CAPTIVA Captiva Beach continues renourishment project Nearly two years later, the recovery efforts from Hurricane Ian continue on Captiva Beach. People WINK News spoke with say it’s a work in progress since Hurricane Ian, but they are hopeful as more time passes and more sand is brought in for beach renourishment.
Proposal to mine in the Everglades withdrawn for now The now-withdrawn proposal for the Southland Water Resource Project was submitted to the South Florida Water Management District in July by contractor Phillips and Jordan.
FORT MYERS Bishop Verot cross-country runner commits to UF The Bishop Verot Catholic High School senior won a state championship last year. Now, she’s committed to running at the University of Florida.
DeSantis fights back on Amendment 4 Florida may not be the swing state it used to be, but we’ll be on the map and certainly making headlines for at least one big reason this year: Abortion.
The do’s and don’ts of ATV’s An investigation is underway after a car crashed into an ATV with six people, including children, on it. Concerns are now being raised over the rules and regulations of ATVs.
SANIBEL Sanibel city council votes on E-bike limits The Sanibel City Council has voted to set new speed limits for e-bikes and whether they can ride on the island’s bike paths.
NORTH FORT MYERS Child shoots themselves in foot at youth football game, later arrested There was a frenzy on the field as parents and kids rushed to shelter in a concession building after hearing a gunshot fired during a youth football game.
Miracle Moment: Horsepower drives healing A horse gave a young girl the motivation she needed to fight an aggressive cancer.
Former LCSO deputy pleads not guilty to jewelry store shooting A former Lee County deputy has been caught on the wrong side of the law twice now, but he says he is innocent.
LEE COUNTY East Lee County football off to best start in school history There’s a new energy in the halls of East Lee County High School, because a 3-0 start is a first for Jaguar football.
RSV vaccine for mothers can help baby Now, a new FDA-approved vaccine can protect your baby, even before the little one is born.
Harris’ past debates: A prosecutor’s style with narrative flair but risks in a matchup with Trump Harris faces former President Donald Trump, the Republican nominee, who will participate in his seventh general election debate since 2016 for an event that will be seen by tens of millions of viewers just as early voting in November’s election starts around the country.
Collier commissioners approve tax rates, consider repaying Conservation Collier Collier County commissioners on Sept. 5 tentatively approved the $2.98 billion 2024-25 budget, but didn’t resolve whether to repay $29.6 million they took from Conservation Collier to help cover a more than $60 million shortfall last year.
LEE COUNTY Jury finds man guilty of molesting child in Lee County A jury has found a Lehigh Acres man guilty of sending inappropriate messages and molesting a child following a three-day trial.
CAPE CORAL 2 teens plead not guilty in murder of 15-year-old Cape Coral girl Two teens accused of murdering a 15-year-old girl in Cape Coral have both entered a plea of not guilty.
CAPTIVA Captiva Beach continues renourishment project Nearly two years later, the recovery efforts from Hurricane Ian continue on Captiva Beach. People WINK News spoke with say it’s a work in progress since Hurricane Ian, but they are hopeful as more time passes and more sand is brought in for beach renourishment.
Proposal to mine in the Everglades withdrawn for now The now-withdrawn proposal for the Southland Water Resource Project was submitted to the South Florida Water Management District in July by contractor Phillips and Jordan.
FORT MYERS Bishop Verot cross-country runner commits to UF The Bishop Verot Catholic High School senior won a state championship last year. Now, she’s committed to running at the University of Florida.
DeSantis fights back on Amendment 4 Florida may not be the swing state it used to be, but we’ll be on the map and certainly making headlines for at least one big reason this year: Abortion.
The do’s and don’ts of ATV’s An investigation is underway after a car crashed into an ATV with six people, including children, on it. Concerns are now being raised over the rules and regulations of ATVs.
SANIBEL Sanibel city council votes on E-bike limits The Sanibel City Council has voted to set new speed limits for e-bikes and whether they can ride on the island’s bike paths.
