President Biden approves Florida disaster declarationCrash in Collier County leaves car in canal and driver dead
President Biden approves Florida disaster declaration President Biden approved a Florida disaster declaration after Hurricane Helene left a wake of destruction.
NAPLES Crash in Collier County leaves car in canal and driver dead A traffic crash occurred in Naples on 12th Avenue Northeast near Wilson Boulevard.
SANIBEL Sanibel couple remaining hopeful following damage from Helene A Sanibel couple is remaining hopeful after flooding impacted their home during Helene Thursday night.
SANIBEL Sanibel residents recovering from Helene two years after Ian Due to Helene, The City of Sanibel has postponed a two-year Ian celebration and turned the event into a cleanup.
FORT MYERS BEACH Fort Myers Beach seeking to avoid unnecessary traffic after Helene The town of Fort Myers Beach is asking some people not to visit the island.
CHARLOTTE HARBOR Historic home and lives upended in Charlotte Harbor flooding While Hurricane Helene was not expected to cause a life-threatening storm surge in the county, the residents were walloped by rising flood water.
Dekle Beach Gov. DeSantis reviews the damage done by Hurricane Helene Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is set to hold a news conference in Dekle Beach.
Tracking power outages after Helene There are still several thousand neighbors in southwest Florida without power as of Saturday.
The Weather Authority The Weather Authority: Scattered rain and storms throughout your Saturday The Weather Authority is tracking scattered rain and storms throughout your Saturday afternoon.
Southwest Florida remembers Hurricane Ian 2 years later; what happened before and after the storm The storm that had devastated Southwest Florida, Hurricane Ian, has now reached its 2nd anniversary of landfall.
High School Football Scoreboard Week 6 Hurricane Helene couldn’t keep all the Friday night lights off in Southwest Florida. Week 6 was a loaded slate included a classic in the WINK News Game of the Week.
BONITA SPRINGS Bonita Springs begins clean up operations On Friday, the Department of Transportation pushed sand off the road on Hickory Island after Hurricane Helene ripped through
MANASOTA KEY Manasota woman recovers after home destroyed by Helene Whipping winds – the sound of Hurricane Helene ripping through Manasota Key, as swells smashed into the island. Even so, Marsha Viglianco stayed to watch from her back porch.
El Jobean residents fighting to recover from Helene In Charlotte County, people living in El Jobean are in recovery mode Friday night. Many were flooded out of their homes, and now they’re figuring out their next steps.
NAPLES Restoration efforts begin in the aftermath of Helene in Collier County Helene gave Naples Beach flash flooding a debris Thursday night.
President Biden approves Florida disaster declaration President Biden approved a Florida disaster declaration after Hurricane Helene left a wake of destruction.
NAPLES Crash in Collier County leaves car in canal and driver dead A traffic crash occurred in Naples on 12th Avenue Northeast near Wilson Boulevard.
SANIBEL Sanibel couple remaining hopeful following damage from Helene A Sanibel couple is remaining hopeful after flooding impacted their home during Helene Thursday night.
SANIBEL Sanibel residents recovering from Helene two years after Ian Due to Helene, The City of Sanibel has postponed a two-year Ian celebration and turned the event into a cleanup.
FORT MYERS BEACH Fort Myers Beach seeking to avoid unnecessary traffic after Helene The town of Fort Myers Beach is asking some people not to visit the island.
CHARLOTTE HARBOR Historic home and lives upended in Charlotte Harbor flooding While Hurricane Helene was not expected to cause a life-threatening storm surge in the county, the residents were walloped by rising flood water.
Dekle Beach Gov. DeSantis reviews the damage done by Hurricane Helene Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is set to hold a news conference in Dekle Beach.
Tracking power outages after Helene There are still several thousand neighbors in southwest Florida without power as of Saturday.
The Weather Authority The Weather Authority: Scattered rain and storms throughout your Saturday The Weather Authority is tracking scattered rain and storms throughout your Saturday afternoon.
Southwest Florida remembers Hurricane Ian 2 years later; what happened before and after the storm The storm that had devastated Southwest Florida, Hurricane Ian, has now reached its 2nd anniversary of landfall.
