The Florida Roundup - Hurricane Helene recovery, how to cast your ballot and this week's dock workers strike

Episode Date: October 4, 2024

This week on The Florida Roundup, we look at recovery efforts a week after Hurricane Helene's landfall. First, we spoke to Florida Rep. Christine Hunschofsky (3:10), then we spoke with David Jolly, former Republican representative who penned a recent op-ed (10:42). Next we turned to Miami-Dade County Supervisor of Elections, Christina White, to discuss all the ways to vote in the upcoming Nov. 5 election (20:05). And also University of Florida Professor Michael McDonald, from the UF elections Lab (24:00). We also checked in with our partner PolitiFact for a claims check about social media and Hurricane Helene (33:25). Finally, we look at a few other stories from across the state including a look at how the state's ports are moving forward following a longshoreman strike earlier this week, and peanut farmers (37:22).

This is the Florida Roundup. I'm Tom Hudson. Thanks for being here this week. Clearwater Pass Gym opened for business only about three months ago. By its name, you may guess it's in Clearwater Beach. In fact, it's just 1,000 feet from the sand on the barrier island. That sand wound up on the streets. The ocean water flooded homes. The wind blew down trees and roofs. Matt Black owns the gym.

For me, this is definitely the worst that I've seen. I haven't been here all that long, but from what a lot of the locals have been telling me that have been here 20,30 years, this is definitely the worst that they've ever seen it. His gym was able to reopen on Wednesday when power was returned. The center of Helene may have been more than 100 miles from the Tampa area out in the Gulf of Mexico. But it

brought historic flooding to the region. Eric Weiss knows this. He's seen a lot of storms in his time. He's the Tampa wastewater director. I've been here 33 years, been through many storms. This is the first, I would say, significant storm surge event that we've ever experienced here. Tens of thousands of people have had their homes damaged by the storm. Tens of thousands of people have had their homes damaged by the storm. Devon Barbo lost his apartment. We had four foot waters outside of our apartment. And we had three foot water inside the apartment.

Basically ruining all of my items that I had in my room. Up the coast is where Helene came ashore finally in Florida, just the latest storm in the past 13 months to hit the Big Bend area. Just haven't had time to get over Idaea, Debbie, and now it just compounds all of that. Hud Lilliot and his wife had a home on a canal in Dekel Beach. Brooke Hires and her husband in Horseshoe Bend had been living in a trailer provided by the state since Hurricane Adelia hit last August. Their new home was almost finished when Helene swept it off its pilings. You feel beat down, like you can't come back from it. You feel like this could be the end of things as you knew it, you know, of your town, of your community. And

right now it's so early we just don't even know how to recover. Rebuild and recover or retreat? What should be the response? 305-995-1800 to share your experiences. 305-995-1800. We've got a lot of hurricane veterans out there. How about it? Rebuild, recover, or retreat. Radio at thefloridaroundup.org is our email. The inbox is open. Now the flood damage left by Helene comes as the housing market already has been wrestling with high insurance premiums and an affordability crisis across the state. A new law that went into effect just this week requires anyone selling a home in Florida to now disclose if the property has ever had a flood insurance claim. Florida Representative Christine Honchofsky is the Democrat from Broward County

who sponsored that legislation. The representative joins us now. Welcome to the program. Thanks for your time. Thanks so much for having me. I'm glad to be here. Owners of a home flooded by Helene a week ago, they will now have to acknowledge the flood if they put their home up for sale. Is that right? Yes, that's right. If they have filed a claim with their insurance provider or for federal assistance. And what about a homeowner selling a home that was flooded by, say, Hurricane Ian two years ago or some other storm? Yes, you'll have to disclose whether or not you filed a claim on any, again, with either your insurance provider or with the federal government. So it's not as if you filed a claim after this week, it's even if you filed a claim

in the past during the entire ownership experience of the home, is that right? Yeah. And the whole purpose of this is to make sure that people understand the flood risks when people are purchasing, you know, for most people buying a home is the biggest investment they're ever going to have and that they're going in with eyes wide open. Also, part of the bill has a disclosure that lets people know that flood insurance is not covered by your homeowner's insurance. Many people don't know that, that you have to have a separate flood insurance policy. So to that end, Representative, most Florida homeowners do not have flood

insurance, so they can't file a flood insurance claim because they don't have any coverage. Will they have to tell a buyer about any flood risk? They will only have to tell a buyer if they have filed a claim with an insurance provider and if they have received any federal assistance related to flood damage. So many people who may not have flood insurance right now and therefore can't file a claim, they will be getting federal assistance and they'll have to disclose that. This is a first for Florida law. Does it also apply to condominium owners? It applies to homeowners. Homeowners only. So condominium owners, say for instance, whose common areas get flooded out,

