SOUTHWEST FLORIDA

Florida tourism leaders continue to fret over a lag in international visitors as the industry anticipates tourism numbers for the final three months of 2022.

A soon-to-be-released report will estimate Florida’s agriculture industry sustained about $1.07 billion in damages from Hurricane Ian, with growers of citrus, vegetable and horticultural crops taking the biggest hits from the wind, rains and flooding.

Florida’s emergency-management director wants lawmakers to make changes to help with disaster preparation and response, pointing to issues that have arisen as the state recovers from Hurricane Ian and Hurricane Nicole.

A law enforcement officer’s “sharp” vision helped with a drug bust Tuesday in Southwest Florida, according to the Collier County Sheriff’s Office.

With more than 35,000 homes damaged or destroyed in Lee County, Fla., residents are concerned about housing affordability – and changes to their communities – as developers become involved.

The National Flood Insurance Program has paid more than $1.46 billion to policyholders who sustained damage in Hurricane Ian, as the total continues to steadily climb, the Federal Emergency Management Agency said Monday.

A wild crash on a Southwest Florida roadway is caught on camera.

The Florida Senate on Tuesday rammed through an industry-friendly insurance reform bill in just two days that supporters said will stabilize an ailing market but opponents said would rob homeowners of their right to sue over claims disputes and broken contracts.

Beaches in Southwest Florida are dealing with red tide fish kills and warnings as the harmful algal bloom makes its way from the Gulf of Mexico. Here's what people should know.

Southwest Florida, home to famed vacation spots, bore the brunt of Hurricane Ian’s brutal wrath. The area is now in recovery mode. If you’re interested in supporting the local economy, here’s a look at the status of recovery, and your travel options in the coming months.

A snake-wrangling couple got a big surprise the other day in Southwest Florida.

With Florida lawmakers poised to start a special legislative session, a financial-ratings agency issued a report Thursday that warned about the possibility of additional insolvencies of property insurers and said long-term changes are needed in the state’s troubled insurance market.

Newly installed leaders of the Florida Legislature vowed Tuesday to help hurricane victims and fight the high cost of living in the Sunshine State.

Gov. Ron DeSantis deflected a question on whether there was a civil war brewing in the GOP between himself and his former mentor, Donald Trump.

U.S. visitors continued to drive Florida’s tourism industry at a record pace, while international travel still struggled to reach pre-pandemic levels, according to newly released figures for the third quarter of 2022.

Recovery efforts following Hurricane Ian pivot from providing food and water to helping with general clean-up in southwest Florida.

DeSantis's victory over Democrat Charlie Crist gives him a second term and a national platform as he eyes a potential run for the 2024 Republican Presidential nomination.

Hurricane Ian caused flooding across the state in late September. Now, Florida faces more flooding as Tropical Storm Nicole is poised to hit the East Coast and move up the state. But North Carolina State University researchers say federal flood maps underestimate the risks of flooding in Florida and other states.

Subtropical Storm Nicole is strengthening as it heads toward Florida's East Coast, but tropical storm conditions could affect Sarasota and Manatee.

In the aftermath of Hurricane Ian, the focus of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission (FWC) was on search and rescue, cleanup, and the safety of Florida’s residents and visitors. Since then, the FWC has sent three waves of officers to assist with recovery efforts for the communities in the Southwest as well as establish a hotline for reporting displaced vessels still on Florida state waters because of Hurricane Ian. When Hurricane Ian swept across the state, thousands of vessels were displaced by wind and storm surge. Hurricane Ian impacted a major portion of the Florida fishing community, and we will be with them every step of the way as they rebuild stronger than before. The impacts of Hurricane Ian will be felt for years to come.

Solar power has made headlines in the weeks following Hurricane Ian after one Florida community that’s 100 percent solar-powered never lost power throughout the storm.

"Outnumbered" panelists sounded off on the "noisy extremists online" who attempted to cancel Luke Bryan for bringing Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis onstage.

Hurricane Ian cleanup continues on Fort Myers Beach after the Category 4 hurricane slammed Southwest Florida on Sept. 28, 2022.

