The Florida Roundup - Climate change and extreme heat; Unguarded, an investigation

Episode Date: July 7, 2023

Our recent heat is a result of climate change, and we should expect more extreme temperatures to come. Also: WLRN investigates the Miami-Dade County Guardianship Program.

Florida is scorching as an early summer heat wave continues to bring record-breaking temperatures across the state. And we can expect to see hotter and longer summers ahead as the entire world gets warmer. This is the Florida Roundup from WLRN Public Media in Miami and WJCT Public Media in Jacksonville. I'm Danny Rivero. And I'm Matthew Petty. Headless Hour, forecasting the future of Florida with climate change. Plus, as temperatures rise, how to conserve energy, keep utility bills down, and stay cool.

And what about those who lack access to cool air? And later, trouble with adult guardianship cases in South Florida. You can join the conversation on the Florida Roundup at 305-995-1800. We have your phone calls coming after the news. Welcome to the Florida Roundup. I'm Danny Rivero in Miami. And I'm Matthew Petty in Tampa. If you feel like it's been hotter than usual lately, well, that's because it's true. Much of the American South has seen record heat over the last few weeks,

with the new record being broken seemingly every few days. And scientists say this is not just some fluke heat wave that we're experiencing. As we move from hypothetical climate change to a very real climate change you can feel with the sweat on your back and the sweat on your forehead, we should be expecting more of this. For a state that's grown over the years because we have good, warm climate, it does raise the question of, will the increased heat become a liability here? So this hour on the Florida Roundup, we're talking about the numbers and the science behind why the mercury keeps rising.

And also, what, if anything, are governments doing about it? And how does it impact the poor, the elderly, the incarcerated? Well, joining us now to discuss this is Megan Borowski with FPRIM, the Florida Public Radio Emergency Network. Hey, Megan, good to have you along. Hey, thank you for having me today. Also with us, Brian McNulty with the Rosensteel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science at the University of Miami. Brian, good of you to join us. Thank you for having me.

And Alex Harris, who covers climate change at the Miami Herald. Alex, very good to have you along as well. Hey there. Now, we want to hear from you, too. You can give us a call, 305-995-1800. That's 305-995-1800. Tell us how you're experiencing this heat, maybe some tips and tricks you have to keep cool in these unusually warm conditions.

You can also send us a tweet. We're at Florida Roundup. Megan, I want to start with you. Record high temperatures have been seen across the state. And of course, we're seeing the glow of the earth, in fact, breaking records. But just back to Florida, heat indices as well. The heat feels like temperature as high as 110 degrees in some places. Just how unusual is this for June, July in Florida? Well, so to put it in perspective, the normal temperature, the average temperature across the state, give or take a few degrees, is in the lower 90s for this time of year. So we've had observed highs in the afternoon over the past week or so in the upper 90s. And then, of course, those heat indices between 105 and 110. And we've got heat advisories in effect again today for parts of North Florida and South Florida. So it is not normal to have these temperatures this high this time of year.

Normally, we should be in the lower 90s. But I will note that some of the records that have been surpassed over the past several days, the previous records were set in the 90s, the 00s, and the 10s. So we're breaking records that were recently set. Right. Florida, of course, not the only state grappling with scorching heat. A heat dome, so to speak, has been baking the southeastern United States in recent weeks. What's causing it? So when we say a heat dome, it's high pressure in the mid-levels of the atmosphere. And so with high pressure, you can think about clear skies, sunny skies,

just fair weather, just in a very basic sense of the term. And so with that limited cloud cover and precipitation over much of our state, we're getting that direct sunshine, and that is helping temperatures to rise. At the same time, we have a southerly component to the winds and the lower levels of the atmosphere. That's helping to drag in warm air from the tropics. On top of that, too, we're getting moisture, elevated humidity levels as well. That's what's really helping to get those feels like temperatures over the 100 degree market. It feels like a wet blanket out there thanks to elevated humidity levels there. Yeah, pretty unpleasant. Well, given just how hot June and the start of July have been,

what's the outlook for the rest of the summer? Well, at least for the next eight to 14 days, the NOAA and the Climate Prediction Center is expecting above average temperatures and heat indices that are above average. And I just took a look at one of the latest outlooks for the rest of the summer. And we are also looking at above average temperatures through about the end of September, at least. Part of that could be attributed to the developing El Nino over the tropics and over the Pacific Ocean. Alex Harris with the Miami Herald, I want to bring you into this conversation. You reported recently on record-breaking temperatures here in Miami. Can you please put that into context for us? Like what has been happening over the course of the

