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>> bret: hi, sandra. the pentagon now taking action in response to the gop lawmakers. their concerns. we'll have that for you ahead. also new at 2:00, we'll be watching florida where the storm that tore communities apart will bring bitter political rivals together. ron desantis putting politics aside, meeting with president biden. we believe both saying their focus is on helping families devastated by hurricane ian. >> sandra: and we'll see them coming together as they survey the damage there. we'll bring that meeting to you live as it happens and we begin with this fox news alert. americans in for a rude awakening at the pump, and energy analyst says president biden's only choice is to stop it is one he says is clear, and he's not going to make it. those warnings coming after major oil producing nations decided to slash 2 million barrels a day. >> bret: the move coming months

after president biden asked the saudis for help to increase production. the white house now calling out opec for its "short sided decision." >> it's a short sided decision. it's on its own self-interest opec made the decision upon, we see it as a mistake. >> hostile act? >> look, again, i could speak to this decision, it's a mistake, and i'll just leave it there. >> sandra: critics say this administration should have been ramping up production here at home long ago. >> the answer lies here at home. we have the resources here in the united states to develop right now dependency on opec and other foreign countries where our energy is a choice. >> sandra: what does it mean for your bottom line? we'll get right to phil flynn,s phil, i've been looking forward

to picking your brain on this all morning. this is quite a moment for oil and gas and the american consumer who is still living through 40 year high inflation. they see opec cut production by 2 million barrels. what does it mean for us here at home when we are already seeing prices nearing $4 as a national average for gas again? >> sandra, you hit the nail on the head. this is an historic decision by opec and i think when we look back in history, this 2 million barrel a day production increase is a day we lost production war with saudi arabia. and you have to go back to what happened back in november, the biden administration had strangled u.s. energy production, gas prices were on the rise, they thought they would call up opec, you know, give us a few more barrels. opec said no. biden administration said we are going to teach you a lesson, release oil from the reserve,

and that was like an act of oil production war. guess what, today that production cut of 2 million barrels means the u.s. has lost the war and now the biden administration is back on their heels and america is going to be paying sharply higher prices for everything oil-related, gasoline, heating oil, you name it, it's going to be a long winter. >> sandra: i want to get you to respond to something that we just heard from a democratic lawmaker that was speaking to bret on this program last hour, and he basically suggested that what we really should focus on here at home, because we have the oil, we just don't have the refining capacity to bring the gas prices down. well, obviously a lot of republican lawmakers have pointed out those refineries have shut down because they have been told that this administration wants to bring an end to fossil fuels in this country. is there the ability perhaps, is that a solution, could we ramp up refining capacity in this moment, could the administration call on them to do so, create an environment where they want to

do that, and perhaps that is a solution short-term to bring prices down? >> right. i mean, they could, it's not going to happen overnight because a lot of these refineries were shut down. there is a refinery on the gulf coast shut down mainly because of environmental regulations. they said hey, we'll put it up for sale, give it to you for pennies on the dollar, nobody wanted to buy it and the reason is because the refining industry has a target on its back from this administration, and we have seen the new regulations going into place. it's going to restrict that refining capacity. not only that, the biden administration has made it a very toxic country to invest when it comes to fossil fuels. because already they have canceled the keystone pipeline, they have slowed down the permitting process, so investors, where they normally would be throwing money at this great opportunity in u.s. refining are holding on to their checkbook because they don't want to be involved with that.

>> sandra: and now the question is, who are they going to blame now? this administration for a long time ignored inflation and when it came to gas prices, blamed vladimir putin, the war in ukraine, and here is just -- just a sampling from the administration as prices came down. listen. >> we have seen the fastest decline in gasoline prices in over a decade. that's because of what this president has done. >> gas prices had come down by a very significant amount. >> historic progress with the price of gas down 1.30 since the beginning of summer. >> and that again is because of the work this president is doing. >> gas prices are down 1.30 a gallon. >> 1.34, savings of $70 per month for the average driver. and so that's some real breathing room. >> sandra: this administration took a lot of credit as prices were coming down, americans were enjoying the drop in prices, now

