Southwest Florida

Some charitable groups are getting donations for Thanksgiving meal giveaways in the middle of recovery from Hurricane Ian devastation.

Florida is among 32 states that don’t treat 911 dispatchers as first responders. Recent efforts in the state Legislature to change that have not advanced.

Hurricane Ian’s devastation on the Southwest Florida coast sent a chill up the spine of anyone in Miami worried about the next big one — and it sharpened the focus of federal planners working to design and build new barriers to avoid a similar outcome for Miami-Dade.

Southwest Florida has already answered the immediate question after Hurricane Ian slammed into the coast, killing dozens of people and destroying thousands of homes with record-high storm surge: Will we rebuild?

Contractors who clean up debris and perform other services already are fighting over local government contracts that could be worth tens of millions in tax dollars.

Students returning to school have lost out on weeks of instruction, putting them behind on the year’s planned curriculum. But more serious, say some experts, are long-term effects on a student’s physical and emotional health.

The Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund provides relatively inexpensive reinsurance to carriers as a way to help stabilize the property-insurance market.

In January, a tornado that was one of six that day, ushered in by a powerful winter storm system that moved ashore from over the Gulf of Mexico, ravaged the Tropicana 55-plus mobile home community, as well as other nearby trailer parks and homes.

The halls of this food pantry are lined with palettes of ready-to-eat meals and bottled water. Centro Juan Diego feeds clients year-round. But after Ian, she said, the need quadrupled.

Public lands managed by the South Florida Water Management District in Lee and Collier counties remain so dangerous more than two weeks after Hurricane Ian that, above or below water, the areas will be closed for the foreseeable future.

Still without home internet access, Charlotte county residents are returning to their remote jobs by logging in at the Punta Gorda Charlotte library.

Anita Cereceda, a native of Florida and former mayor of Fort Myers Beach, spoke of what she found when she returned to her home Sunday. Cereceda also owned three businesses of the island, and hopes one can be rebuilt.