last couple decades in South Florida in terms of these rising temperatures we're seeing? Yes, I think it's no surprise to anyone who's lived here for a while and been outside recently that it is hotter and it's not just you. The science backs it up. Data from actually Brian McNulty on this call shows that since the 50s, we've gone up maybe a handful of degrees in average temperature, but we've seen a much bigger jump in things like the dew point and heat index, which are both measures that

include humidity, which I think we all definitely feel when we step outside. But the numbers really don't lie. They show that it has gotten gradually hotter and more humid in this state in the last 50, 60 years, and the trend is only expected to continue in that direction. And Brian McNulty, I want to bring you into this. You have been tracking a lot of this, a lot of data that we're looking at that's showing what these record temperatures are, what they mean has come from you. And one thing I want to ask you about is

you've focused on that it's not just the high temperatures that are increasing, it's also the low temperatures that are increasing. Can you talk a little bit about that and why that's something notable? Yeah, certainly. It's a really good point to bring up. As we just mentioned, both the heat and the humidity have been increasing, but the morning lows have disproportionately been warming. So, you know, certainly when we think of the uncomfortable heat, we tend to think of mid-afternoon and the scorching sun and all that, afternoon and the scorching sun and all that. But when you start losing the slightly cooler mornings, nighttime lows, that's where you start to notice it, especially if you're living without

AC, you know, then you certainly notice it a lot more that you don't even get that reprieve at night and in the morning. So as the both the humidity increases and the regular air temperature increases, that heat index or that feels like temperature is going up even quicker. And it's gone up the most during that, you know, the first few hours of the morning, like the 6 to 8 a.m. is actually where we've seen the most increase. And so when we're talking about it's not cooling down at night, I mean, the effect of that is there's not a reprieve, right? I mean, if your body temperature is elevated because you were hot all day, you're not

cooling down necessarily at night. Right, right. And then even for, you know, just general use of electricity, if we just look at that, how much does it cost you to cool your house or your apartment, whatever? Again, you're having to keep your house cooler more than you normally would have at night where your poor AC doesn't get a break. Alex, let me bring you back into this. I mean, thinking about those numbers too, what does it kind of mean for the number of hot days that Miami gets now compared to 50 years ago? And what does that mean for Miamians, right? I mean, it's always been a hot city to live in, but it seems like there's fewer and fewer days now where you can get some reprieve from that heat.

Yeah, absolutely. And yeah, I think this is one of the easiest measures to see that change and understand how much we've how far we've come in 50 or 40 years. It's just the number of days it's been above 90 degrees. So if you look back to the 1960s, we had an average of 85 days a year where it was 90 degrees or above. And that's a long time, but that feels like about summer for us. But these days of 2022, the average number is 133 days. It's almost a whole additional month. And then if we look even further forward, if we don't get climate change in check through the rapid cool down on the use of fossil fuels, we're looking at maybe 185 days a year by 2050, which I mean, we're gradually approaching a point where, you know, maybe there's more days where it's summer than it's not in Miami and South Florida.

Megan, let me turn back to you for a moment. So there's also, in parts of the state, we're seeing kind of reduced rainfall, right? Some places it's getting rainfall as usual, but other places it's a bit unusual. In the Tampa Bay area, for example, rainfall level's a bit down. Tell us kind of what impact that has on what else we're seeing and the overall effect of these hot days. Well, it's quite interesting because during the month of June, at least North Florida and parts of Central Florida had a very above average rainfall amounts on the map that helped to really alleviate a good deal of the drought or the abnormally dry conditions across the state. What we're seeing now developing over central Florida and North Florida in the mid levels,

we have westerly winds and that is helping really to cause sea breeze boundaries to move farther inland and east. And that's where we're really seeing precipitation setting up is over the interior and eastern part of the peninsula. So and that is going to impact the daily temperatures and heat indices. If we don't have that cloud cover over the Tampa Bay region, for example, and we don't have that precipitation to cool down the surface, we're going to see those higher afternoon high temperatures. Heat indices will likely be warmer as well because we don't have the cooling effects of the cloud cover and the rain. It does look like that pattern is going to hold. The westerly

winds will hold at least for the midterm. So an alleviation of the heat, so to speak, is likely not going to occur over the next week or so. I want to tell everyone you can call us here on the Florida Roundup at 305-995-1800. That's 305-995-1800. Brian McNulty, I want to go back to you. You know, there's a lot of numbers involved here, a lot of data. But I mean, my question is, is there a point in which the heat just becomes, I don't know what the scientific term for extremely uncomfortable for humans is, but like, is there a point when the human body actually responds in some kind of way to these elevated days of just intense heat?