The first lady is the public face of fundraising efforts for the non-profit, which has been administered by Volunteer Florida since its creation in 2004.

While people tend to focus on the direct casualties after a major hurricane, it is the indirect deaths that often claim the most lives. Hurricane Ian's indirect deaths could number in the thousands.

Emergency responders in Southwest Florida brought in some heavy equipment to help rescue a woman stuck in a massage chair.

It made it through the rain — as well as the punishing wind, terrifying floods and catastrophic storm surge.

Two weeks after Hurricane Ian, Florida utility operators report only a few thousand customers remain without power. Hard-hit areas like Fort Myers Beach will nonetheless be tough to repair.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis attended a Naples High School football game Friday night 10 days after Hurricane Ian devastated Southwest Florida.

In the wake of one of the most powerful hurricanes to hit Florida, the scramble to transfer patients from Southwest Florida hospitals shows the massive effort required to respond to a medical emergency on a grand scale, even in the age of technology.

Election officials in Florida say they are meeting a Thursday deadline to send out mail ballots, despite the hurricane. But in-person voting sites remain a concern.

One week after Hurricane Ian battered Southwest Florida, we take a look back at how some locations around Fort Myers fared after the Category 4 storm.

At 3:05 p.m. on Sept. 28, Hurricane Ian made landfall over Florida as a category 4 storm battering the SWFL barrier islands of Fort Myers Beach, Pine Island, Sanibel Island, Captiva Island and Cayo Costa. Diamond worries that this will limit the ability of Pine Island and Matlacha to recover from Hurricane Ian as quickly as Fort Myers Beach and Sanibel. “I probably saw more debris on Pine Island than any place I’d been other than Fort Myers Beach,” DeSantis said. Hurricane Ian relief has been undertaken in mass scale through the Miami-Dade County partnership with the Global Empowerment Mission from their Doral headquarters. With the help of our trusted partnerships, we were able to acquire a central distribution hub and service those affected by Hurricane Ian.

No, I don’t care if Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis shows up to a disaster wearing white boots evocative of the go-go dancer footwear I adored in junior high school, now sold online as a Halloween costume.

A 96-year-old Charlotte County man found trapped under a car in high water is the oldest victim of Hurricane Ian’s deadly course through Southwest Florida, whose wrath is now revealed in a grim spreadsheet compiled by the state’s medical examiners’ commission.

Almost a week after Hurricane Ian slammed Southwest Florida, boats that were displaced by the storm surge have become reminders of the damage.

Throughout a southwest Florida devastated by Hurricane Ian, Jews plan to hold worship services for Yom Kippur starting Tuesday night.

In the wake of Hurricane Ian, National Hurricane Center forecasters are monitoring two areas in the Atlantic that could form into tropical depressions in the next couple of days.

An illicit early morning joy ride ended in tragedy Sunday in Southwest Florida, an area still reeling from Hurricane Ian.

Feeling increasingly isolated in the aftermath of Hurricane Ian, Fort Myers Beach residents and renters continued to exit their devastated island by foot Sunday, four days after a 10-foot storm surge driven by 150 mph winds inundated Southwest Florida’s coastal communities.

Local authorities ordered a mandatory evacuation for part of Lee County on Tuesday, just one day before the Category 4 storm made mainland landfall.

Manatee County has some good news for beach lovers after Hurricane Ian.

Hurricane Ian brought devastation to Florida as it battered the west coast with an intensity just short of a Category 5.

Southwest Florida’s ultra-compressed timeline — from that realization to evacuating its residents — highlights the challenges that accompanied Hurricane Ian, a behemoth storm with a constantly changing forecast and a last-minute eastward shift.

When historians look back on Hurricane Ian, the storm is likely to be in a category of its own, leaving tens of billions of dollars in property damage and an as-yet-unknown death toll in its wake. “There’s not one storm that combines the devastating surge with extreme rainfall elsewhere,” a meteorologist says.

Premature and ill babies from Golisano Children’s Hospital of Southwest Florida were relocated to South Florida children’s hospitals on Friday after Hurricane Ian left Lee County without potable water.

The images that have come out of Southwest Florida — during and after Hurricane Ian — are jarring.

