asbury park, atlantic city, long branch. these areas, their code enforcement won't even come in and stop these slumlords from making the places where they live livable. i no one place in atlantic city where this lady's children is being bitten up by mice. host: i want to get a really quick response before we wrap up. guest: those infrastructure problems are real. those contribute to the gun violence and education problem. the issue in american cities, the issue with predominant lot communities but not exclusively black are not one issue, it is a confluence of things that have united to keep these places in that situation and it will take

a massive amount of political will to undo that. to this point, we have not seen either party have the political will. host:astead on social media at facebook.com/social -- facebook.com/c-span. welcome to washington journal. i want to show you a couple headlines and we will hear from governor desantis and president biden. take a look at cnn.com. as ian weakens farther inland, recovery efforts are underway in florida and south carolina. here is abc news.com. hurricane ian could cause 65 billion in damage. the best case scenario for damage is $55 billion. take a look at the front page of the washington post. the headline is "as ian hits

south carolina, fortis still digs out". this says that about 34,000 floridians have filed for federal emergency aid according to governor ron desantis. at least 23 people have been identified to be victims of the storm as a friday evening. before the department of law enforcement said. confirmed the causes of death are a slow and deliberate process and the toll is likely to rise as medical examiners complete more autopsies. let's hear from governor ron desantis florida. he was with reporters yesterday after he took a tour of some areas devastated by these storm. [video clip] >> is there an idea so much that so far of the cost we have seen? >> i think that will take some time. i can tell you with our preparations in everything we do to prepare for the state, it was

hundreds of millions of dollars. $300 million from the time that storm developed. we said last week it was going to be an issue and declared a state of emergency. we were able to do that and that has helped with the response tremendously. you remember i proposed a couple years ago to have a fund in state government for disaster response. we have $500 million that we earmark every year. this is the first time unfortunately that we are having to tap it at that money was there and ready to go. now that fema -- now that the administration has given out the 30 days, a lot of that is going to be reimbursable. a lot of what the local governments and local communities have done is the first 30 days will be 100% reimbursable by the federal government. that was similar to what was done with other hurricanes like michael. the thing about this one is sometimes you hear hurricanes

and it will hit one place in one state. in florida, when they meander across the peninsula, you are hitting all these communities and there is a lot of impact across the state. host: that's here now from president biden who also made remarks about the devastation in florida and the federal resources he is allocating to search and rescue efforts. [video clip] pres. biden: the situation in fort is far more devastating. we are just beginning to see the scale of the destruction. it is likely to among the worst in the nation's history. you have all seen the videos on television, homes and properties wiped out. it will take months and years to rebuild my heart -- our hearts go out to all peoples lives were devastated by the storm. america's heart is freaking,

just watching people watch it on television. i want you to know we see what you are going through and we are with you. we are going to do everything we can for you. i say to the rest of americans, imagine yourself in that situation. water rising, walls collapsing, streets turned literately -- literally into rivers. the homeless people work so hard to establish literately washed away. folks across the country are now waiting to hear from parents and grandparents who live in florida , hoping and praying they are ok. we have pre-deployed the largest team of search and rescue folks in recent history. because so many of the rescuers need to be there in place now, in the water now. the u.s. coast guard has been deployed as well. six aircraft, 18 rescue boats

and crews, 16 rescue helicopters which were in the air all day yesterday and are again today. working with the defense department, the national guard, state and local first was honors, they have rescued a hundred 70 people on the southwest florida coast in fort myers and naples so far. host: we are asking you your thoughts on the proper role the government should play in disaster response. let's hear first from ed calling from pennsylvania. good morning. caller: hello. let's have those in florida helping people from the flood, the hurricane identified larger generic year-long need, poverty, food insecurity, housing, mental health needs and connect them with people and institutions that can help.

