WINK Investigates: For the first time, Beattie Development owner Paul Beattie speaks out during liquidation after allegationsLocal Rabbi and Israeli soldier speak on Iran missile attack
CAPE CORAL WINK Investigates: For the first time, Beattie Development owner Paul Beattie speaks out during liquidation after allegations On Tuesday for the first time, Paul Beattie, owner of Beattie Development, who a lot of people say owe them a lot of money, is speaking out.
FORT MYERS Local Rabbi and Israeli soldier speak on Iran missile attack Israeli authorities said Iran launched dozens of missiles at the country.
PORT CHARLOTTE “It was just a monster in disguise,” Port Charlotte couple cleans up after Helene Wesley and Karen Wingate will never forget what they had for dinner September 27th.
SOUTHWEST FLORIDA IRS announces tax relief for those affected by Helene The IRS has just announced tax relief for people affected by Hurricane Helene.
FORT MYERS BEACH How the Fort Myers Beach community is handling Helene’s aftermath One storm hit Fort Myers Beach, but the damage is as different from block to block as the stories their homeowners tell
SOUTH FORT MYERS Submerged car in Fort Myers neighborhood has people worried A submerged car has neighbors worried that their pond will become polluted. One neighbor told WINK News that the vehicle has been in the pond since Hurricane Helene.
Collier County expands mosquito control district The Collier Mosquito Control District is expanding to different areas, and new tools are being used to keep the mosquito population under control as more standing water remains following Hurricane Helene.
CAPE CORAL Memorial benches being removed from Jaycee Park in Cape Coral After years of discussions, the City of Cape Coral will start to remove items from Jaycee Park as part of ongoing improvements.
ST. JAMES CITY How residents of St. James City are coping after Helene Once known for sunsets and dolphins, the tiny island community of St. James City is once again cleaning up after a hurricane.
CHARLOTTE HARBOR Charlotte County woman and dog rescued from home during Helene Amidst the rising waters of Hurricane Helene, a woman and her dog sought safety atop the kitchen counter inside their Charlotte County home.
NAPLES After 60 years in River Park, neighbors moving out because of Hurricane Helene Southwest Florida is still feeling the impacts from Helene, and a Naples community got the brunt of the storm.
ESTERO SWFL 12-year-old swimmer earns statewide recognition Last season Kallen Garnier-Chan achieved a national ranked top three time in the 800 and 1000 meter freestyle.
NORTH PORT Family continues legal battle with Heritage Insurance A husband and wife will not quit the fight with their homeowner’s insurance.
CAPTIVA Captiva restaurant surrounded by sand after Helene A Captiva restaurant was left almost unrecognizable after Helene, with piles of sand reaching the doors and windows of the establishment.
PORT CHARLOTTE Charlotte County offers showers and laundry facilities post-Helene Charlotte County has opened a comfort station equipped with showers and laundry facilities to aid residents struggling with storm recovery.
CAPE CORAL WINK Investigates: For the first time, Beattie Development owner Paul Beattie speaks out during liquidation after allegations On Tuesday for the first time, Paul Beattie, owner of Beattie Development, who a lot of people say owe them a lot of money, is speaking out.
FORT MYERS Local Rabbi and Israeli soldier speak on Iran missile attack Israeli authorities said Iran launched dozens of missiles at the country.
PORT CHARLOTTE “It was just a monster in disguise,” Port Charlotte couple cleans up after Helene Wesley and Karen Wingate will never forget what they had for dinner September 27th.
SOUTHWEST FLORIDA IRS announces tax relief for those affected by Helene The IRS has just announced tax relief for people affected by Hurricane Helene.
FORT MYERS BEACH How the Fort Myers Beach community is handling Helene’s aftermath One storm hit Fort Myers Beach, but the damage is as different from block to block as the stories their homeowners tell
SOUTH FORT MYERS Submerged car in Fort Myers neighborhood has people worried A submerged car has neighbors worried that their pond will become polluted. One neighbor told WINK News that the vehicle has been in the pond since Hurricane Helene.
Collier County expands mosquito control district The Collier Mosquito Control District is expanding to different areas, and new tools are being used to keep the mosquito population under control as more standing water remains following Hurricane Helene.
CAPE CORAL Memorial benches being removed from Jaycee Park in Cape Coral After years of discussions, the City of Cape Coral will start to remove items from Jaycee Park as part of ongoing improvements.
ST. JAMES CITY How residents of St. James City are coping after Helene Once known for sunsets and dolphins, the tiny island community of St. James City is once again cleaning up after a hurricane.
CHARLOTTE HARBOR Charlotte County woman and dog rescued from home during Helene Amidst the rising waters of Hurricane Helene, a woman and her dog sought safety atop the kitchen counter inside their Charlotte County home.
NAPLES After 60 years in River Park, neighbors moving out because of Hurricane Helene Southwest Florida is still feeling the impacts from Helene, and a Naples community got the brunt of the storm.
ESTERO SWFL 12-year-old swimmer earns statewide recognition Last season Kallen Garnier-Chan achieved a national ranked top three time in the 800 and 1000 meter freestyle.
NORTH PORT Family continues legal battle with Heritage Insurance A husband and wife will not quit the fight with their homeowner’s insurance.
CAPTIVA Captiva restaurant surrounded by sand after Helene A Captiva restaurant was left almost unrecognizable after Helene, with piles of sand reaching the doors and windows of the establishment.
