The Florida Roundup - Filing insurance claims and voting after back-to-back hurricanes

Episode Date: October 18, 2024

The tab for Hurricanes Helene and Milton will be in the billions of dollars. Some will be covered by insurance. And some won’t. The storms are just the latest reminders of the high cost of insurance. We speak with Michael Yaworsky, Florida Office of Insurance Regulation Commissioner (2:36). Plus, early voting starts in just days. What you need to know now to cast your vote (26:15). Hurricane Milton Recovery efforts (33:59). And, how Florida is just inescapable these days in our video and music streams (41:40).

This is the Florida Roundup. I'm Tom Hudson. Thanks for being with us. This week, we have the top cop for insurance in the state with us. Almost 150,000 insurance claims already have been filed by Florida homeowners in the week since Hurricane Milton. It will be another multi-billion dollar storm for us. The tab for insured damage is expected to be over $2 billion. And this is in addition to the storm that hit many of the same areas just two weeks earlier. Hurricane Helene is expected to cost insurers over $1 billion. Over 42,000 homeowners have filed insurance claims for Helene.

And none of this includes most owners who have flood insurance. The storms and the damage they caused highlight the nuanced detail that can be the difference between recovering and ruin. How do you tell the difference between damage caused by Helene and damage caused by Milton? Is that important? What type of water damage is covered by what types of insurance? What about damage from tornadoes that were spawned by a hurricane? 305-995-1800. Call now, 305-995-1800, or send us a quick email, radio at thefloridaroundup.org, radio at thefloridaroundup.org. The first three things you need to do if you are filing an insurance claim are... Document, document, document. That's Lisa Miller.

She's the former Deputy Insurance Commissioner for Florida. Take pictures and videos. Lots of pictures and videos. And there's this tip from St. Petersburg real estate insurance lawyer Charles Gallagher. Before you sign anything, make darn sure well you know what it is. Florida has some of the most expensive home insurance in the nation. The price of protection here in paradise has been driven up by the cost of living across the state. Your home may have been outside the path of these storms,

but this season certainly isn't over. And then there's always next year and the year after that. So how much do you pay for insurance coverage and how confident are you? You know what's covered 305-995-1800 305-995-1800 or send us a note radio at the florida roundup.org radio at the florida roundup.org michael yawarski is with us he is the insurance commissioner here in the sunshine state with the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation. Commissioner, welcome back to the Florida Roundup. Nice to have you again. Thank you so much. I appreciate the opportunity to be here. Will insurance companies be able to meet their financial obligations to storm victims, do you think? Absolutely. I think if we look at just where we are over the past 18 months. We were at a point in 2022 where the industry was truly nearing a breaking point, where it was near collapse due to several factors, mainly social

inflation or human activity around waste, fraud, and abuse. And post-reform, we're looking at a point where the insurance industry is able to meet its obligations to its policyholders. And that's what my expectation is, that as these storms come in, we'll never have a point where there won't be the potential for a hurricane. But as these storms come in, insurance companies are responsive and are meeting the needs of their customers. Are there any insurers that operate in Florida that your office is concerned about their ability to pay claims from storms this year? No. One group is out with an early estimate, HCI group, that

includes homeowners choice property and casualty insurance. This company is based in Tampa. It says it expects to pay $600 million to $750 million in claims for Debbie, Helene, and Milton, the three hurricanes that have hit Florida this year. What kinds of costs overall, Commissioner, do you expect private insurers to pay? So it's an interesting question to ask, Tom. I think when we look at the payments following a catastrophe, we have to remember that most companies have bought, every company in Florida has bought reinsurance. And so what happens is there's, well, while TipTap and HCI Group are going to be spending, are going to be paying that out, they've also

transferred a lot of that risk, a lot of those payments to a reinsurer or a series of reinsurers, but with paying a big bundle of it, that ultimately reimbursing the company for the losses. So essentially reinsurance is the sort of insurance for insurance companies. And so when we look at the total loss estimates, I know there's been numbers that flew around before the most recent landfall of Milton, for example,

they were estimating, I saw estimates from national insurance entities and Wall Street entities estimating I saw estimates from from national provide national insurance entities and Wall Wall Street entities estimating 100 billion right 150 billion 50 billion and I think I what I immediately go back to is just looking at the models are great and they're using modeling to try and estimate that but what I go back to is is our most recent experience of a major landfall on a populated area before that, which was Ian. And we saw a similar thing where these same entities were out estimating around Ian about 50 billion, 100 billion. I think 50 was kind of the one that they honed in on the most. And the