Yeah, I would say so. I mean, not necessarily in my field of knowing how we respond to heat, but we've all experienced it. It's not a complicated idea that the hotter and more humid it gets, especially the more humid, the less effective we are at keeping ourselves cool. I mean, we basically sweat, and when that sweat evaporates, it helps us cool off. The more humid it is, the less your sweat evaporates and the hotter you get. So, oh, yeah, okay. I'm sorry. Go ahead. Sorry about that. Alex Harris, I do want to go to you. I mean, you've been doing a lot of reporting, talking to people experiencing extreme heat. What are you hearing about how this is impacting people?

Right. So as Brian was saying, one of the things that when I've talked to medical professionals about the impact of extreme heat on our bodies, he's right. Like you get to a point where sweating just isn't working anymore because we're relying on evaporative cooling to bring down the temperature. And there is a threshold where it is so hot outside that your sweat just isn't working. And more than a few hours outside is deadly. We haven't hit that in Florida to my understanding, but in parts of Texas with the heat dome, there have been hours of the day where it has been dangerous to be outside for more than an hour or two. And so I think we're on our way to seeing what that might look like here, but there are

obviously different factors. We're a peninsula, we've got winds, but folks that my climate team has talked to in the last couple of weeks talk about it gets so much harder to do outdoor labor right now. And it's just you get dizzy. You feel like you can't breathe. Maybe you black out a little bit. Like the heat exhaustion and heat stress is a very real concern, even if you're not at that temperature that the human body like shuts off. Right. And I mean, on a personal level, I spent time in the Middle East and it gets very hot and they've actually changed their construction schedules, for example, like they do more construction at night because of the extreme temperatures. It's actually illegal to do work

in the middle of the day for about three or four months of the year in Dubai because it's so deadly and, you know, the consequences are extreme. So, yeah, there's been talk of maybe there could be those kind of bills in the future, more around the world. And Megan, to bring you back into this, I mean, we are at the beginning of hurricane season, but we are in hurricane season. Can you talk to us a little bit about how the elevated temperatures here and across the whole world, we just hit a new record heat temperature globally today, we just heard on NPR. How is this impacting hurricane season? Well, the main thing that we're looking at, at least for outlooks of the season as a whole, are one of the elements are sea surface temperatures in the main development regions, the lower latitudes of the Atlantic Ocean. And those temperatures are anomalously high right now.

And actually, we just saw a forecast update come out from the Colorado State University, and they are now forecasting an above-average season because of those warm sea surface temperatures. Way back as we really started to enter this hurricane season, forecasters said El Nino is developing. That should increase vertical wind shear and decrease tropical activity. But because those sea surface temperatures are so warm, it almost looks like they will override the effects of El Nino. And we're looking at a higher number of named storms total for the 2023 season. And of course, that means more

tropical storms, more hurricanes, and the potential for more major hurricanes. What we do need to keep in mind, though, is with those forecasts, they don't tell us when storms will develop, where they will develop, or where they'll track. So that doesn't really help us here in Florida. But of course, an increased frequency in storms means we have a higher chance or more chances for something to impact us here in Florida. Right now, though, good news is we have a layer of Saharan dust that's visible on satellite imagery over the tropical Atlantic, and that's helping to keep any development at bay, at least for the time being. But the sea surface temperatures are quite warm, and they could help sustain any tropical development that gets going in a couple of weeks and later on in the season.

Right, a lot of factors to keep in mind there. Let's get a call in here. Lynn calling from Tampa. Lynn, you're on the air. Hi. Thank you guys for having me. I know we were just talking about the Tampa Bay area not getting the rain and the cloud cover. I actually work for an eco-tourism.

We ride out on kayaks. People are not taking the heat indices seriously when we tell them that we're not going out. And one of the other things that I personally am noticing and wondering about is, you know, when we go out on the water, sometimes, one, we get the sea breeze to help cool us down or we can jump into the water and cool us off, but to me, this year, Tampa Bay feels extremely warm. It's not refreshing and honestly, I'm wondering, this early in the season, what kind of effect that might be actually having on the plants and animals of Tampa Bay proper. That's a good one.