High School Football Scoreboard Week 6 Hurricane Helene couldn’t keep all the Friday night lights off in Southwest Florida. Week 6 was a loaded slate included a classic in the WINK News Game of the Week.
BONITA SPRINGS Bonita Springs begins clean up operations On Friday, the Department of Transportation pushed sand off the road on Hickory Island after Hurricane Helene ripped through
MANASOTA KEY Manasota woman recovers after home destroyed by Helene Whipping winds – the sound of Hurricane Helene ripping through Manasota Key, as swells smashed into the island. Even so, Marsha Viglianco stayed to watch from her back porch.
El Jobean residents fighting to recover from Helene In Charlotte County, people living in El Jobean are in recovery mode Friday night. Many were flooded out of their homes, and now they’re figuring out their next steps.
NAPLES Restoration efforts begin in the aftermath of Helene in Collier County Helene gave Naples Beach flash flooding a debris Thursday night.
MGN NEW ORLEANS (AP) – A Deepwater Horizon supervisor ignored a clear red flag and should be held partly responsible for the 2010 oil spill that blackened the Gulf of Mexico coast, a federal prosecutor argued Wednesday. Prosecutor Jennifer Saulino said in her opening statement that Robert Kaluza is one of two supervisors who ignored tests that showed pressure from oil and gas when there shouldn’t have been any. Kaluza is standing trial on a single misdemeanor charge of violating the Clean Water Act and could face up to a year in prison if convicted. Kaluza, who was the rig company’s day supervisor, and night supervisor Donald Vidrine both ignored critical test results that pointed toward a major malfunction in the making, Saulino said. Vidrine has pleaded guilty to the charge facing Kaluza and will testify for the prosecution. “Mr. Kaluza wasn’t the only reason” the well blew wild, Saulino said. “But evidence will show that he was one of the reasons,” and should therefore be held responsible. Defense lawyers argued that Kaluza was only working a brief stint on the rig and now finds himself accused of “the greatest environmental crime in all our history” because he left a critical decision to more experienced people. Defense attorney Shaun Clarke told jurors that Kaluza had spent most of his career onshore, and had been working on a different offshore rig when he was sent as a four-day substitute for a Deepwater Horizon supervisor who had to renew his credentials. Rather than ignoring the pressure test, Clarke said, Kaluza told the crew to stop work before his shift ended, leaving the decision of what happened next to Vidrine, who had spent years with the Deepwater Horizon and its crew. He also said the main reason the well blew out is that BP PLC and rig owner Transocean had failed to do required 5-year maintenance on the rig’s blowout preventer. It should have been taken off of the rig, disassembled, repaired and put back together 4½ years before the accident on April 20, 2010, he said. That’s a 6-week procedure that “would have cost BP $25 million and would have cost Transocean the Horizon’s status as its top rig in the Gulf. So they never did it for nine and a half years,” he said. Prosecutors and BP reached an $18 billion settlement of Clean Water Act charges last year. U.S. District Judge Stanwood Duval told prospective jurors Tuesday that the trial will take 13 days. The blowout killed 11 workers and the well spewed an estimated 134 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico before the mile-deep gusher was plugged nearly three months later. Both Vidrine and Kaluza were once charged with manslaughter of the workers who died, but federal prosecutors dropped those charges in December. Only four employees, mostly lower-ranking, were charged with individual criminal responsibility for the spill. Most of those cases unraveled before skeptical jurors and judges. The government did secure a landmark criminal settlement and record civil penalties against the energy giant BP, which BP said would cost it billions of dollars. The manslaughter charges against Kaluza and Vidrine were dropped after former BP executive David Rainey was acquitted in June of manipulating calculations to match an excessively low estimate of the amount of oil gushing into the gulf. Former BP engineer Kurt Mix once faced two felony charges for allegedly deleting text messages that prosecutors said were related to investigations of the spill. After a yearslong legal ordeal, he pleaded guilty in November to a misdemeanor charge and received no jail time. He made clear publicly that he believed he had done nothing wrong and felt vindicated.