they do not have to disclose that to a potential buyer. Is that correct? Since they are the owners of the condo, they would have to disclose that flooding. If it's in the common area. Yes. I see. Most Florida homeowners, as we mentioned, do not have insurance coverage from the National Flood Insurance Program. The NFIP, as it's called, states on its website, Representative, quote, no matter where you live or work, some risk of flooding exists. It says that plainly. Does this law essentially put most people buying a home in Florida on notice that they face a flood risk? Yes. And I think part of it was we wanted this to also be an educational tool that we are living in the state of Florida. That is a peninsula is surrounded by

water. We are, as we've seen, unfortunately, some areas have been terribly hit three times in the last 1318 months. And people should just be aware of those risks, especially when they are putting such you know, so much of their financial worth down and purchasing a home, and we want them to be aware of the risks, we want them to be aware that they risks. We want them to be aware that they will probably need flood insurance and that it's not covered by their homeowner's insurance just so that they have all the tools

and the information they need to make a good decision for themselves and their family. We're speaking with the representative, Christine Honchofsky, a Democrat representing parts of Northern Broward County. She was the sponsor of Now What's Law in Florida, requiring homeowners who have filed an insurance claim for flood damage to disclose that flood risk to a potential buyer. It's the first time that is in Florida law. You can share your experiences with fighting water and your home at 305-995-1800, 305-995-1800, or email us radio at thefloridaroundup.org.

Representative, this law does not require a landlord to disclose a flood risk to a tenant. Why not? Correct, because this is just for homebuyers. This is our first step. So we worked with the realtors very early on since they're a major stakeholder. They're the ones that will have to be presenting the disclosure for their sellers to sign and for the buyers to see. So this is the point we started at, that it's for homebuyers who are investing in a home. So are you working on legislation? That's a next step? That's a second piece to this? We will continue to work on this.

Senator Bradley and I have talked already that there are some next steps we would like to look at and see what's possible. So we will be continuing. This is not the last time we will be addressing this issue. Can you tip your hand a little bit, Representative? What are some of those possibilities? I cannot tip my hand, but we will be continuing to work on this. We look at this as a consumer, when the legislature was considering this bill, there was an analysis that found, quote, property owners who are trying to sell their property may have a decrease in the market value of their property because of the required flood disclosure.

So how do you balance this disclosure with the risk that this law may lead to lower home values here in Florida? We have not experienced any lower home values in our area. In fact, over the last several years, they have skyrocketed. I think it's really important that when people are making such a large purchase, again, probably one of the largest purchases they will ever make, that they are aware of the risks. And I think with so many people in the state of Florida not being aware that flood insurance is not included in your homeowner's insurance, I think this bill will be helping a lot of Floridians. Let me ask you, because most homeowners or buyers ultimately look at the Federal Emergency

Management Association's flood maps. And for any home buyer, you're looking for that X to show up, right? That flood zone X, meaning you won't be required to have flood insurance if you have a mortgage. Do those maps, does that flood designation, is that harmful ultimately to disclosure, to public knowledge, and frankly, the financial risk? I personally think that if you're in the state of Florida, you should pretty much always assume that you have a risk of flooding. I mean, we're seeing flooding in areas that have never seen it before. We're seeing flooding on a scale that we've never seen it before. And personally, as someone who is risk averse myself, I think it's really important that we pay attention to where we're living and what the risks are around us. Florida Representative Christine Hunchovsky, a Democrat representing parts of northern Broward County.

Representative, thanks so much for your time today. We really appreciate it. Thank you so much for having me and for highlighting this bill. We look forward to continuing coverage. David Jolly is now with us, the former United States representative, a Republican who represented parts of Pinellas County when he was in the U.S. Congress. David, welcome back to the program. Nice to have you. Hey, thank you, Tom. Great to be with you. You're in Pinellas County. How are you, your family, and your home doing? fine. We had a little bit of small electrical fire in the middle of the storm, but with heartbreak, our neighborhood is largely wiped out. The beach towns are wiped out. Communities changed forever.

For me, the greatest reminder is Hurricane Ivan when it hit Pensacola and Milton, the Panhandle area in 04. I was in government at the time. We did a flyover. And what you witnessed from above is the earth just moved. The storm moved the earth across those beach towns. And we have people whose life possessions have now been lost and are facing whether to rebuild or to leave. It's heartbreaking. There's a human impact as well as an economic one we're all watching. Well, I want to focus on that economic piece. You mentioned Ivan from now, what, 10 years 10 years or so ago if a little bit more. In the past decade major hurricanes in Florida have caused by my back of the envelope 90 billion dollars in insured

damages. We're talking about Michael, Irma, Ian. About 12 billion dollars in federal spending from FEMA spending has happened because of those storms. The tab for Helene is likely to be in the tens of billions of dollars nationwide. How should Floridians decide if this money to recover and rebuild is well spent? Well, I think part of an op-ed I just dropped this week is I'm not sure we currently govern natural disasters in the smartest and most efficient way. We kind of hide from the true economics of it. And the politicians we elect are happy to do that because they're hard conversations to have. I think of how we respond to and prepare for kind of pre-storm mitigation. And I have three R's, resiliency, which we all know, undergrounding of utilities, elevating properties and infrastructure.

