Hurricane 2008

Lee County will request roughly $1.24 million in federal reimbursement from Tropical Storm Fay expenses, significantly less than was requested for previous storms like Hurricanes Wilma and Charley, public records show. Full story »

Anyone in Collier County who suffered damages or losses from Tropical Storm Fay must register for state/federal insurance by the end of Monday. Full story »

Crashing waves and a powerful sea surge from Hurricane Paloma destroyed hundreds of homes along Cuba's southern coast, but the storm rapidly weakened into a tropical depression Sunday as it moved over the island. Full story »

Forecasters say Tropical Storm Paloma is strengthening and turning to the north as it approaches the Cayman Islands and Cuba. Full story »

Three years ago Friday Hurricane Wilma’s 125 mph winds whipped Immokalee. Some residents of the farming community 40 miles northeast of Naples are still waiting on relief. “Floridians knew that recovering from the third costliest storm in our nation’s history would not happen overnight,” Jim Homstad, a Federal Emergency Management Agency spokesman at the agency’s Florida office, wrote in an e-mail. “FEMA has made incredible progress.” Full story »

Forecasters say Omar has reached hurricane strength with top winds of 75 mph as it menaces Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Full story »

The National Hurricane Center in Miami says a new tropical depression has formed over the eastern Caribbean even as what had been Tropical Storm Nana lost strength over the Atlantic. Full story »

Forecasters at the National Hurricane Center in Miami say Tropical Storm Nana has formed in the eastern Atlantic, but predict it will weaken to a tropical depression by Monday. Full story »

The National Hurricane Center says Subtropical Storm Laura is keeping its strength as it churns through the north central Atlantic, far from land. Full story »

The National Hurricane Center says Tropical Storm Kyle has formed south of Bermuda in the Atlantic.
Full story »

To meet the needs of residents following Tropical Storm Fay, a short-term Disaster Recovery Center will be opening in Collier County. Full story »

Tropical storms and hurricanes seem to be headed at Southwest Florida one after the other like snowballs the past few weeks. Some Islanders say the experience is making them storm savvy, while others say they’re storm weary. The statistical peak of the Atlantic hurricane season is Wednesday, Sept. 10. The month of September averages three storms a year; this year, there have been four tropical cyclones watched by forecasters in the first week of September alone, according to the National Hurricane Center. Full story »

For the Caribbean, it has been the type of hurricane season people most hope to avoid. And Monday, Southwest Florida’s Cuban and Haitian communities awaited news from friends and family in the island nations. Full story »

Authorities in the Houston area and along the Southeast Texas Gulf Coast ordered hundreds of thousands of people to evacuate Thursday as Hurricane Ike lumbered toward the coast and threatened to grow even stronger. Traffic was building on roadways leading away from low-lying areas in Galveston County, and officials urged residents to finish storm preparations quickly. Some gas stations were running out of fuel as residents scurried to leave. Full story »

Don’t panic but be on guard. That’s the message Collier Commissioners hoped to convey to residents Sunday about Hurricane Ike, whose path was pushed farther from Southwest Florida in Sunday weather predictions. County commissioners declared a state of emergency in anticipation of the storm, but are holding off initiating evacuations or setting curfews as the storm passes over Cuba. Full story »