that the prices are on the rise, will they own it on the way up? >> the answer is no. in fact, they are already blaming the oil companies. seeing headlines out of the white house in the energy department that the u.s. energy industry should have done more to bring down prices. and my argument is they would have, except the biden administration kept getting in the way. that's the issue, right? and now, this is going to -- this blew me away, i saw a headline out of the white house or the department of energy basically saying that they were going to call on congress to be less reliant on opec oil. hello. we have been telling you what to do for years, it's drilling america, invest in u.s. energy, the cleanest in the world. that's the answer. you don't have to go to congress, just give us a call. >> sandra: bret read this out last hour, i'll put it on the screen for the viewers, oil and gas on opec cutting oil output,

saying the white house has one option left. one they should have never turned away from in the first place. to your point, phil, the u.s. oil and gas industry and workers, life comes at you pretty fast, the president of the u.s. oil and gas association. we'll see what happens next. obviously a big political liability for the white house as well to bring prices down. phil, thank you very much for joining us. appreciate it. all right, bret. >> bret: bring in byron york, you listened to phil there. administration has an issue here, they don't have a good answer about why the production in the u.s. was never tapped from the beginning, and why regulation after regulation, according to people in the industry, was hindering them. >> it wasn't tapped because the democratic party environmental constituency demanded it not be tapped. and that shows you now that

president biden and his party are really stuck between a rock and a hard place here because they desperately, desperately want the price of gas to go down because midterms are coming and everybody knows inflation is by far the most important issue for voters, and yet there is still that democratic base environmental constituency that demands that increases in american emergency -- energy production, that they be renewable. >> and you had pete buttigieg saying we want to get to the next level but understand we are where we are. >> estimate, 250 million cars and s.u.v.s and light trucks registered, 1% are electric.

even if price -- even if sales would go up if you are, it's going to take a very, very long time. as far as the rest of energy use, about 12% of energy use in the united states is renewable. 99% of cars are not electric. this renewable energy future that democrats foresee is going to take a long time to get here, and it won't help them by the midterms. >> look at the national average of gas, this is aaa, today, 3.83. a week ago, 3.76, a month ago, 3.78, and then 3.20, but the beginning of the administration, and now opec+ today, and we assume it goes up another 30, $0.40 before election day. how does that affect the races on the edge?

>> well, it hurts democrats, that's the really simple answer here. the president has kind of gone back and forth about this, and i think you saw in some of the sound bites you played that when the price of gas goes down, it's because of the president's heroic actions, and when the price of gas goes up, it's because of vladimir putin. in this case, it's because of opec, actually opec+, does include russia, but the president has gone all over the place, but the american people actually know, they know that the united states could be energy sufficient except for the environmentallist agenda. >> bret: last thing, strategic petroleum reserve, it's getting dangerously low. is that a problem for most americans? >> well, if there's an enormous emergency in the future and had like oil embargoes in the past

in history, that could be a major, major problem. the president is reducing this because he wants to reduce the price of gas. >> bret: byron, thank you. sandra. >> sandra: live to florida where the president has arrived, he is at fisherman's wharf, fort myers beach, on the ground there talking to the governor of florida right now. ron desantis, in a much anticipated moment where the president will take the opportunity, survey the damage, talk to the people who have lived through this enormous, enormous storm ravaging southwest florida and quite a moment he is speaking to the florida governor, they have had their differences for sure but as we have seen and many moments in history we come together in these moments, no matter your political party and you deal with what is a huge challenge for these people down in southwest florida. >> bret: yeah, i think of the rhetorical barbs back and forth between president biden and

governor desantis, especially after the recent immigration effort and putting immigrants up to martha's vineyard and the reaction to that, but this a disaster, disaster that affects thousands, hundreds of thousands of people in florida, and other coastlines as well. and people are dead. 109 people so far. so, getting the federal funds in there, getting the state to operate very well as far as distributing all the aid is the key thing that both say they wanted to talk about. politics aside, and they dealt with all those questions earlier this week. >> sandra: the first lady on the ground there surveying the damage. still very much fema says in lifesaving and stablization, they are beginning the actual extent of damage, infrastructure in florida, it's going to be in the billions. this was told to reporters on air force one. biden has stayed in regular communication with the governor,

