After eight South Florida nursing home residents died when Hurricane Irma knocked out their power, Gov. Rick Scott announced on Thursday night he had directed state officials to block the facility from receiving any further Medicaid payments.
With the welcome news that I-75 north of Gainesville will not close due to the flooding of the Santa Fe River, returning evacuees will now have a clearer path home. Traveling Tennessee Volunteer fans and some Florida Gator fans will also have an easier time getting to The Swamp for Saturday’s game between the two rivals. With U.S. Highways 41 and 27 still closed, a nightmarish detour was averted.
St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Kriseman and members of the City Council had plenty of laudatory praise Thursday for their staff in handling Hurricane Irma’s impact on the city. The mayor even showed some love to Rick Scott.
U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson asked the nation’s largest cable, telephone and internet providers Thursday to give Hurricane Irma victims rebates for service interruptions.
Citizens Property Insurance Corp. had fielded 15,900 Irma-related storm damage claims at last count — a fraction of the more than 100,000 claims the company expects in the weeks ahead.
Another sign of a return to normalcy iin the Tampa Bay region post Hurricane Irma’s arrival as a Category 1 storm: The two largest public transit agencies, the Hillsborough Area Regional Transit agency (HART) and the Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority (PSTA), have returned to regular operations.
Heat may be rising among the millions of Floridians still without power, as 2.3 million homes and businesses head toward finishing a fourth full day without. The latest data from the Florida Office of Emergency Management show 22 percent of the state still was sweating out power outages at 3:30 p.m. Thursday, on what has been the hottest day this week for many, reaching the mid-90s in parts of the Sunshine State.