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This week, Florida Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Jimmy Patronis sent a letter to U.S. Transportation (DOT) Sec. Pete Buttigieg requesting the federal government work to mitigate the threat of electric vehicles (EVs) following Hurricane Ian, which caused salty storm surge waters to be shoved into the Southwest Florida coast. The CFO’s letter asks U.S. DOT to take a more proactive role in identifying storm impacted EVs and getting them off the roads, out of salvage yards and away from the general public to prevent fires. The State Fire Marshal’s Office has confirmed 16 EV fires occurred as a result of...

Rep. Charlie Crist (D-FL), who is challenging Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) in Florida’s gubernatorial race, appears to be fundraising on the assertion that DeSantis “utterly failed to respond” to Hurricane Ian. “Folks, DeSantis utterly failed to respond to the devastation caused by Hurricane Ian,” a Crist fundraising email, shared by the DeSantis War Room, reads. “Hurricane Ian was a devastating storm that required REAL leadership — something that DeSantis is incapable of,” the email continues, asking to find 362 Americans “willing to agree with Charlie” and ultimately force DeSantis to “reckon” with his supposed failures:

Democrat group Florida Rising began fundraising after Hurricane Ian, claiming the funds were going to charity. In reality, it was given to a dark money political C(4), posing as a charity. Florida Rising Tweeted the fundraising link on September 29th, just a day after Hurricane Ian landed. The tweet claimed that the groups the funds would be going to are the same ones that assisted in the aftermath of Hurricane Irma and assured readers that the funds would help “prepare for the rebuilding and recovery.” However, the link provided, ianresponse.org, is housed by the tech platform ActBlue, according to a...

FORT MYERS, Fla. – In the month before Hurricane Ian hurtled into southwest Florida, shredding Lee County and destroying or damaging more than 32,000 homes, the area reigned as having the most overvalued real estate in the nation. Two weeks after Ian’s Category 4 wrath, economists and Realtors said the Sept. 28 storm may be a pause in Florida’s humming housing market but is unlikely to have long-term impacts because “people want to live near saltwater in a warm and business-friendly climate,” said Ken H. Johnson, an FAU housing economist. In the near term, however, Ian could bolster unaffordability in...

Miami Gardens is helping those impacted by Hurricane Ian. Monday morning a semi-tractor trailer filled with water, food... ...a food truck is also being sent to serve up warm cooked meals to victims in minority communities impacted in Lee County. People in that area say they feel left behind and Miami Gardens wanted to make sure they have all the materials they need during this tragedy. "I don't have to live on Sanibel or Fort Myers Beach to be one of the people they should care about because to me that seems like that's all they care about at this...

In the wake of Hurricane Ian, Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis is expressing new concern over electric vehicles. He penned a letter to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration sounding alarms on the dangerous mix of lithium batteries and storm surge. Patronis, whose duties include state Fire Marshal, said the administration needs to assess fire risks associated with saltwater on electric vehicles. In the meantime, he said fire teams need more support to deal with an “inevitable” increase in fires associated with electric-powered automobiles. He sent a copy of the letter to Rep. Frank Pallone, Chair of the House Energy...

As Hurricane Ian bore down on Florida, normally reliable computer forecast models couldn’t agree on where the killer storm would land. But government meteorologists are now figuring out what went wrong — and right. Much of the forecasting variation seems to be rooted in cool Canadian air that had weakened a batch of sunny weather over the East Coast. That weakening would allow Ian to turn eastward to Southwest Florida instead of north and west to the Panhandle hundreds of miles away. The major American computer forecast model -- one of several used by forecasters -- missed that and the...

NOKOMIS, Fla. – A Florida man was arrested after he allegedly shined a laser at a Sarasota County Sheriff’s office helicopter. Deputies said Nick Davidson, 44, pointed the green laser at the chopper on Tuesday, while pilots were responding to a fire. The Sarasota Sheriff’s office said Davidson’s actions could not have come at a worse time because the area was under a state of emergency after Hurricane Ian. Deputies were busy assessing damage and guiding ground units around potential hazards. “Not only are Davidson’s actions dangerous, but they have the potential to flash blind and cause long-term damage to...

Remember how Congress passed that bUiLd bAcK bEttEr infrastructure bill that was supposed to overhaul all our aging roads and bridges? I haven't seen a lot of rebuilt things, but I have seen a lot of politicians getting richer.

