Local curfews were in place throughout the state, much of the Florida Keys remained closed and millions of people continued to lack electricity as cleanup work expected to reach into the billions of dollars began Monday in the wake of deadly Hurricane Irma.
A college student and a chartered boat mate who was trying to save the other are still missing a day after they jumped into the waters of a channel leading out into the Gulf of Mexico near St. Petersburg, officials confirmed Wednesday. Jie Luo, 21, from China, and Andrew Dillman, 27, went missing Tuesday after Luo jumped into the Gulf of Mexico waters off western Florida with four others, Coast Guard spokesman Petty Officer First Class Michael De Nyse told…
The U.S. Coast Guard on Monday warned boaters to start preparing for Hurricane Matthew, and Gov. Rick Scott announced plans to visit the state’s emergency operations centers along Florida’s east coast. Scott canceled Tuesday’s Cabinet meeting to make the trip. He wants to make sure counties are prepared if the storm moves toward Florida, spokeswoman Jackie Schutz said. Scott signed an executive order on Monday declaring a state of emergency for every Florida county. Matthew was a Category 4 storm…
A Florida mayor says he’s determined to return home from a visit to Cuba alone in a makeshift raft, despite warnings against the journey from the U.S. Coast Guard. DeBary Mayor Clint Johnson said Tuesday he devised his plan to better understand what Cuban migrants experience when crossing the Florida Straits. Johnson plans to fly into Havana next month with some pieces for the raft and assemble it there with more pieces he can acquire locally. While he says he…
The U.S. Coast Guard is urging boaters to be cautious this Labor Day weekend. The Miami Herald reports that the Coast Guard as well as the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and local law enforcement agencies are enforcing a zero tolerance policy for unsafe or drunken boating. The push for safer waters came after a series of deadly boating accidents including a three-boat crash July 4, 2014, that killed four people and injured seven. The Coast Guard is urging…
A crew of university research students saved the life of a distressed boater in the Gulf of Mexico near Egmont Key. According to the University of South Florida, the crew and students aboard the Florida Institute of Oceanography’s Weatherbird II vessel on Saturday night heard an urgency call from the U.S. Coast Guard explaining that three men were in the water, separated from their boat about two miles away from the Weatherbird’s location. The Coast Guard rescued two of the…
With a shift in the relationship between Havana and Washington, many Cubans are now attempting a risky sea crossing out of fear that the U.S. will change its “wet-foot, dry-foot” policy allowing any Cuban reaching U.S. land to stay and pursue citizenship. Without it, they’d be treated like other foreigners caught illegally in the country – ineligible for citizenship and subject to deportation. The U.S. Coast Guard returns any Cuban migrants caught at sea to the communist island. Authorities have…