
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Update: Gov. Ron DeSantis has expanded his emergency order for Elsa. The order now includes the following counties: Alachua, Columbia, Dixie, Franklin, Hamilton, Gilchrist, Jefferson, Lake, Lafayette, Madison, Marion, Sumter, Suwannee, Taylor and Wakulla.
DeSoto, Hardee and Miami-Dade Counties are no longer included under the order.
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Gov. Ron DeSantis has declared a state of emergency for Elsa in 15 South Florida Counties. Impacts there are expected to begin as early as Monday. No North Florida Counties have been included in the state’s emergency order at this time. But DeSantis says the state will be carefully watching the storm as it draws closer.
“There’s some models that say it may break up. There’s others that say it will get a little bit of a bump—it will get in the Florida Straights and then start to pick up steam. The most recent advisory from the National Hurricane Center pushed it further to the west and it’s really been pushing further and further west each time they’ve been doing it. So, we’ll be looking closely at that track as well," DeSantis says.
DeSantis says officials are taking steps to limit any potential impact the storm could have on the partially collapsed condo building in Surfside by moving forward with plans to demolish the remains. DeSantis says the eye of the storm is not expected to pass over the area, but it could bring strong gusts, which DeSantis says creates a risk.
“If the building is taken down, this will protect our search and rescue teams because we don’t know when it could fall over. And with these gusts, potentially, that could create a really severe hazard. So our mission is to expedite it as soon as possible,” DeSantis says.
The state of emergency applies in following counties: Charlotte, Citrus, Collier, DeSoto, Hardee, Hernando, Hillsborough, Lee, Levy, Manatee, Miami-Dade, Monroe, Pasco, Pinellas and Sarasota.
