(CBS4 News) TALLAHASSEE Gov. Jeb Bush and state emergency management officials are watching developments out of Cuba very closely.
Bush, speaking to reporters before a Cabinet meeting in Tallahassee Tuesday morning, said the state is reviewing an emergency mass migration plan to thwart any potential rush of refugees should instability in Cuba grow.
“We're monitoring carefully what's going on there," Bush said. "There's a lot of people in our state yearning for democracy and freedom in Cuba."
The governor was in Miami Monday, with his brother, the President, when he spoke with federal officials about updating the government’s plan to prohibit mass migration. "Yesterday, coincidentally, I was with the Commandant of the Coast Guard, Thad Allen, who helped craft that plan and we were actually talking about getting together and going through it and updating it,’’ Bush said.
For years, Florida officials have assumed that whenever Fidel Castro leaves power, Cuban dissidents could flee in mass toward Florida, overburdening South Florida. Bush said beefed up Coast Guard patrols would turn back illegal immigrants, and urged Cubans not to leave the island nation.
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