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Ian killed more Floridians than most recent major hurricanes. Its indirect death count could reach the thousands.
The death toll from Hurricane Ian is currently at 112 and still rising, making it the deadliest hurricane to hit Florida since 1935. Even as rescue teams pack up and return home, the number of those missing dwindling to single digits, the toll continues to climb. The vast majority — more than 70 — of those deaths are still the drownings that occurred amid the storm surge and flooding Ian unleashed across the state. Many died in the water that filled their homes and cars. Some were carried away by the sea. But the deaths that keep inching the toll upward are now the indirect ones: the heart attacks and suicides, the infections and injuries, and the inability to receive vital medical services. [Source: Orlando Sentinel]
Business Beat - Week of October 21st
Get top news-to-know with Florida Trend's headline-focused video newsbrief, hosted by digital content specialist Aimée Alexander.
‘The tide is turning’ in South Florida’s frenzied luxury-home market
South Florida has been the poster child of the frenzied pandemic property market. Since the onset of Covid in 2020, the region has seen demand surge for its housing and prices skyrocket right alongside it. But now, some two and a half years on, things are coming back down to earth. “The tide is turning in South Florida,” said Garrett Derderian, director of market intelligence at Serhant, one of the many brokerages to have released third-quarter data for the region this week. [Source: Mansion Global]
SpaceX launches for 100th time from Cape Canaveral
SpaceX celebrated its 100th launch from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Thursday by sending up another bunch of its Starlink internet satellites. The Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from Space Launch Complex 40 at 10:50 a.m. with 54 more additions to the company’s growing internet constellation. It took more than 12 years to get to 100 liftoffs. Falcon 9′s debut was from SLC 40 at what was then Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, taking off on June 4, 2010, with a version of its in-development Dragon capsule. That test flight was a success, although an attempt to have the first-stage booster descend with the aid of a parachute did not succeed. [Source: Orlando Sentinel]
‘Rotting from the inside out’ — How to avoid buying a car flooded by Hurricane Ian
It happens after every major flood catastrophe: Tens of thousands of cars are inundated by storm surge or rising waters from heavy rain. Insurers declare them total losses and sell them to salvage companies. Many end up in scrap yards, where reusable parts are stripped and the remainders are crushed. Others, however, are bought at steep discounts by low-volume flippers who air them out and polish them up as best they can before posting them on Craigslist or parking them on a corner with a For Sale sign in the window. More from WSVN, Yahoo News, and the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.
ALSO AROUND FLORIDA:
› How did Sanibel Causeway open early? 4,000 tons of asphalt and an ‘ambitious road map’
The Sanibel Causeway opened for public access to the storm-damaged island on Wednesday morning. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced from the bridge that the roadway to the island, which was damaged and made unusable from Hurricane Ian on Sept. 28, was repaired days ahead of schedule and would allow public crossings beginning at 11 a.m. Wednesday.
› Miami targets even larger billboards throughout urban core
While a city board has caused a major delay to the Miami City Commission’s plan to allow outdoor advertising signs in some of the city’s premier waterfront parks, the commission followed with a vote advancing an even more aggressive measure allowing large digital ad signs on city property. Before the commission Oct. 13 were two related items: The final reading of an amendment to the sign ordinance to allow advertising signs in three bayfront parks, sponsored by Joe Carollo; and the first reading of an amendment to the sign ordinance allowing larger digital advertising signs at numerous city-owned properties, sponsored by Alex Diaz de la Portilla.
› Orlando airfield of dreams: Plush jets, bush planes, sexy helicopter and more
An exhibit at Orlando’s executive airport this past week was an airfield for dreams. What’s it like cruising at 50,000 feet a whisper under the speed of sound in a G800, to alight on glaciers or river sandbars in a tiny Husky or to bring the family on an ACJ320neo, an airliner tricked into a flying home, for a nonstop to Tahiti? Rumors of Travolta and Bezos attendance aside, the National Business Aviation Association exhibit in Orlando for the first time in four years was said to be the world’s premier display of personal, glamorized and corporate aircraft, and a few helicopters, parked nose to tail to wing for sale.
› After 20 years, Tampa’s streetcar is a front row seat to downtown’s rebirth.
The bell-clanging car rumbled by plots that once held cigar factories but now were glossy developments, and operator Connie Cosme considered had changed since she first stood behind the controls two decades ago. Beyond her streetcar windshield stretched a city with one of the hottest real estate markets in the country, and a growing cost of living crisis. A city with big transportation ambitions, in a county long embroiled over how to fund sorely needed infrastructure improvements.For two decades, Cosme’s had a front row seat to downtown Tampa’s metamorphosis.
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