FORT MYERS, Fla. – A man and his cat rode out the fury of Hurricane Ian last week in his sailboat, which was his home before the storm. Ian was a monstrous Category 4 hurricane with 150-mph winds when it slammed into Southwest Florida on Sept. 28. The terrible winds pushed ashore feet of water from the Gulf of Mexico as it made landfall. Widespread destruction was left behind. Ron Latta, of Fort Myers, said he had been living in his 32-foot boat named "Lattatude" for four years, and decided to stay with his home. "You don’t leave your boat,"...

A man in Daytona Beach, Florida, went viral after sharing that he successfully waterproofed his store against Hurricane Ian with spray foam and Flex Seal. Eddie Kastrul, the owner of Midwest Motorcycle Sales & Rental, posted a video of his undamaged store on Facebook over the weekend. A woman named Cori Bosco (@eastcoastdiy) later re-posted Kastrul's video to TikTok, where it has gone viral with over 1 million views. You can watch the full video here. Hurricane Ian moved through Florida and the Carolinas last week, causing tens of billions of dollars in damage, reported Reuters. Bosco—a Daytona Beach resident...

President Joe Biden met with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis on Wednesday and toured neighborhoods in the aftermath of Hurricane Ian, but he immediately pivoted to global warming. “I think the one thing this has finally ended is the discussion about whether or not there’s climate change, and we should do something about it,” Biden said shortly after beginning his remarks.

President Joe Biden on Wednesday was caught on a hot mic while visiting Fort Myers Beach, Florida, telling a local mayor that “no one ***** with a Biden.” “Keep the faith,” Biden said as he approached the mayor after speaking to reporters. “And by the way, you’re raised the same way I was. No one ***** with a Biden.”

Florida's Republican Governor Ron DeSantis revealed how three of the looters were illegal immigrants 'who should not be in the US at all' 'These are people that are foreigners, they're illegally in our country, but not only that, they try to loot and ransack in the aftermath of a natural disaster,' he said In a warning to looters, Ron DeSantis said that Floridians would not be scared to evoke their Second Amendment rights if they caught an opportunist in their midst DeSantis has taken a similarly hard line when it comes to immigration Last month he was instrumental in sending...

In the sunshine state, we met the sofa survivor. In the worst hit part of southwest Florida, David Dean told us how he saw out Hurricane Ian. "I found myself around three or four in the afternoon, floating on a sofa with my head just above the ceiling fans, 18 inches below the ceiling. I was gasping for air." As the water rose inside David's 1970s single-storey park home, he planned for the worst - and an exit route. "From that point, it was going to be to try to get out the door and hold on to a palm...

Wow. FAKE NEWS busy carrying Kamala Harris' water-playing her "equity" Race Card. TOP STORY on NBC is "black+brown communities" allegedly not getting Enough from FEMA-wildly DIVISIVE and WRONG at this moment. Does EVERYTHING have to be about Race? pic.twitter.com/2rbiaQtfOL— Greg Kelly (@gregkellyusa) October 4, 2022

INDIALANTIC, Fla. - The mayor of a Florida town was arrested after police said he hit another man in the face with a rake while they were cleaning up a park in Brevard County after Hurricane Ian. David Berkman, 59, is facing a misdemeanor battery charge. According to an affidavit from the Indialantic Police Department, the victim – Melvyn Chang – and Berkman were both in Orlando Park in Indialantic on Friday assisting with cleanup efforts after Hurricane Ian spread debris across the area. Police said Chang was sitting on a picnic table recording Berkman after Berkman allegedly made several...

Occupy Democrats on Thursday lamented the fact that Hurricane Ian missed Trump’s Palm Beach, Florida residence Mar-a-Lago.Approximately 2.6 million customers in Florida are without power after Hurricane Ian made landfall Wednesday. -snipInstead of offering up prayers for their fellow Americans suffering in Florida, Occupy Democrats tweeted this:

Scores of Venezuelan migrants in New York City are hopping on vans to head down to Florida for Hurricane Ian clean-up, they told The Post. The migrants had scant information about whom they would be working for, but they still piled into vans in Queens that they said were headed to the Sunshine State over the weekend. “They want us for hurricane cleanup, we’d get paid $15 an hour, overtime and $15 for food daily, I think,” said Javier Moreno, 37, noting that a woman named Camila “from an organization” approached him with a flier.

— Anthony Grande moved away from Fort Myers three years ago in large part because of the hurricane risk. He has lived in southwest Florida for nearly 19 years, had experienced Hurricanes Charley in 2004 and Irma in 2017 and saw what stronger storms could do to the coast. Grande told CNN he wanted to find a new home where developers prioritized climate resiliency in a state that is increasingly vulnerable to record-breaking storm surge, catastrophic wind and historic rainfall. What he found was Babcock Ranch — only 12 miles northeast of Fort Myers, yet seemingly light years away. Babcock...