ultimate losses for Ian were around 21 billion. Looking at where we are now, we're able to kind of capture every single night. We get a download of information from every single insurer operating in the state on the rate of claims collection payments, the rate that claims are coming in, the estimated losses. I think, as you said at the outset, we're now at about $2.4 billion in expected losses around Hurricane Milton. I think we're about $1.3 billion for Helene. And Debbie is a more, the way it impacted was in a more rural area. It's not maybe right at a billion overall. And so when we're looking at that, we can kind of see the trajectory there. And we don't know exactly where this will stop, and I wouldn't want to conjecture it. But the bottom line is, it's well within the capacity of our insurance providers

in the state to to pay this out. We are speaking with the insurance commissioner here in the state of Florida with the Office of Insurance Regulation, Michael Yawarski. You can share your experience with insurance, 305-995-1800, or email us radio at thefloridaroundup.org. Commissioner Helene and Milton hit less than two weeks apart. It was 13 days, in fact, between the eyewall hitting Florida soil. For insurance purposes, are these two separate insurable events? So that's a great question to ask. And that's one of the questions I get from a lot of consumers. I was in Plant City yesterday, and that was a question. One thing I want everyone to know around this is that in Florida,

we have a hurricane deductible that's statutorily obligated that everyone must pay before they receive anything from their insurer or the damages that is deducted. The ultimate outcome is deducted from consumers. One thing I want consumers to know along the way here is that if you have damage from Helene or Debbie or Milton, that you should file a claim each time that happens because the deductible is an annual cumulative deductible. It's not based on each separate event. And so if you had damage from Haleen and then you subsequently had damage from Milton,

please make sure that you note that and document that to your insurer so that they know they are required to count that cumulatively so you're not paying your deductible twice for damage. So it sounds like they are considered two insurable events when it comes to insurance, as it relates certainly to that annual deductible. As you mentioned, it's cumulative. You pay that deductible once per year. But because these are two separate events, Commissioner, does a homeowner need to have separate documentation for what was damaged from Helene and what was damaged from Milton?

So what I would expect from an insurer in this situation is for them to send an adjuster out or make proper adjustments for each time something new has happened on that property. So whether it was Milton or Helene or both that came out, what we would expect at the end of the day is that the consumer is, and I think at the beginning, there was someone who said document, document, document. That is a great piece of advice. But also at the end of the day, what we expect is for the insurer to also go out, document, be aware of changes and damage that happened from one event to the other. Ultimately, take the deductible into account one time and to give the insured the payout that they deserve. So in other words, a good way to look at it is if you have one event with a claim around Helene,

your house is you're waiting on a vendor or repair person to come out and fix whatever has happened. In that same time period, there's been a loss that has occurred due to Milton. The bottom line to us is whether there's technically two claims there or one claim, the bottom line for us is that we expect the insurer to be on the ground, making sure that that consumer is getting what they need. Considering that the storms were only 13 days apart, what if somebody with Helene damage did not have a visit from a claims adjuster

before Milton came ashore? So in that case, I think that if they didn't, ultimately it's still in the same bucket and we would expect the insurer to err on the side of the consumer in that case. So again, if you had either way, the consumer is left with an ultimate amount of damage that that would that would ensue. So the consumers, whether it's considered technically one claim or two, ultimately, it's a it's a loss, it's a cumulative loss, and the insurer should pay

out whatever the damage is up to the limit, depending on under the guise of the overall policy. So your guidance obviously carries a lot of weight here, Commissioner. So I want to want to be clear with folks because you were presented with this question earlier this week. And I know a lot of folks have been asking this question. You know, damage is damage, regardless if it came from Helene or Milton. Right. You're not going to fix just the Helene damage, but let the Milton damage maybe rot through. You're not going to fix just the Helene damage, but let the Milton damage maybe rot through. But from an insurance perspective, right, that language is really important for those adjusters as well as the insurance company as they assess the claim and how much and whether or not they're going to pay it out.

