Things To Do In SW Florida

TALLAHASSEE — As the Atlantic Ocean shows signs of heating up, potentially fueling damaging hurricanes, a former state and national disaster chief warned Tuesday of working-class Floridians being priced out of communities in post-storm rebuilding.

Craig Fugate, a disaster-planning consultant who previously served as director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management and administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said financing and the availability of insurance will continue to be issues for some people trying to rebuild.

“I don’t think it’s going to slow down rebuilding, because it’s not really slowing things down in Fort Myers,” Fugate said, referring to rebuilding after Hurricane Ian slammed into the Fort Myers area in 2022. “What it’s doing is causing an affordable housing crisis … people like police officers, school teachers, administrators, they’re being priced out of your communities because they can’t either afford the cost of rebuilding, and if they can, they can’t afford the cost of insuring if they have to get a mortgage.” read more

By Anna Helhoski | NerdWallet

Climate change is frightening, inconvenient, expensive and, increasingly, deadly. And there’s really no escape.

In this year alone, the U.S. has had a myriad of natural hazards worsened by climate change: the earliest recorded Category 5 hurricane to make landfall; floods throughout the country; record-breaking heat everywhere; tornadoes in the Midwest; and wildfires in the West. The La Nina weather pattern is expected to arrive soon, which is likely to fuel storms in the Atlantic during this year’s hurricane season.

Climate change amplifies the frequency, duration and intensity of extreme weather events. It can cause all kinds of disruptions and health hazards while driving up expenses like heating, cooling and homeowners insurance.

Get hammered enough by amplified weather events and you might wonder if there’s somewhere a little less hazard-prone to live. While there is no place on Earth that is immune to the impact of climate change, some places are less exposed to risk than others. read more