so we can help people with their larger, year-long generic's. in other words, a passionate social worker mentality. host: and who should do that? is there a role in the government? caller: everybody in florida who is helping. government, charities. though beyond the flood and identify the poorest of the poor and connect them with proper resources so we can help them with their larger lives all the time. host: all right. ron in san clemente, california. hello. caller: hello there. before i say anything about this issue, i just want to commend you on being such a good moderator. wonderful to have you on board the whole c-span crew. really good, thank you so much. as far as this terrible event and the travesty for the whole

state of florida, it is wonderful for one reason. that is that our president has been through 40-50 years of these kinds of events and has prior service on that. that is good. the bad thing is that president trump is not going to have his rallies and he will not be able to throughout paper towels to everybody and let him know how much he feels for them. it is just a sad story. anyway, we are hopeful that it all works out for the people of florida. i think we have the right people on the job at this point. thanks a lot. host: let's take a look at politico. here is the headline. it says this could break the bank. category four hurricane turns to a vulnerable coast. development has blocked states like fort out that are susceptible to powerful storm

surges, just as it has two wildfire prone parts of the west. i am wondering what you think of that. people building along coast that are vulnerable to flooding and hurricanes, there are people building in areas prone to other natural disasters like wild fires, tornadoes. interested to know what you think. you can give us a call and share your thoughts. here is the hill newspaper. it says president biden says it will take years to rebuild from hurricane ian. the beginning says president biden on friday said it will take years to rebuild from hurricane and which dealt a serious blow to florida. it is now approaching the south carolina coast. it says that president biden said the search-and-rescue team in recent u.s. history has been deployed and 170 people have

already been rescued along the southwest florida coast. the coast guard saved people ranging from a 94-year-old woman to a one month old baby. he said you have all seen on television homes and property wiped out. it will take months and years to rebuild and never hearts go out to all those folks whose lives have been devastated by the storm. i am wondering what you think of the role the government should play. have you ever applied for federal disaster assistance? have you been affected by a storm? let's hear from steve who is in indiana. good morning. caller: good morning. my concern in this is all the money that is going to be spent on this rebuilding, especially our government. i do not even believe that any

of the money -- maybe 20% of the money might get to them. it is just like the hillary clinton deal. she collected money for years for disasters, $3 billion. seems like the -- that is all they want to do. still all the relief in. host: you think the people that are affected are stealing it? do you think the government should not? caller: i think our government is stealing it. the government is stealing the money. we had $150 billion come up missing from the covid relief money. they never did find that. it just vanished a fort in the wind -- fart in the wind. host: let's hear from christine

who was with governor ron desantis yesterday. [video clip] >> will send inspectors out to look at what the damages are. it is important to note that fema does not replace insurance so insurance is your first line you need to go to and then we can help jumpstart the rest of the recovery process. we are capped for how much money we can give repairs but we have the same amount of money we can give for personal property belongings we will continue to work with individuals because we know their cases all unique. every individual is going to have is that have a unique circumstance, specific to them. so we will have case managers. when i was talking to guthrie, we were already starting the case manager process. host: that was the fema administrator. we are talking about the role the government should play in disaster response. we are hearing your thoughts and comments.

connecticut, mike, good morning. caller: morning. this is perhaps an odd way to look at it and i think we heard a bit from the president yesterday talking about let's leave politics out of it. let's leave politics behind. this is a great opportunity to bring this country together to help americans. i think we saw a bit of that between governor desantis and president biden yesterday. perhaps even because he lives in the state, donald trump, the former president who lives in florida, perhaps we could involve him in bringing people together. if nothing more than getting him to throw paper towels for the people of sanibel island. i think it would be a wonderful opportunity to bring people together. host: sandy is next out of columbus, ohio. caller: i would like to say the

government does allocate a lot of funding to these disaster areas. but what happened like in florida, the state and local government use the money for other things because their mayors were on tv talking about the infrastructure that the money was allocated they did not get to them. when we talk about the government, they always give the money to all of these areas. but the local governments spend it and withhold it and they do not do repairs as necessary. host: so you want to see better oversight of the funding that does go? caller: yes but the government cannot do everything. it seems like the people of the states would vote in people that would fix things like the building that fell in miami. that was a structural thing. the money that they have their

that the government and the states is not doing their part in keeping up the state. host: i wanted to show you an article from the new york times. it says ron desantis wants a no on storm a, petition the president. the fort or governor as a congressman opposed aid to of hurricane sandy but is seeking relief from the biden administration as hurricane ian ravages his own state. you can see a picture of destroyed homes and flooded streets in florida. it says as a freshman congressman in 2013, he was conspicuous of federal billets after hurricane sandy was at irresponsible boondoggle. a simple quote of put it on the credit card in tallassee. he said "i sympathize with the victims but his answer was no".