PORT CHARLOTTE Charlotte County offers showers and laundry facilities post-Helene Charlotte County has opened a comfort station equipped with showers and laundry facilities to aid residents struggling with storm recovery.
CORRECTS TO DELETE THE NUMBER OF PASSENGERS – In this Wednesday, Nov. 23, 2016, file photo, players of Brazil’s Chapecoense celebrate at the end of a Copa Sudamericana semifinal soccer match against Argentina’s San Lorenzo in Chapeco, Brazil. A chartered aircraft with passengers including players from Chapecoense, heading to Colombia for a regional tournament final, has crashed on its way to Medellin’s international airport in Colombia, Medellin’s Mayor Federico Gutierrez and Medellin’s airport said Tuesday, Nov. 29. (AP Photo/Andre Penner, File LA UNION, Colombia (AP) – A chartered plane carrying a Brazilian soccer team to the biggest match of its history crashed into a Colombian hillside and broke into pieces, killing 75 people and leaving six survivors, Colombian officials said Tuesday. The British Aerospace 146 short-haul plane, operated by a charter airline with roots in Venezuela, declared an emergency and lost radar contact just before 10 p.m. Monday (0300 GMT Tuesday) because of an electrical failure, aviation authorities said. The aircraft, which had departed from Santa Cruz, Bolivia, was carrying the up and coming Chapecoense soccer team from southern Brazil for Wednesday’s first leg of a two-game Copa Sudamericana final against Atletico Nacional of Medellin – the continent’s second-most-important championship. “What was supposed to be a celebration has turned into a tragedy,” Medellin Mayor Federico Gutierrez said from the search and rescue command center. The club said in a brief statement on its Facebook page, “May God accompany our athletes, officials, journalists and other guests traveling with our delegation.” Expressions of grief poured in from all over the soccer world. South America’s federation canceled all scheduled matches in a show of solidarity, Real Madrid’s squad interrupted its training for a minute of silence and Argentina legend Diego Maradona sent his condolences to the victims’ families over Facebook. Rescuers working through the night were initially heartened after pulling three passengers alive from the wreckage. But as the hours passed, heavy rainfall and low visibility grounded helicopters and slowed efforts to reach the crash site. At daybreak, dozens of bodies were quickly collected into white bags while rescuers scavenged through pieces of the plane’s fuselage strewn across the muddy mountainside. Images broadcast on local television showed three passengers arriving to a local hospital in ambulances on stretchers and covered in blankets connected to an IV. Among the survivors was Chapecoense defender Alan Ruschel, who doctors said suffered spinal injuries. Two goalkeepers, Danilo and Jackson Follmann, as well as a journalist traveling with the team and a Bolivian flight attendant, were found alive in the wreckage. But Danilo was later reported as dead, and authorities said another defender, Helio Zampier, had survived amid a confusion of sometimes conflicting early reports. The aircraft is owned by LaMia, a company with roots in Venezuela and that has a close relationship with several premier South American squads. Argentina’s state-run news agency said the plane involved in the crash had transported Barcelona striker Lionel Messi and the national team this month from Brazil to Colombia between World Cup qualifier matches. The airliner also reportedly transported Venezuela’s national squad and several top teams from Bolivia in the past. LaMia’s website, which is no longer online, said it operated three 146 Avro short-haul jets made by British Aerospace and with a maximum range of around 2,965 kilometers (1,600 nautical miles) – about the same as the distance between Santa Cruz and Medellin, the route it was flying when it went down. Alfredo Bocanegra, the head of Colombia’s aviation authority, said initial reports suggest the aircraft was suffering electrical problems although investigators were also looking into an account from one of the survivors that the plane had run out of fuel about five minutes from its expected landing at Jose Maria Cordova airport outside Medellin. Bolivia’s civil aviation agency said the aircraft picked up the Brazilian team in Santa Cruz, where players had arrived earlier in the day on a commercial flight from Sao Paulo, Brazil. Spokesman Cesar Torrico said that the plane underwent an inspection before departing for Colombia and reported no problems. British Aerospace, which is now known as BAE Systems, says that the first 146-model plane took off in 1981 and that just under 400 were built in total in the U.K. through 2003. It says around 220 of are still in service in a variety of roles, including aerial firefighting and overnight freight services. A video published on the team’s Facebook page showed the team readying for a flight earlier Monday in Sao Paulo’s Guarulhos international airport. Photos of team members in the cockpit and posing in front of the plane ahead of departure quickly spread across social media. The team, from the small city of Chapeco, was in the middle of a fairy tale season. It joined Brazil’s first division in 2014 for the first time since the 1970s and made it last week to the Copa Sudamericana finals – the equivalent of the UEFA Europa League tournament – after defeating two of Argentina’s fiercest squads, San Lorenzo and Independiente, as well as Colombia’s Junior. “This morning I said goodbye to them and they told me they were going after the dream, turning that dream into reality,” Chapecoense board member told TV Globo. “The dream was over early this morning.” The team is so modest that tournament organizers ruled that its 22,000-seat arena was too small to host the final match, which was moved to a stadium 300 miles (480 kilometers) to the north in the city of Curitiba. “This is unbelievable, I am walking on the grass of the stadium and I feel like I am floating,” Andrei Copetti told the AP. “No one understands how a story that was so amazing could suffer such a devastating reversal. For many people here reality has still not struck.” Photos found using “#ForçaChapecoense.” This photo shows the team before they boarded the plane. — Twitter / @churrycristaldo A photo of three Brazillian soccer players who did not get on the plane–Twitter / @LFCFansCorner