Commercial power had not been restored Friday morning to 50 nursing homes after getting knocked out by Hurricane Irma, according to the Florida Health Care Association, an industry group.
Confronted with back-to-back major hurricanes, the American Red Cross has received a huge outpouring of financial support — and a simultaneous barrage of criticism based on its struggles to respond to several past disasters.
The decision by St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Kriseman‘s administration to award the Callaloo Group to take over the historic Manhattan Casino last month was not exactly met with universal praise in the community – even amongst the mayor’s most fervent supporters in South St. Pete.
Electricity remained out Thursday night for about 21 percent of utility customers across the state, as crews continued gradually restoring power after Hurricane Irma. State numbers showed outages for about 2.2 million customer accounts, with Florida Power & Light — by far the state’s largest utility — accounting for about 1.27 million of that total.
As if loss of air conditioning and refrigeration weren’t bad enough, widespread power outages in hurricane-battered Florida are teaming with structural failures to cause another headache: sewage overflows. Local governments have submitted well over 100 “notices of pollution” to the state Department of Environmental Protection since Hurricane Irma struck, some involving multiple spills and releases of millions of gallons of wastewater in various stages of treatment. Officials in many cities were still scrambling Thursday to determine how much sewage had…
Hurricane Irma could extend her destructive reach to the next state budget. A long-range financial report, which will be reviewed Friday by the Joint Legislative Budget Commission, shows lawmakers working with only a projected $52 million surplus as they craft the 2018-19 budget early next year. It’s a fiscal pittance in an overall $82 billion budget.
Gov. Rick Scott has ordered flags at half-staff to honor Hardee County Sheriff’s Deputy Julie Ann Bridges and Florida Department of Corrections Sgt. Joseph Ossman.
