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Several Southwest Florida counties will share in nearly half a billion dollars in FEMA public assistance recovery funds for Floridians impacted by disaster. The funds will be distributed through FEMA’s Public Assistance program to support more than 500 recovery projects across the state. This money is disbursed to the state and local communities for disaster recovery projects.

The Florida Housing Finance Corporation is awarding $5 million to local housing partners to help Floridians impacted by Hurricane Ian pay their home insurance deductibles in the six hardest hit counties: Charlotte, Collier, DeSoto, Hardee, Lee, and Sarasota counties.

Higher high-school graduation rates logged across the state and in local counties last academic year, according to a recent report from the state Department of Education.

Many Southwest Florida counties along the gulf coast were at the top of the manatee mortality listings for 2023.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement will break ground Thursday on a new Fort Myers Regional Operations Center to be built on a site in South Lee County.A noon media briefing will announce construction of the new FMROC nearly three years after Hurricane Ian caused structural damage to the current FMROC building at Page Field.

Federal disaster declaration for Hurricane Ian-impacted counties opens door for FEMA financial assistance. Here's details on what FEMA will cover, what it doesn't cover, and how to apply.

Back in 2017 a major rain event was followed just two weeks later by Hurricane Irma, dumping up to 30 inches of rain on some areas of Lee County. The subsequent flooding destroyed homes and put lives at risk, which prompted county commissioners to approve a three phase plan to mitigate flooding in the future.

So far this year there have been almost a thousand travel-related cases of dengue fever reported in the continental United States, with 278 of them coming from Florida. This means someone contracted the disease outside of the country and then got sick once they were back home. There have also been 16 locally acquired cases of dengue so far this year — all of those were acquired here in Florida. Dengue is a mosquito-borne disease, so we sit down with two people from the Lee County Mosquito Control District to learn about their extensive operations.

We learn about a UF/IFAS Extension and Florida Sea Grant citizen science program called Eyes on Seagrass that has been collecting information about seagrasses in upper Charlotte Harbor and Lemon Bay since 2019 — and is planning to expand into Lee County next year. Citizen Science is the collection and analysis of data relating to the natural world by everyday people who aren’t necessarily scientists themselves, typically as part of a collaborative project with professional scientists. In other words — giving scientists more hands to collect the information they need to better understand whatever it is they are studying.

Back in 2017 a major rain event was followed just two weeks later by Hurricane Irma, dumping up to 30 inches of rain on some areas of Lee County. The subsequent flooding destroyed homes and put lives at risk, which prompted county commissioners to approve a three phase plan to mitigate flooding in the future.