Florida Keys

Dalton Hesley led a dive team to an offshore Miami Beach reef last month in pursuit of sea urchins. Something else drew his attention instead. A cluster of staghorn corals, their branches reaching toward the surface, appeared a ghastly white.

Monroe County officials will decide Monday afternoon whether to close schools but already warned residents in RVs and campers to evacuate areas from the Seven Mile Bridge west to Key West.

Over the last few decades, corals on the reef have been hammered by warmer water and ocean heat waves, disease and hurricanes. If the U.S. loses its reef tract, it loses a powerful defense against more intense hurricanes fueled by climate change.

The oldest newspaper in the Keys, the Keys Citizen, will now reach its subscribers through the U.S. Postal Service.

Three historic lighthouses on the Florida Keys reef are up for auction. They're listed now at $15,000 — but each needs more than $2 million in repairs right away.

Drivers slowing down to look at nearby boaters are causing two-mile backups and frequent collisions, Florida Keys officials say. They want to create a "visual barrier" to block the view.

Helicopters are hovering next to the power lines that parallel the Overseas Highway in the Florida Keys. It's a project that has led to two recent power outages in the Lower Keys — but the utility says that work is done.

This month’s Sundial Book Club title is about Henry Flagler and his dream to build the impossible railroad.

Monroe County Commissioner David Rice discusses plans to make the road safer.

The state wants to make boaters in the Keys anchored out "on the hook" move to regulated mooring fields or move every three months. Some boaters say that would sink one of the last affordable ways to live in the expensive island chain.

Navigating the Florida Keys can be a challenge — one that Hurricane Irma made even more difficult.

FEMA says its new rates better reflect the risk from more intense and frequent rain and floods. The increase could make housing unaffordable for some in the most flood-prone areas.