NORTH FORT MYERS Child shoots themselves in foot at youth football game, later arrested There was a frenzy on the field as parents and kids rushed to shelter in a concession building after hearing a gunshot fired during a youth football game.
Miracle Moment: Horsepower drives healing A horse gave a young girl the motivation she needed to fight an aggressive cancer.
Former LCSO deputy pleads not guilty to jewelry store shooting A former Lee County deputy has been caught on the wrong side of the law twice now, but he says he is innocent.
LEE COUNTY East Lee County football off to best start in school history There’s a new energy in the halls of East Lee County High School, because a 3-0 start is a first for Jaguar football.
RSV vaccine for mothers can help baby Now, a new FDA-approved vaccine can protect your baby, even before the little one is born.
Harris’ past debates: A prosecutor’s style with narrative flair but risks in a matchup with Trump Harris faces former President Donald Trump, the Republican nominee, who will participate in his seventh general election debate since 2016 for an event that will be seen by tens of millions of viewers just as early voting in November’s election starts around the country.
Collier commissioners approve tax rates, consider repaying Conservation Collier Collier County commissioners on Sept. 5 tentatively approved the $2.98 billion 2024-25 budget, but didn’t resolve whether to repay $29.6 million they took from Conservation Collier to help cover a more than $60 million shortfall last year.
LEE COUNTY Jury finds man guilty of molesting child in Lee County A jury has found a Lehigh Acres man guilty of sending inappropriate messages and molesting a child following a three-day trial.
CAPE CORAL 2 teens plead not guilty in murder of 15-year-old Cape Coral girl Two teens accused of murdering a 15-year-old girl in Cape Coral have both entered a plea of not guilty.
NOAA/NESDIS/STAR GOES-16 ABI BAND 13 OR_ABI-L1b-RadC-M3C13_G16_s20182830852203_e20182830854588_c20182830855016.nc Hurricane Michael intensified as it made landfall near Mexico Beach Florida around 1:45 p.m. Wednesday, the NHC said. The storm made landfall as a Category 4 storm, but is now a Category 3 approaching southeastern Alabama and southwest Georgia. Michael’s leading edge careened onto northwest Florida’s white-sand beaches as a still-growing Category 4 hurricane Wednesday afternoon, lashing the coast with tropical storm-force winds and rain and pushing a storm surge that could cause catastrophic damage well inland. The unexpected brute quickly sprang from a weekend tropical depression with top winds growing to 150 mph (230 kph), the most powerful hurricane in recorded history for this stretch of the Florida coast. Dramatic images of the eye of Hurricane Michael captured by the International Space Station over the Florida Peninsula shortly after landfall this afternoon. pic.twitter.com/K7xtYaGERc — NWS Eastern Region (@NWSEastern) October 10, 2018 The sheriff in Panama City’s Bay County issued a shelter-in-place order before dawn Wednesday, and Florida Gov. Rick Scott tweeted that for people in the hurricane’s path, “the time to evacuate has come and gone … SEEK REFUGE IMMEDIATELY.” MORE: Weather Authority Hurricane Central New construction just collapsed in front of me in Panama City Beach from #hurricanemichael!!! It is going bad fast! pic.twitter.com/CG5R8jcUuf — Marc Weinberg (@MarcWeinbergWX) October 10, 2018 The storm appeared to be so powerful — with a central pressure dropping to 933 millibars — that it was expected to remain a hurricane as it moves over central Georgia early Thursday, and unleash damaging winds all the way into the Carolinas. “We are in new territory,” National Hurricane Center Meteorologist Dennis Feltgen wrote in a Facebook post Wednesday. “The historical record, going back to 1851, finds no Category 4 hurricane ever hitting the Florida panhandle.” Rainfall could reach up to a foot (30 centimeters), and the life-threatening storm surge could swell to 14 feet (4 meters). *Story continues below image Several hours ahead of landfall, seawater was already lapping over the docks at Massalina Bayou near downtown Panama City, and knee-deep water was rising up against buildings in St. Marks, which sits on an inlet south of Tallahassee. Many evacuees sought shelter in