We do not invest enough in that. And we see that when a storm comes to a low-lying area, be it the Big Bend or somewhere like Pinellas County. But we also, I don't think we have adequate reinsurance that allows private insurers to underwrite more traditional risks. Private insurers cannot take on the historic risk themselves, and taxpayers ultimately pay for it. Typically, we will see an appropriations bill by Congress, a bailout bill that tries to provide relief, but it comes six months, 12 months later, and it is incomplete for homeowners that have lost everything. And the third R is I think we have to have a hard conversation about whether or not we underwrite risks for people who rebuild in high-risk corridors. That's a fair question, a controversial one, but a fair one. Yeah, it is. And Roger from Pinellas Park has been listening into this conversation, David. A similar question. Roger, go ahead. You are on the radio. David, I like your point. I heard a legislator a while ago said homeowners must just be aware of these risks.

After every disaster, we continue to let developers redevelop areas that are obviously at risk. And I think that's the mistake. And it won't change because the legislators like to keep increasing the tax base. If you have a McMansion there, build a 12-story condo. If you've got a 12-story condo, build one that's 18. You know, it's the developers are to blame. Roger, thanks for adding that. Developers, one could argue, David, are simply meeting market demand.

Folks want to live near the water, on the water. And so I can't imagine you'd support turning Florida's barrier islands back into barrier islands, as opposed to neighborhoods that you described earlier. Yeah, this is where it really is a controversial issue. And I kind of come down somewhere halfway between your comment and Roger's and it's this. You know, I think it's fair to discuss that some of these towns are 100-year-old towns and people have owned these parcels for 50 years or 10 years or whatever it might be. So from a public policy standpoint, we do have to support the recovery efforts of our existing communities and we have to provide the aid necessary for people who are our neighbors and participate in our economy.

But I think where the hard questions come in is what about the new buyer or new developer who tomorrow decides to pick up a parcel on the beach and to develop a new home or a condo. Should that new build, should that new development, not a rebuild of a family that's already there that's owned the parcel, but a new entrant into a high-risk corridor in the state of Florida, should they have available to them public bailout money should, in fact, a disaster occur? I'm not sure they should. I mean, part of the problem is— Can you imagine, though, the impact on the value of the grandfathered piece of land that does have the ability to tap into the social safety net? Well, we either accept the reality of climate science or we don't. I mean, I don't know

what we're doing ignoring the reality of climate science. And when a disaster comes, we pretend after five or six years it never happened and would never happen again. And so is the public responsible for that risk or is the private person responsible for that risk? I actually think plenty of people, I mean, look, we're already seeing the Pinellas County beaches turn over from what I remember growing up, even from 10 or 20 years ago in the early 2000s when we saw the bubble. In Pinellas, it was largely people buying second homes and people turning over homes. Now we have new entrants into the market, new money coming into the market. But for 20 or 30 years, we've ignored the responsibility of addressing climate science

by lawmakers in Tallahassee and Washington. The risk is real. And I'm not sure the public needs to underwrite it anymore. Rick with no K emailed us this, David. Rick said, please refresh our memory of which Florida state official, U.S. Senator Rick Scott or Governor Ron DeSantis, forbid the term climate change in any official papers or statements. So here's the fact check, Rick, with no K. 2015, it was then Governor Scott who ordered state agencies to stop using terms like climate change and global warming.

That's according to reporting from the Florida Center for Investigative Reporting. from the Florida Center for Investigative Reporting. And then this year, 2014, Governor Ron DeSantis signed a law that state agencies no longer have to consider climate change when coming up with energy policies. David Jolly, you giggled at that question. It was a knowing giggle, it sounded like. Look, I don't need to really talk politics, but we know that the two major parties

have different opinions on this, and I think it's fair to suggest that policymakers in Tallahassee, which has been governed by Republicans for 20 years, have ignored the reality of the changing climate and have put our properties and our lives in peril for doing so. It is time to have responsible governing and address this real question of climate science. It's too late. It's too late. And I guess the previous conversation about whether we rebuild or not, we're only having that because we've ignored the reality of a changing climate for the last 20 years.

These storms are stronger, more frequent. They're taking more lives. They're taking more of an economic impact. We're in trouble in the state of Florida if we continue to go the direction of Ron DeSantis and Rick Scott. You are a homeowner. You are a Floridian. You still consider yourself a Republican? I left the party in 2018.

It was a long march. Took me about 10 years of walking away, but I left in 18. I've been an NPA ever since, and I love being untethered from a major party dogma. As a homeowner, 30 seconds here, David. What do you make of the previous conversation we had with the Democratic representative around this new flood disclosure requirement if you happen to sell your Florida home. I think it's great.