So in an instance, ultimately, so when you're looking at, and I think this is what you might be getting at, is policy limits that may be inside of an individual contract on a per event basis. Right. For instance, one event you may have as a homeowner, you could say, oh, I can only collect X amount of dollars per event. But if these two storms are two different events, then that's times two for the homeowner to collect. It's times two for the homeowner to collect up to the ultimate damage. So in other words, ultimately, when you're looking at a situation, insurance is designed to put the products that are offered in our market are designed to put consumers back in the place that they would have been had the event not taken place. Subject to the terms of the policy. So in an instance where someone had damage from a hurricane, Helene, and then let's envision a scenario where that damage was that repair was in damage again through

a Milton, the consumer is ultimately after Milton, the expectation would be that they are receiving up to policy limits, the repair on the property again, so that they are that they are receiving up to policy limits, the repair on the property again, so that they are put back in those shoes again. Michael Yawarski is with us. He is the insurance commissioner in Florida. Your calls at 305-995-1800. Here we are a week and a day after Hurricane Milton hitting the Sunshine State, the second major storm to hit Florida this year. Jackie has been listening into our conversation in Clay County. Go ahead, Jackie, you're on the radio. Hello? Hi, Jackie, go ahead. Oh, I was just asking, we have an older And we've done, God bless, very well with not having any damage. Again, thank you.

Knock on wood. But we used to have homeowner's insurance that was like $3,000. And we own our home. And last year, it went up to $8,000. And we are both retired. And I know that everybody wants to mix and match and, you know, put the blame, I don't mean it mean, but blame on everyone

and we should all be able to help our neighbor. But that's a big difference. Yeah, more than twice. So what did you decide? We are retired. So what did you decide to do, Jackie? Well, decide? I mean, it was 8,000.

Well, we didn't renew. Yeah. Jackie, thanks for sharing your experience in Clay County. Commissioner, I'm sure that's a story you've heard quite frequently over the past many years in Florida. Jackie, knocking on wood that they haven't had any instance to use insurance, but they've gone without. They are in a position where they own their home, so they don't need insurance for a mortgage. But what do you think the impact may be of three storms this year hitting Florida? Debbie, a big rain event, of course. Helene and Milton, major category three storms hitting Florida. As your office considers repricing from the insurance

industry over the next 12 months, what are you expecting to see in terms of rate requests? So I think we have to look at kind of, that's a great question. I think that one thing about insurance is that we're all in this together. We've all seen kind of the impact, especially between 2017 and 2022, where rates just ballooned over and over and over again. And consumers actually felt a lot of the 2022 rate increases in 2023 and somewhat in 2024 just because of the way that rates roll out. But there's a delay in the date that my office reviews rates and approves or denies them or changes them and the date that they get out to consumers, depending on each individual consumer's renewal period. But the you know, one thing one thing that we've seen over the past year post reform

is that 15 companies so far have made a 20 a total of 20 for reduction. But what are you expecting going forward, though, Commissioner? I know that's the same. I think that that's I think that that's the important thing. And so we've seen we've seen about 54 companies in Florida that have either reduced or kept their rates at zero overall, affecting, well, millions of consumers in the state. And I think that at this point, we're at a point where we expect that to continue. One of the when you have a catastrophic event, such as this one, such as the ones we've had,

there's a point where we see, again, that risk transfer where a lot of the risk has been paid for by the insurance company. They've bought insurance for a catastrophe like this, and they will get reimbursed for it. So we find ourselves at a point where an event like this is sort of expected to happen periodically in the state of Florida. Sometimes a little bit more often this year we've had these three events that have struck, sometimes a little bit less often, like last year where there was one major cap fall in a very rural area. So as we go through the rates, you have actuarial indications that go into this, and so we generally expect the same trend line across the state. Miami-Dade County, we still see,

speaking directly Miami-Dade County, it's an interesting place from a rate perspective in the social inflation. I laugh because homeowners would maybe quibble with the description of interesting place for insurance rates. Yeah, well, it's interesting because we look at what's driving that.

And it continues. When we look at it, we see across the rest of the state, the average incidence of litigation is about 5.5% of policies. In Miami-Dade County, it's over 33%. So one in three insurance claims in the property space in Miami-Dade County come in with a lawsuit. And when you have a lawsuit, you tremendously drive up the cost of that claim.