desantis, throughout this crisis. the federal government obviously pledging to do what it takes to help these people out. it came down to basic needs, bret, with people being without power, without water for quite some time. here we are several days after this storm hit and there are people struggling in that state. >> bret: fort myers beach, essentially erased a lot of that community. we watch them walking, nate, we will check in with you on the ground. go ahead. >> good afternoon, bret. about five minutes ago the motorcade passed by right here. you see the bridge, the other side of that is what governor desantis has called ground 0. just to the right of the bridge is fisherman's wharf where the meeting will take place with local, state and federal officials. fema administrator will also be there.enter you mentioned earlier, the big headline is

governor desantis meeting with president biden, the who have had disagreements with vaccine mandates, face mask mandates, and immigration policy with desantis sending the migrants up to martha's vineyard on the flight. you also mentioned the two appear to be putting that to the side, at least for now, especially with the midterm elections just over a month away. governor desantis had a press conference in matlachay, and said this. >> from local, state coordination, fema, there has been less bureaucracy holding us back in this one than probably any one i have seen. >> and that is exactly what the people of southwest florida want to hear. so after landing at southwest florida international airport at 12:40, and then taking a survey of the damage in a helicopter ride, president biden starting the meeting with state, local

and federal officials, and will meet with business owners on fort myers beach at 2:35, and there are a lot of them. the other side of this bridge absolute destruction, but here it's not much better. people are home less, people are displaced, lucky ones have people they can stay with, but we were out here doing live shots to 12:30 last night, homeless people are sleeping on the streets. it's devastating to see in person as bad as the images are, the president is expected to speak at 3:15 and expected to give his full support to the people of florida. the white house says he will ex denned the amount of time that full funding is available to the 17 hardest hit counties, from 30 to 60 days, and he and the first lady are set to leave southwest florida at 4:40. back to you guys. >> bret: nate foy on fort myers beach, thanks very much. checking in throughout the hour. sandra. >> sandra: bret, we'll continue

to monitor the president's tour there as he will get an aerial view, obviously. he's set to receive a briefing a short time from now. he'll also be meeting with families on the ground. we will continue to cover this. >> diversity inclusion official at the pentagon under fire for not being very inclusive, and republicans want to know will the pentagon give her a pass? >> plus the fbi releasing brand-new crime stats. the biggest numbers are not even in the mix. raphael mangual will be here to explain. terans the va cash out loan with no upfront costs for an appraisal or termite inspection. no upfront costs at all. let us get your family security of cash in the bank. i brought in ensure max protein with 30 grams of protein. those who tried me felt more energy in just two weeks. uhh - here, i'll take that woo hoo ensure max protein, with 30 grams of protein, 1 gram of sugar and now in two new flavors (♪ ♪)

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>> bret: fbi releasing a brand-new report on nationwide crime. but analysts say the numbers are really a mystery, that's because

it does not include numbers from our nation's two largest cities. david spunt live at the justice department with the latest. good afternoon, numbers are out but it's not a complete picture. >> bret, that's right. it's not, and it's a little bit of a head scratcher. nypd and lapd numbers are not included in the formula. still, fbi is confident they have a number, a statistic they can present to the public to show where we are when it comes to the crime in the united states. the news, the preview here, bret, is things are not looking good, numbers continue to show we do have a crime problem in the united states. these numbers look at violent crime and it is ticking up. murders increased from 22,000 to 22,900. 4.3% increase, that's in addition to the murder rate significantly climbing between 2019 and 2020, that's when

murders jumped 29.4%. robbery, though, however, decreased 8.9% from 2020 to 2021, perhaps a silver lining there. fbi officials are quick to point out these are estimated numbers, even though they released this report, they don't give that complete picture as you mentioned because of the reporting place, it's a new reporting place in system this year. this is something the fbi hopes will be rectified here in the next few months because all of these cities can voluntarily submit information so they hope to have the major cities, nypd and lapd included soon. the fbi used a sampling of numbers from other police departments, christopher ray took a swipe at prosecutors and he believes they are not tough enough on crime. >> more and more we see, and i hear this from chiefs and sheriffs all the time across our