More information creates more efficient markets, and if it has an impact on the value of a seller, it's aiding the value that the buyer's approaching it. Efficient markets are created by greater information. Consumer protection, consumer transparency is critical in this space. David Jolly, former Republican, former Republican representative for parts of Pinellas County, joining us from our member station WUSF in Tampa. David, always a pleasure. Thanks for joining us.

Thank you, Tom. You can send us your thoughts, radio at thefloridaroundup.org. Our inbox is always open. We'd love to hear from you there. Radio at thefloridaroundup.org. Stay tuned. It is a deadline approaching regarding the election. The deadline approaches next week. We'll talk about it and what you can do next. This is the Florida Roundup. I'm Tom Hudson. Thanks for being

along with us this week. Monday is the deadline to register to vote in Florida if you want to cast a ballot in the election this fall. Vote-by-mail ballots already are in mailboxes, and early voting begins in just about two weeks. Are you election ready? What method of voting will you use? Early voting in person, election day, vote-by-mail. And why are you choosing to vote that way? 305-995-1800. We'd love to hear from Republicans, Democrats, NPAs, you name it. It's the same phone number for everybody in Florida. 305-995-1800.

Or email your thoughts, radio at thefloridaroundup.org. Radio at thefloridaroundup.org. thefloridaroundup.org, radio at thefloridaroundup.org. The supervisor of elections in Miami-Dade County, the largest county in the state of Florida, Christina White, is now with us on The Roundup. Christina, welcome to the program. Thanks for your time. Thank you so much. It is my pleasure to be with you today. Monday, Monday, Monday. What is the time deadline, the actual deadline in order to register to vote here in Florida? Yes. So it's a big day on Monday. You know, people think of Election Day being 32 days away. But in fact, it is actually here, as you said at the top, people are already voting in the state of Florida. And that all starts with registering to vote. So if you are one of those people who have been thinking about registering and haven't quite done that yet, time is up. The deadline is here and your options are

as follows. My first recommendation and easiest thing to do is to register online. You do have to have either a Florida driver's license or Florida issued ID in order to use that method because the systems are linked. You have until midnight to do so. Midnight on Monday. Midnight on Monday. That's correct. And my office happens to be open until midnight as well for those really last minute voters that want to come in and do things in person. That probably varies from county to county throughout the state of Florida. And then the other option is if you want to use the traditional voter registration application, that's okay too, but you do need to make sure that it is postmarked

by the deadline of Monday. It's not putting it in the mail. It's not walking it into the office beyond that. It is a hard deadline on that. So if you're going to use the mail, it must be postmarked by Monday. So you mentioned the documentation necessary as a Florida issued driver's license or a Florida state issued ID. Is there any other type of identification that is acceptable to register to vote in the state of Florida? On the application form itself, it asks you for either your driver's license or the last four digits of your social security number. So that is sufficient for you to register to vote. Having the Florida ID is to use the online version of registration. There has been an effort by some Republicans in Congress over the last several weeks to pass a law requiring proof of citizenship

to vote, to cast a ballot. Does someone have to be a United States citizen to register to vote in Florida? Absolutely. That is already a law that's in the books nationwide and in Florida. You must be a registered, I mean, sorry, you must be a U.S. citizen in order to register to vote and to actually vote. And it is a crime if you do so and you are not. actually vote. And it is a crime if you do so and you are not. And then what documentation does one need if the citizenship question comes up? In Florida, there's no documentation that's required at the front end of registering. You are going to be answering a few questions on the application under penalty of perjury. One of them is that you are a citizen and then that information is sent up to the Florida Division of Elections

who does data matching with various databases to confirm this information before allowing you to register to vote. And then finally on this registration issue, can a family member fill out and turn in a voter registration form for someone else? Not recommended. So you're free to give out applications or pull up the

application on the website for a family member, but it really should be you as the voter in the act of registering yourself because there are rules regarding third-party voter registration organizations. So if you're doing this on behalf of somebody, the rules are that you should have registered with the Division of Elections in advance. And we're really up against the deadline here. And especially if you're talking about a family member, you probably haven't done that. And so you can provide them the form. You can bring up the website, but let that family member do things on their own.

Christina White is the election supervisor in Miami-Dade County. Christina, stick with us. Michael McDonald is going to join us now. He is a professor of political science at the University of Florida in Gainesville, author of Pandemic to Insurrection, Voting in the 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He's also with the U.F. Elections Lab. If you have questions about registering to vote or the method of casting your ballot, call us 305-995-1800. Michael, welcome back to our program. What difference is in the method of voting in this election compared to four years ago are you expecting here in Florida?

Well, there's been one major change, and that was with the passage of a law called SB 90 by the Florida government. And that law did away with the sort of standing absentee ballot request that people would have that would be good through to federal general elections. Now, all of those registration applications that were, say, in 2020 or 22, they've been flushed out of the system. And so if you wish to use a mail ballot, which 2.9 million, almost 3 million Floridians have already requested their ballot. You have to do it again. And so some of those requests are coming from the presidential preference primary, the August primary. Those requests, if you chose the option, are good through the general election. But if you are expecting a mail ballot because you voted by mail in 2020 or 2022 and you haven't requested a mail ballot this year, it's really important for you to just go ahead and request that application now.