the capital city, which is about 25 miles from the coast and covered by live oak and pine trees, vulnerable to falling and causing power outages in even in smaller storms. Florida officials said more than 375,000 people up and down the Gulf Coast had been urged or ordered to evacuate. Only a skeleton staff remained at Tyndall Air Force Base, located on a peninsula just south of Panama City. The home to the 325th Fighter Wing and some 600 military families appeared squarely targeted for the worst of the storm’s fury, and leaders declared “HURCON 1” status, ordering out all but essential personnel. The base’s aircraft, which include F-22 Raptors, were flown hundreds of miles away as a precaution, a spokesman said. FREE APP: Download the WINK News interactive Hurricane Guide. Apple | Android Evacuations spanned 22 counties from the Florida Panhandle into north central Florida. But civilians don’t have to follow orders, and authorities feared many failed to heed their calls to get out of the way as the hard-charging storm intensified over 84-degree water in the Gulf of Mexico. Just watched a house pushed off its foundation down the street with storm surge. STORM SURGE POWER #Michael pic.twitter.com/0oZYwzajH3 — Ginger Zee (@Ginger_Zee) October 10, 2018 “I guess it’s the worst-case scenario. I don’t think anyone would have experienced this in the Panhandle,” meteorologist Ryan Maue of weathermodels.com told The Associated Press. “This is going to have structure-damaging winds along the coast and hurricane force winds inland.” Maue and other meteorologists watched in real time as a new government satellite showed the hurricane’s eye tightening, surrounded by lightning that lit it up “like a Christmas tree.” University of Georgia’s Marshall Shepherd, a former president of the American Meteorological Society, called it a “life-altering event,” writing on Facebook that he watched the storm’s growth on satellite images with a growing pit in his stomach. Sheriff A.J. Smith in Franklin County, near the vulnerable coast, sent his deputies door to door Tuesday urging people to evacuate, saying they did everything they could to get the word out. Most of the waterfront homes stood vacant in Keaton Beach, which could get some of the highest water — seas up 9 feet (2.75 meters) above ground level. “I know it’s going to cover everything around here,” said Robert Sadousky, who at 77 has stayed through more than four decades of storms. The retired mill worker took a last look at the canal behind his home, built on tall stilts overlooking the Gulf. He pulled two small boat docks from the water, packed his pickup and picked some beans from his garden before getting out — like hundreds of thousands elsewhere. The local geography — low-lying land and lots of areas where people live along waterways — means many people living inland could see their homes flooded as Michael makes landfall. “We don’t know if it’s going to wipe out our house or not,” Jason McDonald, of Panama City, said as he and his wife drove north to safety into Alabama with their two children, ages 5 and 7. “We want to get them out of the way.” Scott had warned of a “monstrous hurricane,” and his Democratic opponent for the Senate, Sen. Bill Nelson, described a destructive “wall of water,” but some officials didn’t see any rush of evacuees ahead of the storm. “I am not seeing the level of traffic on the roadways that I would expect when we’ve called for the evacuation of 75 percent of this county,” Bay County Sheriff Tommy Ford said Tuesday. In the dangerously exposed coastal town of Apalachicola, population 2,500, Sally Crown planned to hunker down with her two dogs. “We’ve been through this before,” she said. “This might be really bad and serious. But in my experience, it’s always blown way out of proportion.” Mandatory evacuation orders went into effect in Panama City Beach and other low-lying areas in the storm’s path. That included Pensacola Beach but not in Pensacola itself, a city of about 54,000. Michael will weaken over land but could still spin off tornadoes and dump rain along a northeasterly path over Alabama, Georgia, the Carolinas and Virginia before its remnants head out to sea again. Forecasters said it also could bring 3 to 6 inches of rain, enough to trigger flash flooding in places still recovering from Hurricane Florence.