Brian McNulty, this is probably plants and animals may not be your focus of expertise, but just kind of globally, I mean, there are a lot of spinoff effects from this kind of widespread heat we're seeing, right? I wonder if you could talk a little bit about that. Yeah, and you are right. The water temperatures in the Tampa Bay area are above average, and they're actually even more above average when you get down to, you know, Fort Myers, Naples, around the bend from Key West on up to Miami. I mean it's all quite above average and even you know leaving the marine life out of the

equation for right now, one thing that does since Florida is surrounded by ocean, when all that water around us is significantly warmer than average that helps raise our temperatures too and that actually comes more into play at night you know when when the sun is not doing its thing um the the ocean is still doing its thing so it's still influencing the air temperatures across the state. And the closer to the coast you are, the more of an effect there is of that. And so that is, I think, something we're seeing. And that's part of where these warmer lows are coming from.

Right. And we've talked about those kind of increasing warm nights. And it means that people have even less chance to cool down. We've been speaking with Brian McNulty with the Rosensteel School of Marine Atmospheric and Earth Science at University of Miami. Brian, thanks so much for being with us. My pleasure. Thank you very much. Also, Megan Borowski with the Florida Public Radio Emergency Network. Megan, thank you too. Anytime. And Alex Harris, who covers climate change at the Miami Herald, is going to stick with us.

We'll continue this conversation about record-breaking heat and what to do with it after a short break. Welcome back to the Florida Roundup. I'm Matthew Pitti in Tampa. And I'm Danny Rivera in Miami. And we've been talking about this week's and today's record-breaking temperatures and how climate change will only mean more heat ahead for the Sunshine State. And when it's scorching and humid, the natural inclination for many of us is to stay inside and crank up the AC. Not everybody has that option, of course. There's people working

outside. Not everybody has an air conditioning unit, leaving them vulnerable to serious health impacts. And to those that do have AC must grapple with the rising energy costs needed to maintain cool homes. And we'll hear some tips for how to conserve energy and how to keep your utility bills down during this heat wave in just a little bit. But first, we're going to focus on some of the groups feeling the brunt of this heat firsthand. Sticking with us is Alex Harris with the Miami Herald, who covers climate change. And joining us now is Amanda Rabines with the Orlando Sentinel and Brian Pippin of the Jacksonville Public Utility, JEA. Amanda, Brian, thanks for joining us.

Thanks. And you can also call us here on the Florida Roundup at 305-995-1800 or tweet us at Florida Roundup. Amanda, let's start with you. You've recently done some reporting on how this record heat is impacting tens of thousands of prisoners and staff in the state correctional system. What have you been hearing when you've been doing that reporting? Right. What have you been hearing when you've been doing that reporting?

Right. Both people who are incarcerated and basically anyone who works or volunteers at many of our state prisons have to deal with the no AC issue. And as temperatures climb, I think people who have been fighting to get proper air conditioning need are seeking a solution to be implemented sooner rather than later, because the heat is creating really uncomfortable conditions for people inside. In my most recent story, I talked to prison guards who shared with me really grueling experiences. One described even what it smells like, which I'll save listeners from by not going into detail. But what I'm mostly hearing is that people feel like they're suffocating. And the consensus is that having no AC makes everyone inside more irritable and tired. You know, some counties in Florida, like Miami-Dade, Volusia County, Pinellas County, they require dog kennels to have air conditioning, but there's no requirement

of that kind for prisons or jails to have air conditioning for human beings. I mean, when you bring this up with officials at the Department of Corrections at the state level, what do they say about why this is such a persistent issue? Because this has been going on for quite some time now. about why this is such a persistent issue? Because this has been going on for quite some time now. The FTC will say these institutions were built so long ago that AC wasn't considered in the designs of the correctional institutions that we use today. Just think of it to retrofit 50 of them with the proper air ducts, insulation, ventilation, would cost a really large sum of money. It's not all doom and gloom, though. There is, you know, glimmers of hope,

largely because of prisoner advocates that are trying to come up with solutions to this. Last year, an advocate, her name is Connie Edson, along with state rep Yvonne Hayes Hinson they got FTC to test these large portable industrious fans that shoot out cool air one can fill up I believe close to 6,000 square feet of space so some of these are being tested for efficiency right now the one they're being tested at Lowell CI which is the state's largest women prison. That's where they also keep all the pregnant women who are incarcerated. Unfortunately, just we haven't been able to get much information about the pilot program.