country, more and more some of the worst offenders, one way or another, continue to find themselves back out on the street. >> chris ray has come out against the idea of defunding the police. he says it's not productive, not helpful, not realistic. that is rhetoric we still continue to hear not only on capitol hill but sometimes still on the campaign trail. >> bret: david, thank you. >> sandra: rafael mangual, author of "criminal injustice." quick comment on the reporting there on the murder rate mystery, your thoughts. >> we want to have good data, but the sad reality is cannot get a sense of where things are. for one thing, the fbi number is an estimate, and an estimate that is based on the fact that over a third of agencies did not report any data at all to the incident-based reporting system we have transitioned to now,

which means the estimates have large margins of error. even though the fbi is reporting estimated 4.3% increase in homicides, it's in the margin of error so likely it could be not reliable, why i don't think we are going to learn a whole lot from this. the good news is as more agencies report and transition over the system, the intervals, the margins of error will shrink over time and the estimates will be more and more reliable. i think we'll have a better picture of how things are looking next year, but still can look at individual sources to get a better sense of where, how safe you are in the place you are at the time you are there. >> sandra: time of rising crime rates, it's more important to know where this is happening, what is happening, what kind of crimes are being carried out. you are writing about this in a new fox news piece how urban crime could hobble democrats in the midterm elections, explain.

>> i mean, there have been some really interesting polls recently and they show that republicans enjoy really, really large advantages on the issue of crime, and they are trusted on the issue of crime far more than democrats, and that is true as to independent voters who trust republicans more than democrats with crime. so, that's a real issue. i think explains some of the sort of rhetorical changes that you are seeing from some left of center politicians, as well as recent funding proposals. >> and that's showing up in a sienna poll, agreed more with republicans on crime and policing compared with just 37% of registered voters, 31% of independents who said they agreed more with democrats. and similar in the washington post. it's out there. >> it is. a lot of the crime problem we have heard about for the last couple years is really concentrated in big urban metros, which tend to lean heavily democratic, a lot of americans are associating the

crime increases with the policies of the democratic party and the democratic party has not helped itself either. over the last several years, they have made criminal justice reform, deincarceration, and depolicing as part of their brand. so the good news, though, that you know, tough on crime and crime control was part of the democratic party brand for a long time. used to be a unifying issue and can be, and it should be. >> sandra: great piece, rafael, thank you for joining us. appreciate it. >> bret: rafael says rhetorical changes that defund the police have changed. and a search for a possible serial killer. >> sandra: and president biden getting testy with the press. maybe he should have answered some of their questions. the inflation buzz word. as if inflation magically goes away and then suddenly returns. but inflation never really goes away.

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police in northern california have now linked six murders to a possible serial killer there. and while that killer is still on the loose, cops warn the number of victims could rise. laura has the breaking details. police say they hope a piece of the video they release to the public will help with the investigation. laura, good afternoon, what can you tell us? >> good afternoon, bret. a string of violent and random murders in stockton and the bay area are now being considered the work of a possible serial killer and as the reward to find the shooter or shooters increases, so does the effort of law enforcement putting out that key piece of evidence you mentioned. a video, this video surveillance from stockton shows the image of a person police are calling a person of interest in a series of murders that have been tied together now through ballistic evidence and surveillance footage from other scenes since last april. police are asking the public to take a good look at the clip to see if anyone recognizes the

person's gait and posture. the task force, made of federal, state and local law enforcement released the surveillance yesterday along with the announcement of reward of $125,000 for information leading to an arrest in this case. six people in stockton ranging in age from 21 to 54, mostly hispanic men, were shot, five died and one woman survived. one other homicide in oakland is tied to the serial killings, so far have no motive. >> that's one thing we don't know, we don't know what the motive is, what we do believe is it's mission oriented, the person is on a mission, appears to be very fluid and intentional in what that one person or multiple people are doing. >> all victims were all out alone at night or the early

morning hours in the dark. stockton police told me their detectives are going back and looking at cold cases to see if there is any connection to previously unsolved murders in the area and reaching out to other nearby cities to see if there are similar cases that goes on, bret. >> sandra: one california crime story to the next, a desperate search is on, continues for a family of four, including a baby. police say the family was kidnapped from a local business. now a person who may know their whereabouts is in a hospital. jonathan hunt is on this for us, jonathan, we now have brand-new video showing the moment this family was taken? >> yeah, in fact, sandra, we have seen the exact moment when the family members were kidnapped at gunpoint. the disturbing incident caught on security cameras in the parking lot outside the trucking business the family owns. here you see 8-month-old baby in

