With DeSantis absent, Biden surveys Idalia damage in Florida

President Joe Biden has seen from the sky Hurricane Idalia's impact across a swath of Florida before he set out on a walking tour of a city recovering from the storm.

Notably absent was Governor Ron DeSantis, a Republican presidential candidate who declined to join Biden on Saturday after he suggested that the Democrat's presence could hinder disaster response efforts.

Biden, when asked about his rival's absence, said he was not disappointed by the turn of events, but welcomed the presence of Rick Scott, one of the state's two Republican US senators.

He pledged the federal government's total support for Floridians.

"I'm here today to deliver a clear message to the people of Florida and throughout the Southeast," Biden said after the walking tour.

He spoke outdoors near a church that had parts of its sheet metal roof peeled back by Idalia's powerful winds and a home half crushed by a fallen tree.

"As I’ve told your governor, if there’s anything your state needs, I’m ready to mobilise that support," he continued.

"Anything they need related to these storms. Your nation has your back, and we’ll be with you until the job is done."

Earlier, the mayor of Live Oak, which is about 128 kilometres east of Tallahassee, the state capital, thanked Biden and first lady Jill Biden for coming and "showing us that we're important to you."

"Everybody thinks Florida is rich, but this is not one of the richest counties in the state, and there are people who are suffering,'' said Frank Davis, adding he knew of no loss of life or serious injury.

DeSantis’ absence

On Friday, hours after Biden said he would be meeting with DeSantis, the governor's office issued a statement saying there were no plans for that.

"In these rural communities, and so soon after impact, the security preparations alone that would go into setting up such a meeting would shut down ongoing recovery efforts," DeSantis spokesperson Jeremy Redfern said in a statement.

DeSantis' office said his public schedule on Saturday included stops in Keaton Beach, about 96 kilometres southwest of Live Oak, and Horseshoe Beach, about 120 kilometres away, with the last event beginning at 1:45 pm.

Idalia made landfall on Wednesday morning along Florida’s sparsely populated Big Bend region as a Category 3 storm, causing widespread flooding and damage before moving north to drench Georgia and the Carolinas.

As Biden left Washington on Saturday morning, reporters asked what happened with the meeting.

"I don’t know. He's not going to be there," the president said of DeSantis.

The political disconnect between both sides is a break from the recent past, since Biden and DeSantis met when the president toured Florida after Hurricane Ian hit the state last year, and following the Surfside condo collapse in Miami Beach in summer 2021.

But DeSantis is now running to unseat Biden, and he only left the Republican presidential primary trail with Idalia barreling toward his state.

Putting aside political rivalries following natural disasters can be tricky, meanwhile.

Both Biden and DeSantis at first suggested that helping storm victims would outweigh partisan differences, but the governor began suggesting that a presidential trip would complicate response logistics as the week wore on.

The post-Idalia political consequences are high for both men.

White House race

As Biden seeks reelection, the White House has asked for an additional $4 billion to address natural disasters as part of a supplemental funding request to Congress.

That would bring the total to $16 billion and highlight that intensifying extreme weather is imposing ever higher costs on US taxpayers.

DeSantis has built his White House bid around dismantling what he calls Democrats’ "woke" policies.

The governor also frequently draws applause at GOP rallies by declaring that it’s time to send "Joe Biden back to his basement," a reference to the Democrat’s Delaware home, where he spent much of his time during the early lockdowns of the coronavirus pandemic.

But four months before the first ballots are to be cast in Iowa’s caucuses, DeSantis still lags far behind former president Donald Trump, the Republican primary’s dominant early front-runner.