And the advocate who vouched for the program says she feels like these coolers should be in every institution to because to her it's it's a matter of life or death. And just to wrap this up, you know, most people don't know what it's like in prison unless you have a loved one inside. And if you do, you don't want to hear stories of them suffering from a heat that they can't escape. You know, prisoner advocates argue these conditions are needless and are causing inhumane conditions that are part that are not part of their sentence. And it's not just them. It's people who work inside are also experiencing trouble breathing and extreme fatigue. And just for our listeners sake, I will say the the oldest prison still in use in the state of Florida is Union Correctional Institute, which was constructed in 1913. So that's 110 years old to that point about the potential cost of retrofitting. Alex Harris, I want to bring you in to this. federal housing, federal law requires public housing, which typically houses people on the

lowest rungs of the economic ladders. Federal law requires public housing to have heating, but not air conditioning. And the Herald has done some reporting about this over the last few years about families who live in public housing without air conditioning. How do those families go about their business and maintain? Yeah, I think people, when they hear that subsidized housing doesn't require air conditioning, their minds are kind of blown, because how could you imagine living in an apartment or a small home in South Florida these days with no air conditioning? Or if you're lucky, maybe a wall unit, because that's sort of the situation that that federal law has created, which is that, you know, politicians do wall unit air conditioned raffles, like turkeys for Thanksgiving when they're running for election

at places like Liberty Square. And folks that I've talked to and continue to talk to, because this is an active story I'm working on right now with some folks on my team, is that it's tough. It affects your health. Lots of people in subsidized housing are elderly or disabled or have young children or are caretaking for someone. And all of those vulnerabilities make the heat hit extra hard. They try to spend time in public libraries when they can or other free available air conditioned spaces or even just standing around at the trees in their neighborhood if they're lucky enough to have some and enjoying that shade and try to get out in a little bit of a breeze. It's tough, though. It's not the way most people in the state of

Florida live. 305-995-1800 is the number. We're talking about the heat, the impact it's having on us all here in Florida, and potentially some ways to try and beat the heat, even if you maybe don't have access to air conditioning and other things if you're an outdoor worker give us a call 305-995-1800 You can send us a tweet too we're at Florida Roundup. Brian Pippen with the Jacksonville Public Utility JEA. Let me turn to you. We know some people Brian especially lower-income folks maybe don't run AC as much as they'd like to because they're worried about their electric bill being too high. I wonder what tips you might have to share for someone trying to conserve

energy while trying to stay cool. Brian are you there? Well it looks like we're we're missing Brian. We'll get back to him as soon as we can. Let me just turn back to you for a moment Alex. I mean let's talk about some of those folks who are working outdoors and feeling the impact of the heat in Florida. I know you've done some reporting on this. What are you hearing from people as you report on this heat wave and how people are trying to cope? Oh, yeah, it's miserable out there. There are more outdoor workers in Miami-Dade County than any other county in the state,

something north of 100,000 folks who are installing your roofs, tenting your house for termites, doing your landscaping. And they don't have an option to work when it's not 100 degrees outside. You know, this work has to be done. Bills have to be paid. Children have to be fed. And they're doing what they can. They're taking breaks when they can. They're drinking as much cold liquids as they can. They're trying to find shade if they can. But the thing is that Miami-Dade County, like the rest of the state and like many states, doesn't offer any legal protections for outdoor workers. There's no guarantee of water, rest, or shade, both at the federal level, at the state level, or even here at the county level. And plenty of other states, especially those in the West Coast, have instituted those laws.

So for now, if you're an outdoor worker, you just sort of, depending on the kindness of your employer, whether they will allow you to take breaks and try to survive this heat? Sure, yeah. Jamie calling in from Tampa. Jamie, you're on the air. What's in your mind? Danny, how are you doing today? Good. Thanks for calling. Well, I have a couple of tips that I know how to beat the heat here in Tampa, and I do have a question as well. One of the best ways I know to beat the heat, first of all,

you've got to stay hydrated, obviously, so make sure you're drinking water and not soda, I'm sorry, but water is kind of paramount when it comes to this kind of weather. Also, stay informed. I mean, before you leave the house, check the forecast. If it's 96, 97 degrees, you know, then take the precautions needed, you know. Again, stay hydrated and whatnot. And that's an important thing.

But I started thinking about, and maybe somebody on the panel can lend their voice to this, a lot of summer camps and day camps are open now because kids are out for the summer time. What are they doing to help the kids beat the heat? I mean, you can't play basketball and sports inside, obviously. So what are the local day camps and summer schools and whatnot, what are they doing to beat the heat? Because, I mean, 95, 96, 97 degrees, that's dangerous. We're talking heat stroke and all kinds of things. It's scary out there.