Christina, off the top of your head, do you have that deadline to request a vote by mail ballot? Yes. So statewide, the deadline is October 24th, but not only myself, but also my colleagues throughout the state are recommending that people do things early this election cycle. Nobody should be waiting until the last minute for anything because the later you wait to request it, then we have to mail it to you. Human nature, you're going to take time with the ballot. And there's a very hard return deadline, which is 7 p.m. on Election Day. return deadline, which is 7 p.m. on election day. And so I would say if you're listening to this right now, right after this program, go online, put your request in so that your supervisor can get that ballot to you as soon as possible and that you can return it early and not have any

issues. Michael, what do you are modeling for in terms of the number of Floridians who will vote by mail, given the changes you outlined in the law, which has a tighter expiration for vote by mail requests than in previous cycles? It's really hard to say, quite frankly. I look at early voting throughout the entire country. I've done that since 2008. And when you have a law change like this, and it's an unusual law change, very infrequently do we see a state making it more difficult to vote a mail ballot. So there's really no precedent across the country to say what the effect would be. We've looked at the municipal elections in 2023. We've looked at the presidential preference primary this year. And we can see that turnout was down compared to prior similar elections.

that turnout was down compared to prior similar elections and in both cases almost all of the decline was among people who were voting by mail so it's possible that we're going to see lower turnout as a consequence of it where i think the mitigating factor will be is that the presidential election is a very high profile election it's not like a municipal. It's not like a municipal election. It's not like a primary election. And so people are very much aware of the election. And so they're going to mostly, I hope, overcome whatever costs that are involved with requesting that mail ballot application. Again, people will seek another way of voting either in person early or in person on election day. Christina, you're in the most populous county in Florida. Have you seen a drop in the number of vote-by-mail requests this cycle compared to, say, the

2020 presidential cycle? Oh, yes, a significant change. We were very vocal on the front end of that bill. We didn't think that it needed to change. Just to put things in perspective, in the 2020 presidential election, we mailed over 600,000 vote-by-mail ballots. Now, it was a year of COVID, so maybe more people were taking advantage, and I understand that. But even for the 2022 gubernatorial, there were 438,000 people on the rolls. Where we stand today

is at about 280,000. So that is- So a 60% drop compared to four years ago. and 80,000. So that is a 60% drop compared to four years ago. Yes. And that is a very low number. Um, and so I agree with Michael in the sense that I, we don't know what that means. This is a reset year for all of us to really understand voter behavior. Um, does it mean that turnout is going to be lower or is it just a shift back to in-person? We really won't know until, until we are in it. And so we've really been encouraging people, get your request in now, vote by mail, or if not, it's going to be really key that people are preparing and reading their ballot in advance before getting in lines, because that's the concern, right? Or the long lines. We've got some calls and some emails.

Daniel has been very patient listening in northeast of Orlando. Go ahead, Daniel. You're on the radio. Daniel, you with us? Daniel, near Orlando. Go ahead. There you are. Go ahead, sir. Hi.

So I'm a registered Democrat from Oviedo up in Seminole County, and I did receive my mail ballot yesterday. I've been voting by mail for years, and I voted in other states by mail when I lived there. But I'm sort of a little bit taken aback here that they still require us to put postage on these mail-in ballots. I know it's a county-by-county issue, and some of the larger counties in the state do pay for that postage. But for someone my age, I haven't used a stamp in maybe 20 years. Yeah, yeah, I hear you. And frankly, every cent counts these days. No doubt about it, Daniel. Thank you for that. Christina, Michael, how about the issue of the cost of postage and who picks it up?

And perhaps that being a barrier to get that ballot in the mail. I'll take that. So in my county, we do pay postage. The Board of County Commissioners here approved that many years ago. We were a trailblazer on that. It is very county specific. But what I would say is you also have the option of dropping it off at any one of the early voting locations within your county. within your county. So again, you're going to want to figure out where the early voting sites are, what days they're available and what hours they're available. But there are drop boxes there with a staff member securing them. And to me, that really is the perfect hybrid way of voting. You get your ballot in the mail, you take your time with it and you drop it off. And in that case, no postage would be necessary. Yeah, Daniel, I'll share with you, at least in the Hudson household, we have our vote by mail ballots. They came this week in our mailbox. We will fill them out at the

kitchen table and then we will drive them to the drop off box during early voting. That's how we deal with it, at least in our house, that hybrid way. Susan in the Keys sent us this voicemail. Hi, Tom and guests. I want everyone to vote. How can I volunteer to help people get their ballots submitted? I am new to Florida. Many of I volunteer to help people get their ballots submitted? I am new to Florida. Many of the volunteer activities I have done in other states are illegal in Florida. How can I legally help? As an example of difficult voting conditions where people will need help, there are only five total drop-off boxes in the entire county. The only one offered in Key West is five miles outside of town.