the arms of her mother, being head away from that business by the suspect who is carrying a gun in his right hand. minutes earlier the little girl's father jasdeep singh and his brother had been brought out of the business, apparently with their hands zip tied and led by the same armed suspect. the suspect now in custody, identified by the sheriff's department as 48-year-old jesus manuel salgado, apparently tried to kill himself prior to being taken into custody and is in critical condition. so police have not yet been able to speak to him. they say they don't know a moment, but he has a previous conviction for robbery. the urgent focus for law enforcement meantime remains finding the still missing family with the fbi now part of the investigation. >> we are following every tip that comes in, to include our psychics that are calling in,

literally. so, we are not leaving any stone unturned, any blade of grass, everything we have is out there. >> at that same news conference, relatives of the missing family pleaded for the public's help. >> we are devastated, we are shocked, we are dying every moment, not finding any clues. please do come forward, any small lead could get us to our family. >> the sheriff says officials are working urgently with doctors to try to get the suspect to a point where he is able to talk to investigators, and of course sandra, every minute that passes by increases concern for the welfare of that family, especially, of course, the 8-month-old little girl. sandra. >> sandra: the family members pleading for help, any tips could help lead to that family. jonathan hunt on that, thank you. bret. >> bret: president biden taking

issue with the white house press corps shouting questions at him. >> only person in the world that does this. seriously. seriously. >> bret: well, that was tuesday, critics say the real problem lies with president biden for not answering more questions. let's bring in marc thiessen, washington post columnist and fox news contributor. >> first of all, reporters shouting questions at the president, they have always done that. sam donaldson used to shout questions at ronald reagan and he would pretend he could not hear what he was asking. i never heard him saying oh, woe is me, sam donaldson is shouting questions at me. this has been a feature of presidency since the television era began. and second of all, you know, if biden says you guys are the only press corps that does this in the entire world, he may be

right. the chinese press corps does not shout questions at xi jinping, the russian press corps does not shout questions at vladimir putin, or in iran. the american press corps shouts questions at the president because we are a free country. and we are allowed to do that. and for the president of the united states to have the kind of deference despots get around the world is pretty galling. >> bret: and look at the u.k., the british prime minister has to go into the well of parliament and field the barbs. that would be a different ball game. >> can you imagine if joe biden had to take questions from the republican senators once a week, it would be a massacre. >> bret: what about the access to the president. look at the numbers on formal press conferences, he is way down in comparison with his predecessors. he, you know, whenever asked, the white house press secretary says you all ask questions all

the time, but not in that formal setting. it does make a difference, we saw the "60 minutes" interview, that was 210 days after the last one-on-one interview he had given. what about that? >> the irony is, karine jean-pierre says you are access to him. she's pointing to the shouted questions as access. he is complaining about it, and she's saying reporters have access to the president. and you are absolutely right. he's taking fewer questions and fewer interviews than any predecessor, and we saw that "60 minutes" interview as probably the reason why. that was a clean-up on aisle six if i ever saw one. he said we would defend taiwan for the fourth time and walked out, national security officials to say he did not have a change in policy. said the pandemic was over, completely undermine his student loan forgiveness, it's based on the pandemic emergency, so they had to walk that back. if he can't handle some, a

couple sitdown interviews every month or so and a few shouted questions from reporters, you have no business being in the oval office. >> bret: marc thiessen as always, thank you. sandra, we ask all the time for president biden to come on special report, i know you do too. >> sandra: and they are always welcome. the important questions will continue to be asked, bret. good conversation there with marc. next up, this is a story we have been talking about. the pentagon diversity official under investigation for making racist remarks. are you a veteran, own a home, and need cash? you need to know about the va cash out loan from newday usa. it's called the newday 100 because it lets veterans borrow up to 100% of their home's value. not just 80% like some typical loans. that extra cash can make a huge difference in these times of skyrocketing prices. here's more good news: home values have skyrocketed too. that means even more cash!

