DeSantis Declares State Of Emergency in Escambia, Santa Rosa Counties

October 7, 2026

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis declared a state of emergency on Tuesday for 25 North Florida counties, including Escambia and Santa Rosa, as the region prepares for potential impacts from a tropical storm or hurricane.

The declaration frees up emergency resources and allows the Florida State Emergency Response Team (SERT) to preposition critical assets across the Florida Panhandle. According to the governor’s office, emergency crews are strategically staging equipment in the Santa Rosa area and Tallahassee to ensure rapid deployment where needed.

Pre-positioned supplies include:

Commercial generators and emergency fuel

Sandbags, flood barriers, and Tiger Dams

Pallets of boxed water and shelf-stable meals

Tarps and flood cleanup buckets

The storm will make landfall somewhere along the central Gulf Coast later this week. Forecasters caution that severe weather impacts will stretch far beyond the center of the storm, bringing the threat of heavy rainfall, gusty winds, coastal flooding, and isolated tornadoes to the Panhandle. Ground conditions across the region remain heavily saturated from recent rounds of rain, significantly elevating the risk of flash flooding.

“This order will allow the Florida Division of Emergency Management to stage critical preparedness resources and ensure Florida is ready to respond,” DeSantis said. “Floridians should take this time to get disaster plans in place and ensure their hurricane supply kit is stocked.”

Comments





Have a comment on this story?

We welcome your comments on this story, but there are some rules to follow::

(1) Be Nice. No comments that slander another, no racism, no sexism, no personal attacks.

(2) No Harrassing Comments. If someone says something bad about you, don't respond. That's childish.

(3) No Libel. That's saying something is not true about someone. Don't do it.

(4) Keep it clean. Nothing vulgar, obscene or sexually related. No profanity or obvious substitutions. Period.

(5) NorthEscambia.com reserves the right to remove any comments that violate our rules or we think to be inappropriate. We are not responsible for what is posted. Comments may not appear right away until they are approved by a moderator.

(6) Limit your comments to the subject in this story only, and limit comments to 300 words or less. Do not post copyrighted material. Comments will not be added to stories that are over 30 days old.

(7) No posts may advertise a commercial business, political candidate or political group, or link to another commercial web site or political site of any kind.

Written by William Reynolds · Filed Under FRONT TOP 

  NEfb