I thank God I work at home in the house. But it's hot. Yeah, that's a good point. Thanks so much for your call, Jamie. Alex, I wonder if anybody in your climate team has kind of addressed what summer camps and what other folks, not necessarily working outside, but trying to do outdoor activities, how they're coping with this. I'm really glad the caller brought this up because that actually is something of come up with a plan to keep kids safe in this scorching summer heat. There also is a state-level law passed, I believe in 2019, in Tallahassee that protects

outdoor student athletes after a young football player unfortunately lost his life in extreme heat, and the bill is named after him. And it requires that schools or youth athletic programs, you know, provide enough water, provide shade, provide breaks and keep those kids safe when they're out there in this heat. Because, yeah, the caller is right. You know, you can't really do a lot of sports inside. Some of them you need to be on a football field or a baseball field. So there are some protections. And I think people are really trying to come up with better ways to keep everybody safe. Brian Pippin of the Jacksonville Public Utility, JEA. I'm told we do have you on the line now. Brian, as mentioned, a lot of people, especially if they're of lower

income, you know, they struggle with this because if they run their AC all day, it means a higher light bill and it means they get in the hole. Do you have any tips for someone who's trying to be mindful of their pocketbook and also keep themselves safe and cool right now? I suppose we do not have Brian Pippen. We'll continue on. Amanda Rabines with the Orlando Sentinel, I want to bring you back into this. I mean, some of the reporting you've done about the prison system and the lack of air conditioning there, has that contributed to the fact that, you know, the prison system for years has struggled to maintain staff

and, you know, the staff morale is not very high. Is this something that contributes to that? A lot of factors at play right now. There was the pandemic and people in these institutions, both prisoners and FTC employees, were dying of COVID. Then came this new economy where work from home options became available, better paying jobs where people out of state run prisons. That led to a very bad staffing shortage, which led to COs having to work overtime or double shifts in these hot temperatures during the summer. You know,

the people who spoke with me said they got into this profession because they felt it was important, plus it made decent money and it had good benefits. So as a correctional officer, if you're close to retirement, you may stick it out for a couple of years. But for those who are hired at a young age or who haven't stayed in the profession very long, they say it's not worth it. You know, one person I interviewed stressed how very unsafe he felt working in these conditions. So it's hard to correlate, but it doesn't help that this is an issue. And Brian, we do have you on now, I'm told by our producers. Brian, please tell us how to stay economical in these times.

Sure. I can first tell you that no utility ever wants a customer or a citizen to have to choose their health and safety and and wellness in light of a high utility bill so every utility is going to offer options for customers to help them with the with the cost but we want our customers to be safe it's all about efficiently generating air conditioning and then keeping that cold air in the home. So it's both your AC, but it's also making sure that you are dropping the heat load on the house. So that's going to be air sealing, that's going to be attic insulation, it's going to be window film, and it's going to be those things that are actually pretty low cost that you can do to keep that air conditioning in your home. and there's some misconceptions around treating your AC

like a gas pedal so if you're really hot and you decide that well I want the AC at 76 but I'm going to drop it to 50 and that's going to cool my house quicker it and unfortunately it doesn't work that way the call for cooling for your system really only has one speed. And then the other misnomer that generally happens for customers too is that your AC generally can't handle more than a 20 degree differential between the outside temperature and the inside temperature. So for example, if you like your thermostat at 72 and it's 96 degrees outside, your thermostat is going to basically,

or your system's going to run continuously. And they're meant to run continuously, but it's going to have that constant on effect because it has this continuous call for cooling that it just can't meet. And then there's plenty to be said about fans. I heard the conversation in the earlier segment. Fans are really cheap to run. It costs pennies to run fans versus dollars for your AC. So a floor fan, a hand fan, a ceiling fan, those are going to always make you feel three to

five degrees cooler than the ambient temperature because of that effect that was talked about earlier where we sweat, that cooling is going to make you feel a lot better than the ambient temperature. And that's the best way really to economically get through the hot weather that we have here in Florida. And is there some kind of a formula for, you know, do you raise the temperature on the on the AC, but then leave the ceiling fan on? Would something like that work? Absolutely. And the big misnomer that a lot of customers don't realize is that fans cool people, they don't cool rooms. So to leave a fan on in a room where there's not someone physically present is not going to lower the utility bill because you need that evaporative cooling.

And typically what we tell customers here in Northeast Florida and the rest of Florida probably follows the same convention that every degree that you lower your thermostat is going to potentially add three to five percent to your overall cooling portion of your utility bill. And you might say, well, that's pretty small, except that most people are making three and four and five degree changes and cooling, heating and cooling is about 50 to 60 percent of your utility bill. So it really adds up quickly. 50 to 60% of your utility bill. So it really adds up quickly. Thank you. Sorry to cut you off.

We're going to have to leave the conversation there for the most part. We've been talking with Brian Pippin of JEA in Jacksonville. Alex Harris covers climate change with the Miami Herald and Amanda Rabines with the Orlando Sentinel. Thank you all three for joining us. Thanks so much. Thanks for having me. Up next, how a network of Miami companies profited off the sale of guardianship homes, which are sold to cover the expenses of residents no longer able to care for themselves.