what do you think of the role of government in natural disasters? we will hear next from shirley in mississippi. caller: hello. this country is so split and divided. if this country does not come back together, and everyone learn how to help one another no matter what caller they are and work together, because even in -- you always see people are doing so bad that god shows his hand. sometimes that is the way it is going to be, if we do not get out from under this curse, learn how to love one another, work together and try to help one another. we were considered the best country in the whole wide world and now we have fallen and we have fallen fast. let's come back to god. host: all right, shirley.

here is a foxnews.com about the new york article i just read. it says hurricane ian, msnbc, new york times and war mocks ron desantis asking biden for federal assistance. saying it took a natural disaster to stop ron desantis's "political terrorism". steve sent us a tweet. he says president biden should plan a trip to fort myers soon to visit floridians there. you can give us a call and let us know what you think about natural disasters, specifically about the government's role. have you ever applied for aid? how did it go? have you had to rebuild after a not for disaster? we would love to hear what you think in your thoughts about

that -- and your thoughts about that. here is reason.com, and this talks about the insurance -- federal flood insurance. it says government subsidies encouraged millions to move into hurricane ian's destructive path . it says the extent of the havoc wreaked in photo by hurricane ian now downgraded to a tropical storm is still unclear but it is apparent it caused major damage for which for radiance will need ample help recovering. millions of people without power, an untold number of homes destroyed. after the hurricane pummeled fortis coast for most of yesterday, ice -- governor ron

desantis said ian would rank as one of the top five hurricanes to ever hit the florida peninsula. let's hear next from clearance in bronx, new york. you were impacted? caller: yes. i am in the bronx but i am actually a floridian. i was very fortunate that i came from the sarasota area and that was very fortunate ace on information i have gotten from my neighbors, that my home is in pretty good shape. i had some downed trees and a lot of debris but for the most part, the house is fine. and with respect to your question, i think the government has a major role to play but also as the first caller said, i think you have to marshal all the forces.

city, state, federal, local charities, community organizations. the key thing for me, i am an african-american, and the key for me is equity in whatever is done. two, i think you have to have accountability in the system like one caller talked about. accountability is important in terms of how the money gets distributed. host: take a look on the screen. here are the top five most costly weather disasters topping the list is hurricane katrina in 2005. note these numbers are all adjusted for inflation. followed by hurricane harvey, maria, sandy, and ida. of course we do not know about

ian but notice that besides hurricane katrina which was a while ago, all of these very expensive disasters happening since 2017. let's hear next from connie, tacoma, washington. caller: good morning. i just wanted to say that it concerns me when i see these states asking for federal assistance when they seem to be working against them -- against uncle sam on so many issues. when offered different resources, they do not want the federal government to help states out with so many things they need. also, with global warming, as far as rebuilding florida, the storms are going to keep happening. i do not want to be throwing my tax dollars after bad pursuits. it is just going to flood again and we are going to have or hurricanes -- have more hurricanes and more destruction.

i think people need to move and make wiser choices on where they resettle. host: connie are you still there? caller: yes. host: i wonder what you think about -- you said they should be encouraged to move somewhere else. some people said they should be banned from building in some areas. what do you think of that? caller: i agree with that. i do not think insurance companies are going to be able to handle this burden. all our insurance rates are going to be going up. i do think we need to put in legislation to prevent that from happening. i understand people leaving their homes and how hard that must be for them but there is a saying, a curve in the road is not the end of the road unless you fail to make the turn. i think we need to make the term here. host: jared is next in wisconsin. caller: yes, good morning.

i agree with the previous caller . the federal government certainly has a role in helping these seashore states or coastal states rebuild. however, these areas have been developed unbelievably out of greed, right up to the seashore. it is crazy and it should not be allowed. there is a lot of unfortunate people that wound up living in very low lying areas. it is just unconscionable. then you have the state of florida which does not even have a state tax, as far as i understand. they should be having a fund. they live in an area where these