Commissioner, I want to ask you about claims that are closed without payment and those kinds of issues. Stick around. The commissioner is going to stick with us for a few more minutes. And we've got plenty of great phone calls as well. I do want to ask you this quickly. And I've got about a minute before I need to break. Hurricane Milton brought with it some just tremendous number of tornadoes. Is the tornado damage covered by a standard homeowners policy or is it a windstorm insurance policy that comes into play? So that will be covered by the vast majority of standard homeowners policies. Even though it happened during a hurricane event? Even though it happened during a hurricane event, it will be under Florida law, it will be subject

to the hurricane deductible because there was an active hurricane warning within the state of Florida at the time when it touched down. Oh, that's interesting. So it's covered by the standard homeowners insurance, but yet the homeowner will still be responsible for the hurricane deductible on the tornado damage. Under Florida law, that's the way it goes. Yeah. And the hurricane deductible usually is a percent of the total cost or the total coverage of insurance.

So it's, you know, you can talk about, you know, it's several thousand dollars usually. Yeah, in most cases it is. Yes. Interesting. All right. Well, the insurance commissioner of Florida is with us here live on this Friday on the Florida Roundup. We'll get more of your questions. Bill in Sarasota will definitely get to you. I know that Michael Yawarski is the insurance commissioner of the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation. More is still to come here on the Florida Roundup from your Florida Public Radio station. This is the Florida Roundup. I'm Tom Hudson. Thanks for being along with us this week. We are talking about insurance in Florida one week and one day after Hurricane Milton and about three weeks after Hurricane Helene. Stephen in Hudson sent us this email. We have been displaced by the damage from the severe flooding

and are in the process of remediation. Our losses cannot be completely recovered as we only have so much insurance to replace our belongings and precious memorabilia. Steve also continues saying, I'm also an insurance agent and broker in both Florida and New York and can say my agency has been lucky due to size and exposure. I'm also a flood specialist. And even with my knowledge of the market, I am still at unease as I have never been a victim or have had the need in the past to rely on my

coverage. Stephen writes, the process is both daunting and psychologically exhausting, even for a professional like myself. Michael Iwarski is still with us, the insurance commissioner here in Florida. Michael, you hear that from a homeowner in Hudson, Florida, which was right in the path of Milton, some of the worst of Milton, and also an insurance agent saying, boy, he's really daunted by the experience of filing claims. Imagine what us laymen and laywomen have to experience here. As you think about the claims process, as it relates to these storms, what kind of accountability, what kind of policing is your office doing to ensure that homeowners and those covered are getting what they're owed

under their policies? I appreciate that. One of the first things I did when I took this position was create the new position of deputy commissioner of market conduct. And I asked the legislature policies? I appreciate that. You know, one of the first things I did when I took this position was create the new position of deputy commissioner of market conduct. And I asked the legislature specifically for new positions to aggressively monitor and police the way insurers pay claims. And that was in that ultimately all led to Senate Bill 7052, the Insurer Accountability Act. And it came with the money for a deputy commissioner of market conduct and for 29 new positions within the office specifically geared towards monitoring the way insurance insurers behave. How many of those positions have been filled?

Most of them have been filled at this point. I mean, we are certainly, you know, state government work and state government insurance work. We're at a disadvantage compared to the private sector when it comes to funding, but most of them have been filled. Cheryl Parker is our deputy commissioner of market conduct. She is down in central Florida today at one of the hurricane villages, directly speaking with consumers and also watching insurer behavior. We collect now nightly the claims counts and a good amount of information about what's going on with all the claims that are taking place within our state. We're looking for outliers. We're looking to see if things are not moving at a rate that we would typically expect them to do to take place, whether that's claims closed without payment, claims closed with payment, claims not closing in a timely fashion, not in accordance with Florida law. We're looking at all of this to try and ensure that consumers are getting the help that they need.

Commissioner, I want to get to a few more questions here before we have time. Bill has been very patient in Sarasota. Go ahead, Bill. I hope you weathered the storm okay. Hi. Thank you, Mr. Jaworski, for taking the phone call. I live in Sarasota, Florida, and we have endured two back-to-back 13 days apart. So Helene, as you know, had a lot more water and surge. And when Milton came, the additional seven feet didn't show up. So there was a lot more wind damage. And there are policies that differentiate between the wind and the water. So how are

consumers supposed to differentiate that if they did not have the claims adjuster? That's part one. And part two is that many, many, many people that I know and I treat as a physician say they didn't even bother making the claims because they're going to fix whatever the problem is so that their rate does not get doubled, tripled, or canceled as it has with so many people in Florida. Yeah. So maybe you can help me with that. Yeah. Interesting questions, Bill.