Hurricane Ian left at least 11 people in Florida dead as it cut a swath across the state. The storm, with top winds of 80 mph, is now heading for the Carolinas.

The hurricane ravaged Florida from west to east, then gained strength over the Atlantic as it prepared to hit South Carolina on Friday.

It's a critical time for residents of southwest Florida and other parts of the state affected by Ian. Here's how you can help.

Hurricane Ian was downgraded to a tropical storm Thursday as it leaves Florida behind, only to become a hurricane again on its way to the Carolinas.

As Hurricane Ian took aim on Pine Island, the largest barrier island off Florida’s Gulf Coast, Jackie Monahan and her neighbor Bernee Brawn headed to the opposite side of the state and safety.

From Fort Myers to Orlando, the day after Hurricane Ian swept through southwest and central Florida shows plenty of devastation.

Mike Boylan, the founder and media personality behind Mike’s Weather Page, tells Fox News Digital that early preparation is what helps people survive hurricanes like Hurricane Ian.

As Ian continued its destructive trek across Florida, over a million households across the state awoke on Thursday without electricity as residents and emergency crews along the Gulf Coast began to assess the toppled buildings, flooded streets and crippled infrastructure.

Joe Raedle/GettyThe full scale of the disaster unleashed by Hurricane Ian on Florida began to emerge Thursday with hundreds feared dead after catastrophic flooding trapped residents in their homes, destroyed critical infrastructure, and left over 2 million people without power.The fifth-strongest hurricane to ever hit the U.S. when measured by wind speed, Ian tore into the Southwest Florida coast with violent gales, an epic storm surge, and as much as a foot of rain being dropped over some areas

A Florida LGBTQ+ organization is thanking superstar singer Lady Gaga for providing much-needed support.

Florida Fish and Wildlife sets up cameras along roadways and is rewarded with animal acrobats.

(AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)NEW YORK – Major League Baseball revamped its spring training exhibition schedule because of the pandemic, cutting travel for Florida-based teams in an effort to minimize coronavirus risks. College baseball teams, which often play big league clubs but are not subject to major league testing protocols, were dropped from the revised schedules announced Friday. Split-squad games, traditionally used in the first half of the exhibition season to allow evaluation of more players, also were eliminated. Pitchers and catchers open spring training workouts Wednesday, and the exhibition season starts Feb. 28, two days later than initially announced on Sept. 16. The rejected plan would have pushed back the start of spring training until March 22.

PEMBROKE PARK, Fla. – On Monday the House of Representatives is scheduled to deliver to the Senate the Article of Impeachment charging now-former President Donald Trump with inciting an insurrection. Congress faces that upcoming trial as it works with a new president, new goals and a new plan to overcome the fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic. One of the former president’s staunchest supporters in South Florida is Congressman Mario Diaz-Balart, a Republican representing southern Miami-Dade County and the Southwest Florida coast. He joined This Week in South Florida hosts Glenna Milberg and Michael Putney, and their discussion can be seen at the top of this page.

NAPLES, Fla. – Naples in Southwest Florida will be closing its beaches Sunday at 12:01 a.m. after a weekend of crowded beaches was too much for the city amid concerns over the spread of coronavirus. Naples’ beaches reopened Monday, May 4. City of Naples is closing City beaches at midnight. The City Council called an emergency meeting at 1 p.m. Monday to address the emergency beach closure order. Price told the television station that he took photos and many of the cars had dealership plates from Broward and Dade counties.

A recent grant from the state provided the funding necessary for the Brain Bus to travel to every county in Florida. More than 10% of people over the age of 65 have Alzheimer's disease and it affects nearly half of all people over the age of 85. "I saw the transition from him being able to drive to seeing him lock himself out of the house and forget where he was going and trying to say words but not being able to say words," she said. "I have thrown myself into the Alzheimer's Association to find out what I can learn, where to go. She's glad to see outreach efforts like the Brain Bus providing help and support in the community.

For over a decade, a converted motor home called the Brain Bus has been making the rounds across Southwest Florida providing education and resources on the spot for people concerned about Alzheimer's... Copyright 2019 by WPLG Local10.com - All rights reserved.