disasters are going to keep happening. host: let's take a look at this quote from politico. it says the number of climatic fuel disasters in the u.s. with $1 billion or more in damage is surging. federal agencies have noticed a trend that is largely a factor of more money as investment being poured into places that are vulnerable to climate risk. providing safety in those communities is vexing for the federal government which spends millions on disaster recovery annually and for local governments that stand to gain revenue from development in risky locations. i also want to show you some tweets that came in. sandy says one role would be educating people about climate change and the effects of overbuilding along vulnerable areas. cynthia says it is clear governments can no longer promise to rebuild afterwards. folks should not be living at

sea level in florida. the focus needs to be on rebuilding sustainably. let's hear next from pat in decatur, illinois. caller: good morning. i want to just say that i think the government should not be involved to any degree beyond helping rebuild the infrastructures that the government has already been responsible for. i think the natural incentives and disincentives that are involved in the private market and free enterprise will best regulate where people build and where they don't. because certainly we would not have all the multibillion-dollar houses and other facilities built up to the seashore if it was not for the subsidies involved in insurance. private insurance is either

unavailable or far too expensive for people to build houses there. it is only there because the government came in there and subsidized insurance. whether it is obama's multi-multibillion-dollar hundreds of dollars mansion in martha's vineyard. whether it is, i am sure there are conservatives with rich houses right along the seashore. there is no reason the government and people should be subsidizing those facilities. it would not be practical. the only thing i want to make sure and mention, and one reason conservatives are often upset with your show, is because you just quoted the new york times article on ron desantis's vote and you seemed to mention fox news but all you read was the headline that just confirms the article you wrote was criticizing ron desantis. the reality is if you look at that package, that was the

package of relief that obama and the democrat-controlled congress put on all sorts of money, just like the covid relief, where billions of dollars are wasted to fraud and international criminals. 30% of the money in the bill that ron desantis voted against went to hurricane relief. the democrats put all kinds of other expenses on it and try to criticize anyone that voted against it because they named it a hurricane bill and the media along with it. i see that happening again especially in the new sources like the one to use consistently for the program so i ask you to think about broadening the new sources you use and not repeating the same thing over and over that is published in all of those washington post, new york times, and -- msnbc. host: democratic congressman jim callan was on the house for yesterday, highlighting disaster

relief in the stopgap funding bill. p [video clip] >> i mentioned earlier the devastating hurricane in florida . we also had a devastating hurricane in puerto rico from hurricane fiona traded and people in alaska are recovering from a terrifying typhoon. this bill will help people across the u.s. as they recover from natural disasters. madam speaker, we are talking about hurricane relief. i am begging my republican friends, can we please come together in providing relief to our communities devastated by hurricanes. we all agree that we ought not to shut the government down in the middle of a major disaster response? the funding in this bill will help families and small businesses get back on their feet and rebuild from extreme weather events while repairing damage to critical infrastructure. this is a bipartisan bill.

it earned 72 votes in the senate. do not think it could get 72 votes in the senate on what to have for lunch, let alone on government funding legislation. host: we are asking you about what you think the government's role should be in natural disasters. take a look at the top republican on the committee. kate granger voted no on the funding bill and said it is currently focused on the wrong policy. [video clip] >> i oppose this for several reasons. we should be here addressing the border crisis, the energy crisis, the inflation crisis. this bill does nothing to fix any of these issues. this bill actually bails out the biden administration for their failures and provides additional appropriations to put a band-aid on some of these problems for a few more months. for example, this bill includes nearly $2 billion in funding for

children and families flooding the border, providing more funding without changing the policies that led to this crisis will only encourage more migrants to come. second, it is unfortunate that this bill would be rushed through the house today was just hours to spare to avoid a government shutdown. the american people continue to wonder why congress could not get its job done until the very last minute and why we do not have more time to review legislation. for these reasons, i urge my colleagues to vote no and i reserve the balance of my time. host: take a look at roll call.com. it says the stopgap funding bill cleared the house and says lines are drawn for a lame-duck spending battle and request roles for more hurricane 80. let's talk to jimmy in seattle, washington next. caller: how are you doing?