Go ahead and tackle first, Commissioner, the wind and water question. Yeah. So so I and I've been on message on this a couple of times. Anybody who has experienced damage from a storm should file an insurance claim. And there are laws specifically in place that prohibit an insurer from non-renewing or canceling a policy based on the fact that the consumer filed a claim. What if the damage is less than the deductible? Even in that case, I would still highly advise them to because of the cumulative, if for no other reason, number one, it gives us very good data about how an insurer is handling that. So we can watch that behavior.

Number two, again, because of that annual deductible, it's helpful for everyone to, for the insurer to have a record that there was damage from a prior incident. sure to have a record that there was damage from a prior incident, but the deductible, the damage exceed the deductible, but it's a good practice for everyone to file a claim following a storm like this if they have damage. I want to give you a moment to answer Bill's question about water damage as well. We've had lots of questions about when that water damage is covered by a windstorm or a standard homeowner's policy versus when a flood insurance policy may kick in. Yeah, so it's an interesting discussion, and we could probably spend an entire show on water versus wind and kind of the long history of where that is. But to sum it up quickly, a long time ago, the National Flood Insurance Program essentially created a public entity, NFIP, that handles flood insurance. Right. But get to how the water gets into the property, because that's the key question. Exactly. And so what happens at that point is you have a market with your homeowner insurance policy.

You have all the flood insurance. the adjuster gets out there and either the consumer isn't clear on what happened because they weren't there or the adjuster is just left to look and evaluate whether in the standard is whether your homeowner's insurance policy will cover it is wind-driven rain. So in other words, did the water penetrate the envelope of the household and cause damage from wind? Another way of looking at it is water coming from up high, from the clouds, from the atmosphere, or did it come in through over land and travel into the house? And that's your ultimate determination. There's a pretty strict standard in place, and and it's actually, when an adjuster that is qualified and is experienced and has been properly trained, it is generally pretty easy for them to tell.

I saw a Facebook, I don't know how much time we have left. Make it quick, sir. I've seen a lot of news and anecdotal information out there of consumers advising other consumers to not tell their insurer what happened and never use the word flood or other things. Generally speaking, they're going to know. Generally speaking, my expectation is that our insurers, if there is a coverable event under their policy, that they are going to do whatever it takes to make that homeowner whole. The insurance commissioner here in the state of Florida, Michael Yawarski. Michael, thanks so much for your time. We'll have you back, certainly.

Thank you. It was a pleasure to be here. The State Office of Election Crimes and Security released an investigation that it has been ongoing for the past several weeks, looking at signatures collected to get Amendment 4 on this fall's ballot. It released that report last week saying it found, quote, demonstrated widespread petition fraud and also the illegal payment of people gathering signatures. I am the amendment guru in our office, so I look at every one of them. That is Travis Hart. He's the president of the Florida Supervisors of Elections Association. He's also the elections supervisor in Lafayette County. And here I've got the whole batch. I believe that's all Amendment 4, rather.

You're showing me a stack of papers, maybe, what, an inch thick or so. Yes. Yes. Lafayette County has the fewest number of registered voters in the state. There were 55 verified signatures from the county on the petition to put the abortion amendment on the statewide ballot. Well, number one is the signature itself. And you look at birth date, just things that verify that that voter is who they say they are. Mainly, it's the signature. You got to look, make sure that matches. Even though voting is underway, the amendment question continues to be challenged. Anti-abortion advocates cited the state's investigation claiming widespread signature fraud when it filed a lawsuit this week trying to get the amendment off the ballot or declare the vote null and void. The state did not challenge the validity of any signatures before the deadline to do so passed and before voting started.

More than 800,000 Floridians already have voted by mail, voting by mail with their ballots in the past several weeks. Early voting begins in most areas on Monday, and that abortion question isn't the only target of legal wrangling. On Thursday, the attorney general here in Florida, Ashley Moody, filed a lawsuit against the Biden administration, claiming the federal government refuses to verify immigration records of voters. The first rule on the state's voter registration form states, quote, you must be a U.S. citizen. It's the honor system. They have to check that box. If they check that box and they're not, then they violated law. Again, Travis Hart here, the election supervisor in Lafayette County, president of the Florida Supervisors of Elections Association. Now, voter registration is eventually processed by the state highway agency here in Florida,

which issues IDs and driver's licenses. And then if something's flagged down the road, you know, we have the ability to go back and investigate. And if they're ineligible, we can, you know, put them on alert, contact the voter, say, hey, you know, we've got reason to believe that you're not a legal citizen or ineligible. Come in and verify this with us. And so there's checks and balances with the whole system. The lawsuit that the state filed this week argues the Federal Department of Homeland Security refuses to verify immigration records for a number of individuals the state believes are not citizens. This was all just part of a lengthy conversation that we had with Travis Hart ahead of early voting beginning on Monday. How disruptive have the hurricanes been to preparing voters for this election cycle?

