I've been seeing a bunch of posts about "why didn't the government do anything in advance" Here are things that were done:
Massive amounts of food, bottled water, medical supplies, and beds were delivered to strong buildings designated as shelters in every town.
The National guard was sandbagging everything they could and knocking on doors all along the coast trying to convince people to evacuate. They were literally going door-to-door.
The government paid for free Uber rides to shelters and provided free buses to evacuate. Unfortunately it appears not many people knew about it.
The government organized and prioritized getting gas stations refilled along evacuation routes. It wasn't enough but it would have been much worse without official help. They also organizes tow trucks to get dead cars off the roads.
Everyone will probably get the same aid Helen victims got - $750 instantly to anyone with ID showing they lived in a hurricane damaged area, and then thousands to tens of thousands to help rebuild or move later on, once there are more detailed damage assessments and victims fill out a request for aid.
The government also speed ran trying to get debris from Helene off the streets before Milton so it wouldn't become projectiles (again not enough but they managed waaaaay more than expected), and will be the ones clearing roads tomorrow ASAP.
Heck, the government runs NOAA and is what told people approximately where it would hit and with what power days ago. They were the ones that did all the research to build the devices that let them make predictions like that. They were the ones flying into the storm to get windspeed measurements every couple hours.
Tomorrow the government will be delivering more generators and gas and bottled water, and a fleet of ambulances and firemen to rescue people.
Yeah we could do better. We could always do better. Florida needs better building codes in storm surge zones for one thing.
But to say the government did nothing? Nah, that's not true. It's not true at all.