host: good. caller: will make it short and sweet. when it comes to natural disasters, the topic is for the day that you get to what you put into the federal government. you can't put 2% in and want 75%. that is all i have to say about that. host: james next in kansas. hello james. caller: hello. first, to comment on kate granger, if you are not part of the solution then you are part of the problem. she should step up and help do the immigration solution so that is why have to say about that. the second part is we should not have to go in and repair florida every year at the government's expense. but they should do is use those

properties in a way when they can all vehicles and houses out of there. have a wider range of rv parks and if they need concrete structures, they should be on footing so the water can flow under them and they went around them and this does not happen again. buy an rv park, they have really good products out there that people live in your route. it should also make any alliance that not everyone is going to have a pickup truck to pull one but that should be around. host: let's talk to john next in hague, virginia. what do you think? caller: i am getting pretty tired and kind of sick of hearing democrats. you get democrats on and you have democrats calling in and they want to blame republicans.

republicans aren't in charge of the white house or the house. there are not in charge of the senate so how is it the republicans fault? you tell me? host: how are they blaming republicans? tell me more about that. caller: about the votes for raising the debt limit and stuff like that. host: john, tell me what you think the role of government should be in natural disaster response? caller: they should fund it, they should. host: list take a look at twitter -- left as take a look at twitter. the first tweet is from mylan who says disaster eta bills are always full of pork, that is how they passed. i would lawmakers in nebraska support hurricane aid over and over again without something in it for them?

nebraska seldom has any natural disasters. venice says assume for a gets $5 million in nebraska 80, how much of that you think will reach the people? very little, that is how they roll. some people have been talking about the natural zesty national flood insurance program. i want to show numbers like that on the screen. over one trillion dollars in coverage provided by policies which is the national flood insurance program. we will go next to chris who is calling us from all of, mississippi. caller: good morning. i have one sort of idea about what goes on with this rebuilding of florida. there are so many migrants and immigrants coming into this country who are skilled workers.

not all of them but skilled workers who need a job. they need a place to stay. i know, where i live in mississippi, anybody who is having a roof put on is always by hispanic people. they are hard workers and they work all day long in the heat. our trash collectors. host: what do you think the role should be for government in natural disasters? caller: i think they should bring in the migrants who are here and are willing to work in florida to help rebuild. to not send them all over the country, which is fine too, but do not send them all over the country. they need them desperately in florida to help with cleanup and to help with rebuilding. host: let's take a look at more

numbers on your screen about the national flood insurance program. the program collects over 4 billion dollars in revenue from policyholders premiums seized and surcharges. also, it owes $20 billion to the u.s. treasury and $10 billion in borrowing authority remains. the program is set to expire december 16. that was extended because of the stopgap continuing resolution. edward in newport, florida. you were impacted, tell us about it. caller: greetings. we had a home down in fort myers during hurricane charley. it is all about construction. in essence, our home had concrete ceilings, concrete

floors, concrete walls. the buttons of the windows and we had a generator. so hurricane charley went through. our condo would have withstood a category five. secondly, our niece and her husband have a home that is built on stilts and the water goes through just as you saw in south carolina. it is all about the construction. anything left in fort myers that has destruction comparable to our condo will be standing. as far as rebuilding, you can rebuild but you have to rebuild with proper construction. example, mexico beach in the panhandle.

there was one home that survived the hurricane in 2017 and that home, the owner spends 35% more on construction after the hurricane. all the homes in mexico beach after the hurricane were completely wiped out with the exception of one home. host: as you said, it is more expensive to build that way. you are saying the homeowners should bear that cost if they want to build in flood zones or hurricane zones than they need to spare the extra cost of making their homework resilient? edward? caller: yes. host: you have to meet your tv. caller: ok. it is muted. host: i am just wondering what you think the role of the

federal government should be? i hear what you're saying about making homes more resilient. the government pay for that in rebuilding? should that cost be borne by the homeowners? should there be regulations about that and say if you want to build here than you have to build it this way? caller: no role for the federal government. they need to stay out of anything. amtrak, post office, etc. anything they are involved with is just a waste of money. it is all about self responsibility. if an individual wants to live on a beach, they have to have the proper construction and that is all i have to say about that, just like forced to go -- like forrest gump. host: robin, you were impacted. caller: we were getting bye-bye

the skin of our tea because it brought a lot of wind and rain but we did not get as -- hit as bad as our neighbors down south. saying the republicans have no say in this, it is not about the federal government all the time. the state government in florida has allowed the insurance companies to basically just price people either out of areas by going up and changing the flood zone constantly with their building, without thinking about their neighbors. however, there were a lot of laws. you could not build anything for a long time that had more than five stories within five miles of the coast. the loss kept getting changed over time and it happens slowly. we can fix it if we go back to it but we really do need to understand that it is technical.

