Top stories of 2017: Hurricane Irma and Collier brush fires top list

Writer: Derrick Shaw
Published: Updated:
Hurricane Irma satellite imagery. Credit: WINK News
Hurricane Irma was the biggest weather event to hit Southwest Florida since the birth of social media, so it’s no surprise it was the most read topic on winknews.com in 2017.
From the tens of millions of page views, we bring you the top 5 most read stories of the year.

1) Hurricane Irma

The storm that made headlines for over a month. Hurricane Irma made landfall on Marco Island on September 10th as a Category Three storm.  A wind gust of 142 miles per hour was reported in Naples. And heavy rain flooded communities across Southwest Florida. Read more.

2) Collier County brush fires

Thousands of homes evacuated and at least nine destroyed during the devastating wildfires this past spring.  At one point in April Governor Rick Scott declared a state of emergency in the state. As more than 15-hundred fires raged from southwest Florida to the Panhandle. Read more.

3) Golfer uses putter to fight gator at Magnolia Landing

This golfer survives an alligator attack in Lee County in February! It happened at Magnolia Landing Golf & Country Club when Tony Aarts used a putter to beat the gator off him! Read more.

4) Sheriff Scott: Lee County murder-suicide involved love triangle

A Lee County murder-suicide involving a love triangle.  The sheriff’s office said Alehandro Manuel Luis shot Maria Delosangeles Evaristo Bautista outside a CVS Pharmacy along Palm Beach Boulevard after finding her there with another man in July. Luis fired at and missed that man before turning the gun on himself. Read more.

5) Victims identified in Lehigh Acres double homicide

Two people found dead in lehigh acres in June. The Lee County Sheriff’s Office identified the victims as 22-year-old Brian Keith Patterson and 27-year-old Shantrese Gracia. Read more.

 

 

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