It's been an unprecedented season, that's for sure. Uh, it's been an unprecedented season. That's for sure. I know my county here in Lafayette County, we took two on the 10, uh, same path. It seemed both times my little community called Buckville where I'm, where I live was right on that Northeast quadrant. Probably the only area that took it worse than we did was Taylor County, three hurricanes in 13 months. Uh, and they all came right came right over my house. Well, how did your house and how has your family weathered these storms? We had damage to buildings and things like that, not our dwellings. So that was a blessing.

But, yeah, for the preparation, it definitely puts a hamper on it. But one thing about we supervisors, we always plan for the worst and hope for the best. One thing about we supervisors, we always plan for the worst and hope for the best. I have to say the resilience of my fellow supervisors has been incredible to see how they pulled together. Let me ask you a little bit about the resilience. Are early voting or Election Day polling places having to move, having to relocate because of storm damage or just being inaccessible? The executive order issued by Governor DeSantis allows for consolidation of those precincts, and you can move them. So a lot of flexibility there.

I think we're going to provide a convenient way for all voters to be able to cast their vote while also keeping it secure and keeping the integrity intact. I know a lot of people are worried about that, but that's of utmost importance of all supervisory elections. Let me ask a couple of questions about methods of voting, particularly for those who are in the path of Debbie or Helene or Milton.

Can a voter cast their ballot at any location if their normal polling place is closed, as long as that voter is voting in the county in which they're registered not on election day on election day they'll still have to report to their precinct or if their precinct's been destroyed or is inaccessible uh that's where the consolidation comes into play uh the supervisor will be able to forward out information to voters to let them know, hey, your precinct will now be here. But for early voting, now, yeah, they can go to the supervisor of Lex's office,

their main and branch offices, and be able to cast their votes there, and that's from anywhere in the county. And for vote-by-mail voters, what should a voter do if their ballot was damaged or destroyed or lost in the storm? They need to immediately get in contact with their supervisor of elections office to be reissued another ballot. And for those affected by this that have their vote by mail ballot damaged or destroyed or they can't get another one because they don't have a mailbox, are they voting provisionally with the ballot at that point? No, you're allowed up to three ballots at each election. So you just show up whether you have the ballot in hand or not. If you have it in hand, you can surrender it to the poll clerk there. Either way, you can be issued a regular ballot and cast it right

there on the spot. The deadline to register to vote here in Florida has passed. Registered voters can still request a vote-by-mail ballot, though. That deadline is fast approaching, right, Travis? Yes, October 24th is the last day you can request a mail ballot to be mailed to you. I think, what, about 900,000 have already done vote-by-mail ballots. Oh, wow, that's incredible. thousand have already done vote by mail ballots oh wow that's that's incredible um yeah georgia we're feeling the impacts georgia broke the record i guess for early vote in the first day of early voting yep and people are coming in our office hey we want to early vote like well we don't start

out till next week but you know well i'm gonna be out of town so i want to vote by mail okay right we'll come on in we'll get that done i do like early voting i mean you never know what's going to happen on election day. If you don't have a plan before election day, you might get stuck in a long line or something like that, and you might not get a chance to vote. That's very sad when somebody doesn't, you know, when they have the opportunity and they're unable to be successful with it.

What are the rules around being in line on election night after seven o'clock if you're still waiting to cast your ballot? We'll have our poll deputy go stand at the end of the line at 7 p.m. Anybody who comes in after that is ineligible to vote. So he stands at the end of the line. Everybody ahead of him gets to vote, cast their ballot, and anybody that comes up afterward no longer can do that. Travis Hart is the president of the Florida Supervisors of Elections. I'm Tom Hudson. You're listening to the Florida Roundup from your Florida Public Radio station. This is the Florida Roundup. I'm Tom Hudson. It's been a little over a week now since Hurricane Milton came to Florida bringing