it is not a republican state. it is really the republicans in the senate who take the money, decide the laws and which ones to get rid of. they are responsible. however, i think governor desantis did a good job. he really did. president biden helps as best as he can. host: when he said the government should have a role because we all pay into it with our taxes? there are people in other parts of the country who say why do i have to keep paying for florida because it keeps getting devastated by these hurricanes. what you think of that? caller: that is my point about where to build and how much to build on the coast. i agree. there were laws in place that were taken out of that should have stayed. like nothing above five stories and nothing within five miles. you could not do it but now you

can't go past day-to-day without seeing -- you cannot see the ocean anymore for all the buildings. i agree with that. also building changes the level of the elevation of the ground so therefore flood zones change. they also build where they block the flow of the water to get to the swap. i believe we should help because i don't care, we send help. we sent help for sandy because that's what we are supposed to do. we are neighbors. we are not getting along right now but that is ok. we are still good friends and neighbors and we are going to take care of each other. i do not have a dog in either hunt. i just watched. host: let's take a look at what people are sending us by

twitter. here is steve. he says they reimburse what is the cost to repair and rebuild the same structure, if they are covered at all. this does not mean they have to build the same structure. they can use their own money to build back better or take the money and build elsewhere. jim marie says let's be honest, this is a horrific tragedy. the republicans have been weaponizing the role of the federal government and misappropriating billions of dollars to the "border" and other political gain. i wonder what you think about the role of the government in natural disasters and if you had any personal experience with that. talk to michael in california. caller: good morning. i think what we should do since this seems to be happening all the time is puts a big hands from tech -- a big fence from

texas to south carolina and nobody can live there. we are doing this year after year after year after year. the rest of us that do not live there are subsidizing all of this. they cannot even give us a bill right now and now they are showing these luxury places they are building on the host. everybody knows this is going to happen. out in -- i do not feel as a taxpayer in california that i should be bailing out all of these states that are consistently getting hit by these devastating hurricanes. host: but you are in california so what if you are hit by a forest fire? caller: i live in the desert. not going to happen to be. host: but what about other parts of the west? there are wildfires, there is drought.

caller: those idiots should not be building houses next to force. when we looked at buying a second home, the first thing be said is we have to keep -- have to quit subsidizing all these bad decisions made by people to live in environments -- host: hold on. it's about drought? that is also a natural disaster. caller: the drought is something that is up to god about whether we get rain or not. we can build more dams, we can quit watering logs. i am very frugal. i turn off my shower. there is a lot of things became due. we need to build more dams out here in california. all the farmers will say 85% of the water is going back to the ocean and we are way behind on building dams. host: there is some other news and wanted to make sure you are aware of and i will get back to your calls about this topic which is the government's role

in natural disasters. you can feel free to call in. the situation happening in ukraine and russia. president biden spoke about that yesterday. he reacted to the news of vladimir putin's annexation of parts of ukraine and here he is. [video clip] >> america and its allies are not going to be intimidated. we are not going to be intimidated by vladimir putin and his reckless words and threats. he is not going to scare us or intimidate us. his actions are a sign he is struggling. his sham referendum that he has carried out in this routine he put on, don't worry. this sham routine that he put on this morning is showing the unity and the people holding

hands together, the u.s. is never going to recognize this and the world is not going to recognize this either. cannot sees his neighbor's territory and get away with this, as simple as that. they are going to stay the course and continue to provide -- and we are going to continue to provide equipment so ukraine can defend itself. there are also additional resources congress is giving today of 13 billion more dollars to help ukraine defend itself and fight back. we are fully prepared to defend. i want to say again that america is fully prepared to defend with our nato allies every single inch of nato territory. every single inch. mr. putin, do not misunderstand what i am saying. every inch. host: that was the president reacting to vladimir putin's