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california, mountains, oceans, natural wonders, diverse and creative people. but when the out-of-state corporations behind prop 27 look at california, they see nothing but suckers.

they wrote prop 27 to give themselves 90% of the profits from online sports betting in california. other states get much more. why is prop 27 such a suckers deal for california? because the corporations didn't write it for us. they wrote it for themselves.

>> sandra: the defense department has said it is investigating one of its own for making racist remarks against white people. that official is the chief diversity, equity and inclusion officer for the department's education wing. republican lawmakers are demanding answers, including whether the pentagon backs her views. author of "nation of victims," thank you for joining us. your thoughts on this as we await an official probe happening, the pentagon has confirmed that, 30-day period,

no action, the pentagon said, during that period. >> i am a free speech and first amendment absolutist, as i think you know. and turns out the government cannot retaliate against an employee for their own political speech. this is definitely political speech, unless it interferes with the employer's ability or the employee's ability to carry out their job function efficiently. so i think personally if you are a diversity officer in an organization, making caustic statements like the ones she was making would interfere with your ability to do your job well. but the irony on top of it, and diversity officers, it's no accident it's people who express this viewpoint that happen to be the ones who actually get repeatedly elevated to the position of being a chief diversity officer. in the modern culture, diversity means conformity, embracing toxic racist perspective in the guise of diversity, equity and

inclusion, a couple lawyers of it. >> i will put one of wing's tweets on the screen, july 23, 2020, 1 of the tweets at the center of this, saying i'm so exhausted at these white folks in the professional development sessions. a lady had the caucasian audacity, i had to stop the session and give karen the business. the pentagon says it's investigated, no action will be taken in the period of investigation. should at least, should at least the pentagon go on the record as to whether or not this -- whether or not they stand for this type of tweet coming from one of their own? >> i think that's the easy thing to do here, hit the nail on the head. this does not represent the view of the military or the pentagon. reluctance to say it out loud,

parallel to the problem we see in corporate america. i give a simple litmus test. if you could switch out the black for white or the white for brown, and it would still be racist to say it, then it's still racist to say it before you flip the words out around. and i think we have moved to a period in the anti-racism movement in our country, both in government and the private sector, where being race neutral or color blind in our judgments is actually viewed in the lens of the anti-racist movement as being racist. and i think we need to get rid of labels all together, whether you call it racist or anti-racist, in my opinion has very little meaning today. we need to go back to evaluating the content of what people say, decency express judgment as humans and evaluate if it's the wrong people in chief diversity officers of government branches or private sector. >> sandra: brings up the broader point the u.s. army and the ability to recruit, based on changes that have been made

recently. the u.s. army is a.p. headline, missing recruiting goal. other services squeak by, the army fell about 15,000 soldiers or a quarter of its force, 25% short of recruitment goal this year. this obviously plays into a much bigger picture about the challenges that we face as a nation in recruiting for our military. >> absolutely. and do i think it allows the military to be better equipped to protect the u.s. interests, no i do not. i don't think the chinese is obsessing about the diversity practices, and the u.s. should not, focus on excellence is what we need out of the military. >> sandra: good to see you. >> thank. >> bret: the marriage between elon musk and twitter is back on for now. and that is not really sitting well with folks who work at the birdhouse. we could all use ex. if you're a veteran and own your home,

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>> sandra: governor desantis is now speaking from hurricane ian-ravaged florida. this is happening as the president, joe biden, you can see on the left side of the screen, is touring the damage there. the governor is now speaking, we are going to listen in here. >> we have deployed resources prestaged and now in the field for food, water and other types of supplies. there are 28 different points of distribution across the affected areas. 45 million bottles of water have been served, 2 million pounds of ice. we had prior to the storm 42,000 linemen stationed throughout florida ready to be on-site to restore power as soon as the storm has passed. today we have over 97% of the