tornadoes, high winds, and flooding. We have a series of reports now on recovery efforts. Most people have had their electricity restored. Only about 20,000 remain in the dark, down from over 2 million a week ago. Cleaning up all the debris from Milton and stuff still left over from Hurricane Helene will take a lot longer. Stephanie Colombini from our partner station WUSF begins our reporting. Stephanie visited one of Hillsborough County's collection sites where you can take your own debris, assuming you can haul it there. Piles of furniture, construction materials, and tree limbs grow larger and larger as more vehicles pass through the site. Anything from SUVs to industrial-sized dump trucks. Robert Lester had a lime green trailer filled with branches he cleared from his Valrico yard after Milton. He used to work in construction

and is grateful he still has equipment to help with this kind of job. Yes, I have this nice little trailer to haul my tree limbs on that I didn't dispose of. Thank goodness. You got more trees down in your property. Still got more loads to bring in. Lester and his wife Jeanette are in their 80s. She's lived here all her life and says this was the worst hurricane she's been

through the Lester say the state and county are doing a good job with response, but they didn't want to wait to get rid of their debris. Jeanette says it was hard clearing it themselves, but they're ready to move forward. We just live by the grace of God and, you know, could be worse, right? Not everyone can clear their own debris. Hillsborough County officials say they've contracted with four debris removal companies to help collect it from residents' curbs.

I'm Stephanie Colombini in Tampa. I'm Jessica Mazaros in Progress Village. Wilma Habdi has lived in Progress Village nearly 55 years, and during that time, she's witnessed what she calls a really bad drain issue there. I used to wonder why my stepfather used to sweep the drains all the time. And even with us sweeping and cleaning the drains, the water wasn't going anywhere. The rainwater builds up and just stays there, pooling. Then came Hurricane Milton, which she says was the worst flooding she's seen. The water rose around her home in the front and backyards and two feet into her house. Once the roads started flooding and people were trying to drive,

that water was whooshing into the house. The backyard was even with the front yard. That's how bad it was. For at least two days, Hovde had to wear rain boots to get in and out of her home. Water wasn't going anywhere. It was just right there standing still on the curbs. Hillsborough County recently started construction on a project that will

provide drainage solutions for Progress Village. The Public Works Department will install more stormwater drains to collect the rain. The water will then move through a new treatment pond before being released to Archie Creek. Bianca Hatton with the county says they can't necessarily eliminate the flooding. When you have, you know, over a foot of rainfall over such a short amount of time, it is very difficult to make sure there's no flooding at all, but it is aimed to reduce the flooding. Hatton says this project will improve the quality of life for people living in Progress Village. We are protecting not only lives, but also property. We get residents reaching out to us in this neighborhood fairly often about their concerns for the flooding.

And so this really gives this area peace of mind. The county has been working on this project very closely with community leaders, particularly those within the Progress Village Civic Council. It's an organization that supports residents there and has been pushing for these drainage improvements. Marlise Talbert-Jones is on the council. She's lived her whole life, 60 years, in Progress Village. It began as an affordable neighborhood for African Americans in the county and now has hundreds of homes. My parents were one of the first seven to receive their keys to Progress Village when it was built. That was in the late 1950s. She now owns several homes in the neighborhood passed down to her by deceased family members.

And Hurricane Milton caused water damage to some of her properties. Construction on the new stormwater system is supposed to wrap up in about a year. In the meantime, Talbert Jones says Progress Village residents will continue to do what they've always done. We get out, we get in our cars, we go by, we're up and down the streets asking neighbors, are you okay? Do you need anything? She says there have been neighborhood cleanups and hot food handouts at the local church. And she's part of a group chat where community leaders give live updates on what their neighbors need. I mean, it just gives me chills.

And I know you see the smile on my face because that's what we do. We pull together not only when there is a crisis, but fun times and we just rally around each other. For longtime residents like Wilma Hamdi, who had two feet of water in her house, leaving the neighborhood for higher ground is not an option. I'm not going nowhere. I'll be here till it falls down. I'm here. She says she loves her community. She just wants the drainage to be fixed. While I'm talking to Habdi, she's wearing a t-shirt that says, Be kind. Everyone is fighting a battle you know

nothing about. That's reporter Jessica Mazaros. Across the peninsula, the cleanup from Milton's tornadoes continues. About 150 homes in Wellington were damaged in western Palm Beach County. Michael Napleone is the mayor. If you drive through most of Wellington, you don't see the impact and people wonder what the big deal is. But if you drive through the impact in neighborhoods, you know, it looks like a bomb went off. You've got windows blown out. You've got roofs torn open. You've got piles everywhere. You've got impact windows that failed. The Wellington tornado carved a path of destruction miles long. The mayor thinks at least 20 homes are unlivable until they can be repaired. That twister was just one of more than two dozen that Milton generated. Michael Lowry is a former

