‘Don’t even think about looting,’ DeSantis warns about Ian-hit areas. ‘We’re a 2nd Amendment state’

In news conferences throughout the week, Gov. Ron DeSantis has mostly suppressed political rhetoric in the fallout of Hurricane Ian’s devastating impact.

But on Friday, his tone shifted, suddenly reaffirming that the state will be upholding “law and order” even as flooding occurs, bridges are down, and one county does not have reliable access to water.

After a list of recovery efforts — such as the 1.7 million power outages across the state — DeSantis said that another one of his main concerns are “looters.”

“The other thing that we’re concerned about, particularly in those areas that were really hard hit, is you know, we wanna make sure we’re maintaining law and order,” DeSantis said. “Don’t even think about looting. Don’t even think about taking advantage of people in this vulnerable situation. And so local law enforcement is involved in monitoring that.”

He did not specify if any so-called “looting” had already occurred among these homes but he did paint a hypothetical:

“You can have people you know bringing boats into some of these islands and trying to ransack people’s homes,” the governor said.

“I can tell you, in the state of Florida, you never know what may be lurking behind somebody’s home,” DeSantis continued, “and I would not wanna chance that if I were you, given that we’re a Second Amendment state.”

DeSantis discussed looting at least twice on Friday at news conferences, once near Fort Myers and then St. Augustine.

Meanwhile, the Florida Department of Health issued several boiled water notices, for Collier, Hillsborough, Pasco, Orange and other counties.

Power outages continue, and some areas will need days or even weeks to recover and get power back on.  Earlier Friday, the figure on power outages was 1.9 million, so there has been some improvement in restoration.

FEMA also is distributing millions of meals and liters of water in affected areas.

As to deaths, there were no additional updates.