state that has power. here in lee county, of course one of the hardest hit areas, florida power and light has restored 85% of the lee county customers. of course, this area is going to proceed once the search and rescue in fort myers beach, also an fpl area. lee county electrical cooperative has accepted mutual aid the state has arranged for linemen to assist in restoring to customers throughout lee county, so i said i wanted this to be the lineman capital of the world. we have thousands in places like cape coral working hard to get the power back on. we have also, because of the bridge situation with the causeway in sanibel, as well as the bridge in pine island, we were airlifting linemen on the islands to start surveying the damage and creating a plan for restoration. i will tell you that i was in sanibel today. you can go over it in a

helicopter and you see damage, but it does not do it justice until you are actually on the ground and you see concrete utility poles sawed off right in half, massive power lines everywhere, massive amounts of debris. so that's going to be a really significant effort. but our view is we want to start that as soon as possible and not wait until the causeway is repaired. charlotte county fpl estimates full restoration very soon. deployed 375 starlink internet devices that elon musk has provided, repositioned, satellite, internet at all the pods, eocs and key places and places throughout the communities. florida department of transportation has cleared 5,000 miles of roadway and when pine island was severed from the mainland, we went out and met with those folks on friday of last week, and what they said was we just need to get back and

forth from the island. is there something we can do to either do ferry service or the bridge, so we talked with florida department of transportation, we said we can restore and provide a temporary bridge and that opened today. so pine island is now restored to the mainland, there was some talk they had to get off the island, they are not leaving their homes. we are happy to have done that. we also just executed a contract for emergency repairs to the sanibel causeway. so that's going to take a little bit longer. we anticipate it being done this month in october, and that will provide access back on to sanibel. in the meantime, we have been airlifting support assets, we'll continue to do that also by boat, but we are optimistic to be able to get at least a temporary fix so that we can start to bring in even more support and flowing from that is

our division of emergency management has put command and control elements in all the barrier islands. sanibel has a c2 right there, they don't have to go to the county or state, they are there, and will control the operations. so major, major reconstruction of the power in sanibel will be necessary and massive, massive amount of debris removal. here, of course, you see, but certainly in sanibel, really, really significant, and i want to thank the administration has approved now 60 days of 100% reimbursement for debris removal. you have some communities here, their bill for debris removal will likely be more than their annual budgets, and so this is really, really significant help. we thank them for doing that. and thank the first lady, my wife casey, she launched floridadisasterfund.org, it has now raised over $35 million. as much as we appreciate all the state agencies that are offering

assistance, fema that can offer assistance, those are based on regulation and law and there are some people that may not fit into those wickets. well, we now have mobilized priority charities with a lot of money and growing to be able to help people in really tough circumstances. also just want to say that when you are doing, responding to something like this, you have to integrate various levels of government. of course our counties and municipalities, they have the boots on the ground, they are involved every day in life safety missions, whether it's police, fire rescue, you name it, the state, we manage and coordinate amongst various counties and then of course the federal government, fema providing support and i think we have worked as well across state, local and federal of any disaster that i've seen. and so i want to thank administrator criswell from fema, being on the ground, supportive and being very responsive. one of the things you are seeing

in this response, we are cutting through the bureaucracy. we are cutting through the red tape, and that's from local government, state government, all the way up to the president, so we appreciate the team effort. this is something that is, you know, these storms come, they are on the horizon, you kind of project, hey, it could be really bad. often times it doesn't necessarily get to that level. this was the full monty. the storm surge you saw through here met the expectations, the highest expectations, and you've seen what significant damage that can do. so i'm just thankful everyone has banded together. we have a lot of work to do here but i'll tell you, the spirit of the people of this state in southwest florida has been phenomenal. when i'm meeting with people that have lost everything that are 85, 90 years old in shelters and all they can do is thank the red cross, the fire, the state, fema, for all the support, that shows you some of these folks.

they are thankful that they have so many people that are there supporting, and that's really -- you only get there if it's a team effort. so, mr. president, welcome to florida. we appreciate working together across various levels of government and the floor is yours.[applause] >> government, thank you very much for the hospitality, you know i want to thank the mayor, and the county chair, cecil took me another helicopter ride. and we went on sanibel island and all across, i'm sure it's much worse on the ground. they can see a whole much more damage from the air. a can imagine because unfortunately, i've been to a lot of disaster areas in the last couple of months, and the last six months, and more fires have burned in the west in the southwest, burned everything right to the ground and then the