Associated Press, Author at Florida Politics - Campaigns & Elections. Lobbying & Government.

Associated PressSeptember 15, 2017

It’s been one week since Margherita Lopez has taken a shower. She’s been shuffled to three different shelters since evacuating her home in Key West last week as Hurricane Irma approached. She’s slept on a gymnasium floor without a cot, has struggled to find food and says she feels like emergency management officials have forgotten […]

Associated PressSeptember 15, 2017

Confronted with back-to-back major hurricanes, the American Red Cross has received a huge outpouring of financial support — and a simultaneous barrage of criticism based on its struggles to respond to several past disasters. To date, combined donations to the Red Cross for hurricanes Harvey and Irma have topped $300 million. Former President Barack Obama […]

Associated PressSeptember 15, 2017

As if loss of air conditioning and refrigeration weren’t bad enough, widespread power outages in hurricane-battered Florida are teaming with structural failures to cause another headache: sewage overflows. Local governments have submitted well over 100 “notices of pollution” to the state Department of Environmental Protection since Hurricane Irma struck, some involving multiple spills and releases […]

Associated PressSeptember 14, 2017

As Irma’s misery grows in scope and scale, so does its death toll. The most powerful hurricane ever recorded in the open Atlantic eventually claimed dozens of lives as it tore up the Caribbean and the southeastern United States. Still more are dying in its aftermath. The victims include eight residents of a sweltering Florida […]

Associated PressSeptember 14, 2017

Residents at an assisted living facility in suburban Fort Lauderdale who have been without power since Hurricane Irma are being moved to two facilities across the street that have electricity. Wilton Manors City Manager Leigh Ann Henderson told The Associated Press on Thursday that the Williamsburg Landing assisted living facility has been using generators to […]

Associated PressSeptember 14, 2017

Larry and Elida Dimas didn’t have much to begin with, and Hurricane Irma left them with even less. The storm peeled open the roof of the old mobile home where they live with their 18-year-old twins, and it destroyed another one they rented to migrant workers in Immokalee, one of Florida’s poorest communities. Someone from […]

Associated PressSeptember 13, 2017

Eight patients at a sweltering nursing home died in Hurricane Irma’s aftermath, raising fears Wednesday about the safety of Florida’s 4 million senior citizens amid widespread power outages that could go on for days. Hollywood Police Chief Tom Sanchez said investigators believe the deaths at the Rehabilitation Center at Hollywood Hills were heat-related, and added: […]

Associated PressSeptember 13, 2017

It was a scene you would never expect to find in the United States, the land of hot dog eating contests and supersized Slurpees — hundreds of people wandering around forlorn, looking for food, against a backdrop of downed tree branches and a flattened gas station with no gas. We were all refugees from Irma, […]

Associated PressSeptember 13, 2017

President Donald Trump will travel to the Naples area as part of a visit to hurricane-damaged Florida on Thursday. Spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the president will be in the Naples area, in southwest Florida. Few additional details were available. Nearly all of the state was engulfed by the massive Hurricane Irma. The number of […]

Associated PressSeptember 13, 2017

Monroe County officials say water service is slowly being restored to the Florida Keys. County officials said in said in a Facebook update Wednesday: “MORE WATER IS COMING” Water would be turned on for two-hour spurts Wednesday morning and evening in Key West, but officials warned it would need to be boiled before drinking. Key […]

Associated Press

Irma’s ‘forgotten’ evacuees struggle to find housing

For Red Cross, hurricanes bring both donations and criticism

Sewage spills add to misery in hurricane-battered Florida

A look at some of the victims of Irma

Ft. Lauderdale assisted living facility without power evacuated

Irma pushes Florida’s poor closer to the edge of ruin

8 die at Florida nursing home in Irma’s sweltering aftermath

4 motels in 5 nights: Life on the run from Irma

President Trump picks Naples for post-Irma Florida visit

Water service slowly returning to Florida Keys