Please give us advice, tips and tricks, if you will, on how to help people overcome these limitations. Michael McDonald with the University of Florida. How about changes in how folks like Susan help others get their ballot into a voting basket, into the cast to be counted? Well, I would always defer to the election officials because they're going to have the best information. I can tell you that when we looked at the registrations that have been happening by third party organizations in this cycle, they're down about 400,000 over the 2020 election. So the changes that Florida made have really hampered some organizations' efforts to do the sorts of things that the caller is talking about. But again, I'll defer to Christina because she'll give the best information.

Yeah. Christina, could you give one piece of advice to Susan who wants everybody to vote and wants to help people make sure their ballots get submitted? What what's one thing she should be able to think about? I would call the supervisor of elections in Monroe County. And, you know, I don't want to overstep, but, you know, certainly getting key messages out of how easy it is to vote in the state of Florida through social media and any other networks that you have, because it's not just voting by mail. It's early voting and it's election day. It's simply making a choice for yourself. So to me, voting in Florida is easy. You just have to know what your options are and getting that information out. Yeah. Some of those options may have changed since the last time you voted if you're not

a regular voter. Miami-Dade County Supervisor of Elections Christina White, thank you for your time. And Michael McDonald, Professor of Political Science at the University of Florida and the Elections Lab. To Michael and Christina, thank you so much for your time today. It is election season, after all, here in the Sunshine State. You are listening to the Florida Roundup from your Florida Public Radio station. to the Florida Roundup from your Florida Public Radio station. Now, as Election Day nears, voting begins. We are examining some claims each week with our partner, PolitiFact. If you have a claim you want us to check out, email us, radio at thefloridaroundup.org. And today we're going to start by steering a little bit away from politics because social media is filled with claims about Hurricane Helene. So today we're going to hit on this hurricane that's going up into Florida and maybe figure out who's causing it.

Who's causing a hurricane? Well, there's a clue. This is an Instagram reel from a user named Cultivate Elevate. The user describes itself as, quote, cultivating the highest quality superfoods while elevating your lifestyle. Certainly the place to go for meteorological science, right? So I found this hurricane back in 1947 called King, and this did the exact same path as this hurricane today. All right, what he's referring to here is a path out of the Caribbean Sea. But this is where any possible similarities end. The King hurricane in 1947 swung east into Monroe County, then Miami,

then went out into the Atlantic Ocean. Helene, as we know, went into the Gulf of Mexico. But that fact doesn't stop the comment Ocean. Helene, as we know, went into the Gulf of Mexico. But that fact doesn't stop the commentator. Then it gets weirder when I find out that the U.S. government and General Electric do this project with the hurricane, goes horribly wrong, causes a whole bunch of flooding, people die, and nobody talks about it. All right, well, the official death toll from the U.S. government from Hurricane King in 1947 was one, one person. The project he's talking about was called Project Cirrus.

The caption of this Instagram that went viral was weather modification with the question mark. Monique Curette is now with us, deputy editor from our news partner, PolitiFact. All right, Monique, this came across a lot of our feeds this week. Where to begin? What was Project Cirrus? Hi, thanks for having me on today. Project Cirrus was an agreement between several labs, some of which were operated by the federal government, to do cloud seeding during a hurricane. So cloud seeding is a type of weather modification that involves adding substances like dry ice to clouds to increase their ability to produce rain. But during Project Cirrus, researchers dumped dry ice in Hurricane King's clouds after the storm had already exited

Florida. And the hurricane swerved and made landfall in Georgia. But then scientists disagreed about whether the cloud seeding actually had anything to do with the hurricane. Whether it worked or not. Yeah. So what does PolitiFact make of this claim that Helene was the result of, quote, weather modification? Well, weather modification programs ended in the 1980s, and no weather modification programs have been done since then. So hurricanes form on their own, given the right weather conditions. And that's what happened with Helene. There was another storm claim on Instagram with a video of a giant yellow rubber duck that was being blown across an interstate. Is that true video? Did that happen? Well, it didn't happen in Florida during Hurricane Helene. That happened

during a windstorm in Michigan earlier this year. And so some of these claims came through PolitiFact's partnership with Meta, which is the owner of Facebook and Instagram. How does PolitiFact check some of these claims, these, you know, the video that purports to be Hurricane Helene, but is not? Sure. For photos and videos, we often use what we call reverse image search. That involves searching for the image online to see how and where it's been shared before. That involves searching for the image online to see how and where it's been shared before. So the example of the duck that you used before, we can find out that that, you know, had appeared online long before the hurricane. And also, you know, we go back to original sources whenever possible.