That, when we come back, when the Florida Roundup continues from Florida Public Radio. Welcome back to the Florida Roundup. I'm Matthew Petty in Tampa. Guardianship programs play a vital role in helping some of the state's most vulnerable residents. These programs step in when Floridians who are elderly or disabled can no longer take care of themselves and don't have family or friends who are able or willing to do so. In some cases, their homes and other assets are taken over by the state and sold to help pay for their care and living expenses. But an investigation by WLRN into the Dade County Guardianship Program, the state's largest, revealed how a network of Miami real estate companies has profited off the sale of guardianship

homes. Investigative reporters Joshua Ceballos and my co-host on the Florida Roundup, Danny Rivero, continue to follow this story since they first reported on the guardianship program back in March. In their latest reporting for the series, Unguarded, they trace the connections between the companies buying and selling guardianship homes. So Danny, get us caught up. How is the sale of property by guardianship programs supposed to work and what stood out for you about the sale of homes and the cases that you looked into? Right. So when a guardianship program in the state of Florida takes control of someone's decision making, it's usually someone who's elderly, someone who doesn't have close family or friends. They often have dementia or Alzheimer's or something of that sort.

often have dementia or Alzheimer's or something of that sort. And when the guardianship program takes control of this, often the only asset that someone has is a home, right? And the only way that the guardianship program can sell a home is by getting a court order. They need to petition the court to get permission to sell someone's home. And then they say, we're going to use that money from the sale of the home to care for the person under whose care we've taken, right? What we've found through our reporting is that a lot of the property sales, like a very high percentage of the property sales here in Miami-Dade County from the guardianship program are going to the same network of individuals. Sometimes they're related through marriage. Sometimes they're former business partners.

They served on nonprofits together. They are buying these homes. And the thing that has most stood out about this is that in many cases that we've identified, these homes that are sold because they needed the money to take care of the person under guardianship, they're very quickly resold, sometimes within a day or two. A lot of people feel that that means they're selling these properties for under market value because sometimes within the same day or two days, they're being resold for significantly more money. Now, just to be clear, how often are homes and other assets sold to pay for care or expenses for people in guardianship? Because it doesn't seem like it's a

very high percentage of these guardianship cases where that would happen. So according to the guardianship program of Dade County, they told us only about 3% of all their cases end up having properties that are sold. They gave us an estimate of 120 of these such cases over a certain span of time, which is not a lot. Most people do not have a lot of assets when they get into this. But actually through looking at who was buying the properties, we were able to find a very large percentage of it was people within this network that we identified. Right. Now, Josh, initially your investigation found 20 or so homes that had been bought from the guardianship program by a couple of companies, as Danny was outlining. Your latest reporting adds to that. So what else did you find? And talk a little more about how these companies are connected. Right.

So we put in a public records request for all the property sales within Miami-Dade County, all property transactions over a number of years, over a decade. And what we were able to find was, in addition to the 20 properties that we found before that were being bought and sold by this pair of companies and the people involved, it jumped up to 33. So 13 more within a 10 year span to these two entities, Express Homes and Gallego Homes, which are owned by the husband and mother of the Miami City attorney, respectively. And we found that along with them, some of their close associates who they've been in business with,

who they've been in nonprofit organizations with and have sometimes gone to school with, those people are also buying and selling guardianship properties. And just to jump in there, none of that money on the resale of those properties goes towards the care of the person who's incapacitated. So that's the core of the reporting that by tracking these sales, we found the guardianship program will sell a home belonging to one of their, what they call wards, one of these incapacitated people. They sell it to one of these companies for what some people would say is below market value. And then that company, sometimes within one day, sometimes within a week, or sometimes within several months, will sell it for thousands upon thousands of dollars more. And particularly in

the cases where they transfer it within one day or one week for tens of thousands of dollars more, it begs the question, did the program get the best possible value out of that property for their ward to put money towards the person they're supposed to be caring for? That's the kind of the question mark. What are the companies then saying about all this and what's been the response from the guardianship program in Dade County? Right. So the companies at this point, they are saying that they've done nothing wrong. There is nothing untoward or unusual about any of this. They've followed the letter of the law. You know, one thing that they've pointed to is they say, you know, you don't understand the condition of these properties.

