Things To Do In SW Florida

By Laura McMullen, NerdWallet

Natural disasters, whether massive wildfires, hurricanes or floods, can upend lives in an instant, but unwinding the financial damage can take many months. Still, those affected have many sources of help.

Here’s how you can get help and be strategic with your resources as you begin to rebuild after a disaster.

Deal with immediate needs first

First things first: Contact the Federal Emergency Management Agency to get help via a disaster recovery center by texting “DRC” and your ZIP code to 43362. Texting “Apple” or “Android” to that same number will give you a download link for a mobile app from FEMA with additional resources, such as shelter locations.

Local and state agencies and nongovernmental groups such as the Red Cross also can also help; call 211 from any phone or visit 211.org to get information.

Check your credit card or hotel loyalty accounts as well. You might have points or a free night certificate that can cover the cost of your immediate lodging.

Some general rewards credit cards allow you to use points to book hotels directly through their own travel portals or let you transfer points to a specific hotel loyalty program. Some nearby hotels might offer discounts for evacuees as well. read more

Universal Orlando has a project that’s literally shiny, new and interstellar to show off. It’s Stella Nova, a resort within sight of its upcoming Epic Universe theme park. The 750-room hotel opens to the public on Tuesday.

It will be Universal Orlando’s ninth hotel and the first part of the Epic Universe area to debut. It will be joined by the neighboring Terra Luna on March 25 and the Helios Grand, which opens alongside the theme park May 22.

Stella Nova carries a starry theme and curvy architecture. Its exterior is a splashy, colorful collection of tiles that change hues as perspective varies and as the sun shifts. Passers-by have seen the sheen for months along Universal Boulevard.

The eye-catching design is made of 140,000 stainless steel tiles and inspired by imagery captured by the James Webb telescope, said Russ Dagon, senior vice president of resort development for Universal Creative.

Disney World to close Hall of Presidents for awhile

“This has to be the largest stainless steel building in the world,” Dagon joked before members of the media took a resort tour Thursday. read more

Blue Origin had a successful debut launch of its heavy-lift New Glenn rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station early Thursday.

History made: Blue Origin’s New Glenn reaches orbit on debut launch

The 321-foot-tall rocket powered by seven of the company’s BE-4 engines launched from Canaveral’s Launch Complex 36 at 2:03 a.m. as crowds gathered along the beach to witness the historical first for Jeff Bezos’ rocket company.

The rocket made history when it made it to orbit successfully on its first try. Companies including SpaceX, Rocket Lab, Firefly, Astra and Relativity Space were not able to achieve successful orbit on their rockets’ debut launches.

Read more.

Spirit Airlines took another swipe at its work force with the layoff of 200 nonunion employees as management continues its efforts to downsize the airline and cut some $80 million in annual costs.

“We are executing on plans to rightsize our organization to align with our current fleet size and level of flying and ultimately optimize our airline,” a spokesperson said Thursday. “After reviewing our organizational structure, we have made the difficult decision to eliminate approximately 200 positions from various departments across the airline.”

Unlike the telegraphed furloughs of 186 pilots last September and 330 more cockpit crew members to be cut on Jan. 31, the latest round of reductions apparently came as a surprise to workers who reported on social media that security guards entered the company headquarters in Dania Beach and escorted employees out of the building.

Spirit, which is restructuring its business through a Chapter 11 bankruptcy case in New York, advised employees of the move in a Wednesday letter signed by CEO and President Ted Christie. The reductions cut across multiple departments including operations, leadership, crew training and scheduling and adminstrative support. read more

NEW YORK (AP) — The supremely popular TikTok could be banned on Jan. 19 under a federal law that forces the video sharing platform to divest itself from its China-based parent company, ByteDance, or shut down its U.S. operations.