That's very important. Original sources know what you're sharing online. Monique, next week, we'll return to politics. We promise. Monique Curret, deputy editor of our news partner, PolitiFact. You are listening to the Florida Roundup from your Florida Public Radio station. This is the Florida Roundup. I'm Tom Hudson. Thanks for being along with us. For three days this week, the union members who help load and unload cargo ships at ports in Florida went on strike. It was part of a work action at ports from Texas all the way to Maine. The ILA, the International Longshoremen's Association Union, walked out at midnight Tuesday morning after its contract expired with a group of shipping companies known as the United States Maritime Alliance.

But on Thursday, the two sides reached a tentative agreement on wages and to extend their expired deal until January 15th. They will return to the bargaining table over other issues while the longshoremen go back to work. Ports in Tampa, South Florida, and Jacksonville were all affected here in the Sunshine State. So the week ends with the dock workers union going back to work, but that's not what it sounded like on Tuesday when the strike began. Here's reporter Will Brown with our partner Jacksonville Today. Warren Smith is the president of ILA Local 1408, one of two dock workers unions in Northeast Florida. He says there's too much at stake for them not to strike. Because the threat is automation. That's our threat. Corporate greed. That's our threat. Jack's port is the state's largest container port. Smith says the 1,900 local ILA members are one link in the worldwide supply

chain. You have jobs all throughout this region that are depending upon the raw goods and raw materials that we're bringing in off of the ships, and we're feeding them so that they can continue to manufacture whatever goods or products that they have. I'm Will Brown in Jacksonville. No contract! No wage! No contract! I'm Carlton Gillespie in Fort Lauderdale. ILA! No wage!

These are the sounds of the international longshoremen strike happening near the entrance to Port Everglades. Local ILA President Johnny Dixon says the group is demanding stronger wages and benefits and job protections from automation. When it comes down to replacing a man or a woman's job, we're totally opposed to that. Dixon says the port community has been supportive of the strike, and you can hear it when trucks leaving the port roll by. Supportive honks from trucks that might have been loaded up by these striking workers. Union workers at Port Miami also went out on strike. Port Miami is the busiest port in the state by value of goods shipped through it. Some of the containers sailing toward Port Miami carry tables, sofas, and lamps for retailer City Furniture.

It's one of the largest importers at the port. One day, two day, very disruptive. If this lasts more than that, very scary. That's City Furniture CEO Andrew Koenig. Turns out it lasted three days. CEO Andrew Koenig. Turns out it lasted three days. It's estimated that a shutdown would cost the national economy about $5 billion a day and set back supply chains heading into the winter holidays. This is going to add more fulfillment costs to our operation, to the customer, and so forth. So very unsettling, especially in an environment where inflation is already an issue. And so, you know, anybody in the world of supply chain, any retailer, any shipping manufacturing

company will tell you this is very challenging times. The timing of the strike was in favor of the dockworkers as worries were building that a slowdown of imports along the east coast of the United States would slow down recovery from Hurricane Helene. Michael Rubin is the president and CEO of the Florida Ports Council. If you're trying to replace all your furniture that just got damaged, those furniture movements are one of the big products that come into Florida, and they will now not be coming into either Florida or any other terminals on the East Coast. Governor Ron DeSantis echoed those concerns on Wednesday.

I think it would be really, really bad luck for the Biden-Harris administration to allow supplies to just be sitting in the Atlantic Ocean just on ships that are just idling when you have people not just here in Pinellas County but up our entire Gulf Coast and Big Bend who need it. And then on Thursday, the governor ordered the Florida National and State Guards to all ports affected by the strike if needed. He issued an executive order for the guards to do two things. To maintain order and, if possible, resume operations, which would otherwise be shut down during this interruption. Now, it wasn't exactly clear how the guards would resume operations if they were needed, and by Thursday evening, they were not needed. The union announced a deal and the dock workers would resume work.

Now, not all cargo operations at Florida ports were affected by the strike. Some terminal operators do not use workers from the Longshoremen's Union. Cruises were not impacted at all. The busiest cruise port in the world is in Miami. Port Canaveral is the second busiest. And the work to bring in gasoline, jet fuel, and propane energy by ports here in Florida was not interrupted by the three-day strike either. All right, on to the election now. This week, a federal court rejected a pro-abortion group's attempt to block commercials and websites from a state agency about Amendment 4. That's the amendment asking voters to put abortion protections into the state constitution. The state's health

care administration published a website that said, quote, don't let the fear mongers lie to you, end quote. Health reporter Joe Mario Pedersen explains the ruling from our partner, Central Florida Public Media. A Leon County judge rejected a request by the Floridians Protecting Freedom Coalition's request for an injunction. The coalition argued the agency was spreading misinformation about the amendment's ballot language. The judge said it was up to voters to decide on the facts of the campaign, not the court. Keisha Mulfer is a senior communications strategist with the American Civil Liberties Union, which is part of the Floridians Protecting Freedom. She says the state's argument of the ballot language being deceiving isn't factual. And I think readers need to be reminded the Florida Supreme Court

reviewed citizen-led initiatives prior to its placement on a ballot and approved the language. In a statement, the Florida Agency for Healthcare said it was pleased with the ruling and called the request a, quote, politically motivated attack. Joe Mario Pedersen in Orlando. I'm Tom Hudson. You're listening to the Florida Roundup from your Florida Public Radio station. Finally on the Roundup this week, a few more notes on Hurricane Helene one week later. Before the storm grew into the monster it became, the forecast was for some significant storm surge along the Gulf Coast, four to eight feet in the Tampa Bay area, much higher in the Big Bend region.