We had to fix them up and do things to them. That doesn't quite explain when properties are resold for major profit in a day or two, to be quite honest. But that is what they're saying. And the Dade County Guardianship Program has said they are not doing anything wrong. They've actually come under investigation after our reporting by the Office of the Inspector General

in Miami-Dade County. And they've agreed actually not to sell any more properties until that investigation is completed because it is taxpayer funded. Right. And the guardianship program has also said that, and some of these companies have said sometimes they need to sell the home quickly because they need that money to care for that person right away. But there are some more complicated situations when it comes to people who enter the guardianship program when they do have family who are around to take care of them. And that's another wrinkle that's come up in our recent reporting. You're listening to the Florida Roundup from Florida Public Radio. So your investigation comes at a time when

Floridians are already undergoing significant stress when it comes to housing. Affordability is a real challenge. Evictions are going up in places like the Tampa Bay region, for example. So Josh, how have the sales of these properties you looked into affected either the people who once owned them or their families? Right. So it's worth noting that in most cases, in most guardianship cases, these people have no living family members, have no friends to take care of them. But we have found a number of instances, two that are highlighted in our reporting, where the family is alive and the family does want to care for this person or the family wants to keep the home.

And once the person is put into guardianship, sort of a wall goes up from what they've told us, where if they want to know anything about what's going on, they're told they need legal representation. So for instance, there's a woman named Sonia Raymond. Her mother, Juana, was placed under guardianship when she got older. And Sonia's like, I want to know what's going on and what's going on with the house. What are you doing with the house? And she says that they told her you need legal representation if you want to find out anything. And then the house was sold out from under them. And she says that all of their family heirlooms, their photos of the grandkids and all of these things were disposed of. And we

have a record that says the items were disposed of as per court order. And so Sonia, when she found out only by looking at the property appraiser that her family home was sold for somewhere around $30,000, she was aghast. She said, you know, we could have bought my mom's house. Why didn't they tell us? We could have bought that easily. And that home was very quickly resold for profit. And then shortly after, that's when Sonia found out about it. and so it leaves sort of a somewhat of a devastating effect to these people where the family home that they've known their entire lives is sold without their knowledge without their permission because the house was

under the name of their elderly family member and then that person was placed into guardianship and then the program then has power of attorney over their assets. Danny, you've been looking into Dade County, and it is the biggest guardianship program in the state, but I'm wondering if there's any indication in the course of your reporting that there may be similar issues with other programs in other counties. Yeah, some similar cases have come up in other parts of the state. In 2019, for example, there was a professional guardian who was arrested in Pinellas County for exploiting an elderly man. The county inspector general's office released a report last year showing a lot of potentially criminal behavior on the part of that professional guardian. on the part of that professional guardian. And the AARP has been making noise and in the last couple legislative sessions

has been working with lawmakers to try to get some kind of reforms passed. Right. Josh, just to wrap up here, you talked a little bit about what's happened since you started reporting on this, since you've published the first part of the series in March. What are leaders in Dade County doing and saying

about the guardianship program? Yeah, so after our initial reporting, folks within the Miami-Dade County Commission made some noise as well. As Danny was saying, Commissioner Eileen Higgins came out during a meeting and said that this needed to be investigated, that some of the things that we brought up were kind of alarming, especially since the program does receive funding from the county. brought up were kind of alarming, especially since the program does receive funding from the county. So she asked for an investigation. And then shortly after the county mayor, Daniela Levine-Cava, also called for an investigation from the county's inspector general's office. And right now we're kind of in a holding position. We've reached out numerous times to the inspector general's office and they've said, we're still investigating and we don't have a timeline as

to when that's going to be complete. But I think everyone's just kind of holding their breath and waiting until that investigation is done. I've been speaking with Joshua Ceballos and Danny Rivero from WLRN's investigative reporting team about their series, Unguarded, which examines the sale of guardianship homes in Dade County. Thanks so much for your reporting and for your time. Thank you for having us.

Thank you. And you can find more of Danny and Josh's reporting and check out that program. They're reporting on the guardianship program in Dade County. The series Unguarded is at the WLRN website. Well, that's our program for today. The Florida Roundup produced by WJCT Public Media in Jacksonville and WLRN Public Media in Miami. Heather Schatz and

Bridget O'Brien are our producers. WLRN's Vice President of Radio and our Technical Director is Peter Mayers. Engineering help from Doug Peterson, Charles Michaels, Jackson Harp, and Brady Corum. Richard Ives answers the phones and he's on the board today. Thanks, Richard.

Our theme music is provided by Miami jazz guitarist Aaron Leibos at AaronLeibos.com I'm Danny Rivero. And I'm Matthew Petty. Thanks so much for calling and listening. Have a great weekend. Thank you.