annexation of parts of ukraine. craning forces to hold some of those areas that have been annexed -- ukrainian forces still hold some of those areas that have been annexed. we are going to be dedicating the next hour to what is happening in ukraine and vladimir putin's actions there so be sure to for that. we are talking in this hour of phones on the government's role in natural disasters. some people have called in who are impacted by the hurricane. i want to make sure you are aware of fema.gov in case you are affected in any way to apply for assistance. this is what the website looks like and there is a button right there for applying for federal disaster aid. let's talk next to bill. he is in west virginia. caller: hello. i am calling about what you are talking about. where i live at, every year

people get new homes in this state because they live in these places where we have floods. i cannot see why we have to pay, as american citizens, for them to have a new home every year. now, florida does not pay the same taxes. so they are using our money. they are using the ones that do pay taxes to pay for new homes in florida. host: should taxpayers not allowed people affected by hurricane ian? caller: if you do not pay taxes, you did not pay federal or anything to the government, why should you expect anything back? host: meridians do pay federal taxes -- floridians do pay

federal taxes. caller: they do not pay nearly as much taxes as regular people because that is why elderly people moved to that state because there taxes are low. they do not pay anything compared to what i paid. host: you think the solution would be a higher tax rate for people living in disaster prone areas? caller: yes, if you live there, you ought to pay extra because they are living right there on the beaches. host: diane in key west, florida . how are things in key west? caller: we got hurricane ian. it was stronger than i thought. i have been here for over 30 years and i think it was up there with hurricane wilma and hurricane katrina. the ones -- winds were

stronger. i was nervous. we had 1.5 feet of water. some people lost their cars. i lost my wash machine and dryer selected myself lucky. on this topic of the government, the locals here in the florida keys for years have been trying to protect the environment. there protection from the government years ago because of the older development. they initiated a program and we were coming to the end of that. we have so much housing that there was just a few years ago, there were no more road goes left so governor scott, before he left, he gave 1300 row go's. developers find ways to build. they say we need affordable housing so it is considered an emergency of rices so those buildings are allowed to stay.

these days they do not just build one house but huge projects like 300 apartments in one area. the locals, we complain about it and we complain about it and we say to our commissioners please, the impact. right now we have so much traffic. it is impacting the environment. they do not care. developers in florida for some reason are given special permissions. they do not pay for the building permits, they get row goes for free. it is not affordable housing. it is expensive market rate. for jet is that one of the most expensive cities to live -- florida is now one of the those expensive states to live in. the local government does not hear us. they have an agenda and we do not understand it. we also have an initiative that

the people banded together and got signatures on a ballot for safer, cleaner ships. it was tremendous the amount of cruise ships that would come into our ports. and they won. host: and a lot of people are saying people should not live in places like key west that are part -- are prone to hurricanes and costly needing to be rebuilt. what do you think of that? would you leave? caller: i agree. host: but you are still there, are you going to leave? caller: you know what's, i would be a hypocrite i guess. but for any future development, let us be practical. for any future development, people buy and sell whatever they can sell. whether it is dangerous or not, they want to make a profit. if we have a new commission for the people and their own safety, the people who are here, those

houses that are torn down, perhaps not let them rebuild -- perhaps do not let them rebuild. it's going to happen now in florida. the cities that were just devastated, you are going to watch developers come in and build two or three times the more housing that was just destroyed. i say, for the safety of people, do not build new the -- near the coast for any future development and perhaps that would be fair. host: henry in inglewood, california. caller: good morning. i just want to quickly say that i think the government should help. let me say, i pray with people in fort myers. i used to live in fort myers. looking at the news, my spirit was down.

i use to on captiva island. i drove over that causeway bridge. but i think that moving forward, there has to be a standard when people want to rebuild. because at -- a hurricane is no joke. i was fortunate to go through hurricane in september 15, 19 95 in st. thomas. that night, i thought i was going to die. host: what do you think when people say you should not rebuild there? ricky has come through all the time and just do not build -- hurricanes come through all the time and just do not build houses there. caller: i would think that if hurricanes come past, you probably should not build because what do they say, you are doing the session sanity is

doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result? they have to rebuild to a different standard like a previous caller said. they are putting money into this but if there is another hurricane then you should probably not rebuild. host: james in melbourne, arkansas. james, are you there? james is not there. we can get in another tweet from lou greene who says this. those of us born in florida know to keep away from water especially when building a home. i would never live near the water and only live inland, far away from the coast. the building needs common sense. the beaches only for swimming and federal governments should not pay a dime. that is all

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