And the early data from the tidal gauges is in from the Tampa Bay region. Here's Gabriela Paul from our partner station WUSF. Cody Fritz leads the storm surge team for the National Hurricane Center. He reviews real-time data that tidal gauges record during hurricanes. He says preliminary readings show Helene likely broke multiple water level records. Largely, you're getting about six to seven feet above that datum. So that's pretty remarkable and exceptional. And obviously, you could see the impacts in that area were pretty devastating. Eight of eight tidal and river gauges from Clearwater to Venice

logged record water levels during Helene, six of those topped water level records created by Hurricane Adalia. Fritz says the data will be paired with measurements of water lines in various locations along Florida's Gulf Coast before official numbers on storm surge are released. The process could take weeks. I'm Gabriella Paul in Tampa. Helene's rain and wind came to the panhandle as harvest season was beginning for peanuts. Florida is the third largest state for peanuts. This is really bad timing for us and the majority of my community and area. We're on a real specific harvest schedule when peanuts or cotton is concerned. Jeff Pittman grows peanuts and cotton and raises beef cattle in Jackson County.

He spoke with reporter Rose Schnabel with our partner station WUFT in Gainesville. Pittman went through Hurricane Michael, a Category 5 storm that hit in 2018. It was a catastrophic event. And that's why he takes storms seriously. You get fuel, check out the generators, make sure the livestock are taken care of, but there's not much he can do to get his peanut crop that's already in the ground ready for the hurricanes, winds, and rain, especially when the peanuts are ready to get out of the ground. Farming, after all, is about timing. The time of the rain, the time of the sun, the time

to plant, and when to pick the crop. Peanuts for roasting take about 145 days to grow. Then they need to be harvested. Pittman started his peanut harvest about a week or so before Helene, and even then he was already about a week behind because of rainy weather. And that really puts you in a very challenging position in regards to maintaining the appropriate harvest schedule. If the peanuts stay in the ground too long, the plant starts deteriorating and the peanut gets too big. And left too long in the soil, peanuts will rot or start to germinate.

Remember some basic botany here. Peanuts are actually not nuts. They're seeds. So if they're in the ground too long, they may want to try to grow another peanut plant. You start losing the peanuts in the ground too long, they may want to try to grow another peanut plant. You start losing the peanuts in the ground. So when you go in to dig the peanuts, a lot of your mature peanuts stay in the ground. So you just absolutely miss the most desirable part of that harvest window. Florida grew over a half billion pounds of peanuts last year. More than half of that harvested crop usually is turned into peanut butter, which appropriately is a staple on the list of storm supplies for some of us. Now, part of any Floridian storm prep plan is taking care of their pets, if they have any.

Imagine if that pet is about 5 feet tall and eats 10 pounds of food a day. Here's reporter Natasha Holt from our partner station WUFT in Gainesville. Small pets like cats and dogs are commonly brought along with their owners searching for hurricane shelter. But it's not as easy to relocate a 1,000-pound animal. Horse owners often must go to great lengths to make sure the equine for which they care are safe in a storm. When the World Equestrian Center in Ocala announced it would welcome evacuees, horse owners quickly responded to fill more than 1,200 stalls that were offered. The equestrian facility and resort welcomes visitors from around the globe for competitions throughout the year, but when hurricane

season presents danger for the equestrian community, the facility opens to those just hoping to stay safe. Maggie Nelson said having the opportunity to keep her two horses at the center gave her peace of mind during the storm. I wouldn't worry so much if it was just me, but because I have him and my other horse to worry about, you have to think of the animals first and do what's best for them. So you don't just hunker down in your house. You've got to evacuate and get them somewhere safe if you possibly can. And for those who came, the opportunity was one for which they are grateful.

And that'll do it for our program this week. It is produced by WLRN Public Media in Miami and WUSF in Tampa by Katie Munoz and Grayson Docter. WLRN's Vice President of Radio and the program's Technical Director is Peter Merz. Engineering help each and every week from Doug Peterson, Charles Michaels, and Jackson Harp. Richard Ives answers our phones. Our theme music is provided by Miami jazz guitarist

Aaron Leibos at aaronleibos.com. Don't forget, you can catch any of today's program that you may have missed, download it, share it, listen to all the past programs. Find us on the NPR one app. Thanks for calling, emailing, listening and above all, supporting public media in your neighborhood. I'm Tom Hudson. Have a terrific weekend.