senior scientist with the National Hurricane Center. Here's how he described Milton's tornado tally. That's a wild number of tornado warnings to keep up with for the forecasters that were working the radar. Tornadoes and hurricanes are not unusual, but they're usually much less intense than those spawned by Milton. Milton is just the latest challenge for Florida's citrus industry. Even before the storm, Florida growers were expected to produce less fruit this year than last. Orange production forecast is to drop 16 percent compared to last year. Growers now, of course, also have to deal with the aftermath of the storm. Matt Joyner is the CEO of Florida Citrus Mutual. There's a lot of fruit on the ground. You know, what was promising

to be a very hopeful season. We're pretty discouraged to see that much fruit blown off the trees to see a massive hurricane like this come across the citrus region. Growers say it takes about two years for groves to recover after major storms like Milton and many plantings after 2022's Hurricane Ian were just starting to take hold. Now the Sunshine State's orange harvest has shrunk by 86 percent over the past decade, thanks to natural disasters like storms and freezes, but also citrus greening. That's a bacterial disease that infects citrus trees.

I'm Tom Hudson. You're listening to the Florida Roundup from your Florida Public Radio station. And finally on the Roundup this week, it's tough to escape our Sunshine State, even when you just want to sit on the couch and binge. Florida has long been a source of material for writers from Hemingway to Hyacinth. And there's a growing canon of 21st century entertainment inspiration here as well. The latest hits HBO tonight when it's Florida Man debuts. The sunshine law in the state of Florida really perpetuates that Florida Man stereotype. Thank you, man!

The show is It's Florida, Man. It's Florida, Man. Where the stories are, well, here's how the trailer puts it. But it's also all true. Sort of. A mermaid getting harassed. This is at least the second streaming video series that can be traced back to the infamous Florida Man Twitter account back when X was Twitter. back when X was Twitter. HBO's It's Florida Man this week comes after Netflix's simpler titled Florida Man series was released last year.

May we find a highway? Change our luck? Where will this highway go? I don't know. Florida? Florida? Florida. No. You're from there? Yes, and I'm going back.

Grime with no polish is how that show's creator described our state. And by the way, Florida Man on Netflix wasn't even shot in Florida. It was filmed almost entirely in North Carolina. At least Apple TV got it right when it shot Bad Monkey in the Keys. You want your job back. I've got something that the sheriff wants you to drive to Miami. The arm, that's all they found? Oh man, the head's in the passenger seat. If you're too grouchy to answer... And Bad Monkey is at least based on a book by native Floridian Carl Hyasson. The guy who started the Florida Man Twitter account? Well, he was raised in the United Kingdom. For what it's worth, the soundtrack to Bad Monkey features remakes of songs written by

a Floridian, Tom Petty, including this take by the band Flip Turn, which is from Fernandina Beach. I was talking with a friend of mine Said a woman that hurt his pride Told him that you love him so Went to the random, let him go And he said you better watch your step Or you're gonna get hurt yourself Someone's gonna tell you lies And cut you down to size Don't do me like that

Don't do me like that What if I love you, baby Don't do me like that And while we're talking about music in Florida this week, we probably should mention the world's biggest music artist is here in the Sunshine State this weekend. You can beat the heat if you beat the charges too They said I was a cheat, I guess it must be true

Taylor Swift will be in Miami playing three stadium shows in the opposite corner of the state from where she sings about. Little did you know Your home's really only a town You're just a guest in So you know your home's really only a town you're just a guest in. So you work your life away just to pay for a time shared down in Destin, Florida.

There's one hell of a drug. And that'll do it for our program this week. It is produced by WLRN Public Media in Miami and WUSF in Tampa by Bridget O'Brien and Grayson Doctor. WLRN's Vice President of Radio is Peter Meritz. Our Technical Director is M.J. Smith. Engineering help each and every week from Doug Peterson, Ernesto Jay, and Jackson Harp. Katie Munoz answers the phones. Our theme music is provided by Miami jazz guitarist Aaron Leibovs at AaronLeibovs.com.

Don't forget to catch the podcast. Just find us, the Florida Roundup, on the NPR One app. Thanks for calling, emailing, listening, and supporting public radio in Florida. I'm Tom Hudson. Have a terrific weekend.