Tuesday's Afternoon Update

What you need to know about Florida today

| 9/12/2017

Irma won’t dampen Florida's tourism industry long term

Florida’s tourism business is worth more than $100 billion, and Hurricane Irma has put a dent in it. Even as some major theme parks re-open and airlines resume flights this week, some destinations face long roads to recovery, and workers will suffer from lost wages and tips. Read more from Marketplace and the AP.

Southeast Florida's airports, seaports reopen after Irma

Southeast Florida's major economic throughways resumed operations, albeit in a limited fashion. Airports and seaports in Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties on Tuesday were working to ramp back up in the days and weeks to come. More from the South Florida Business Journal.

Florida struggles with top job in Irma’s wake: Restoring power to millions

The remnants of once-fearsome Hurricane Irma rolled through the southeast on Tuesday, still carrying flood risks and leaving a staggering recovery effort in its wake that includes simply trying to turn the lights back on across huge swaths of Florida. More from the Washington Post.

Irma destroys much of Florida citrus crop

In less than a day Hurricane Irma turned a once promising Florida citrus crop into a disaster with winds ripping as much as 75 percent of the fruit from their trees. “We had one of the best crops in five years if we could have delivered it,” said Paul Meador of Everglades Harvesting and Hauling in LaBelle, which manages about 3,000 orange grove acres in Southwest Florida. More from the Lakeland Ledger.

Tampa Bay's foreclosure rates plunges again

As of June, just 1.5 percent of Tampa Bay homes with mortgages were in some stage of foreclosure. That compares to 2.1 percent a year earlier, CoreLogic reports, and is a dramatic plunge from 2012, when 12.2 percent — or one out of every eight homes — faced foreclosure. More from the Tampa Bay Times.

Business Profile
White Picket Produce

In the first week of her Sarasota-based organic produce delivery service, in 2015, Sharyn Vross did eight deliveries, filling boxes of fruit and vegetables for her customers in the living room of her house. Today, White Picket Produce does about 140 deliveries a week to homes and businesses in and around Sarasota and Lakewood Ranch.

» More from the Business Observer.

Sports Business
Florida is Top Birth State for NFL Players

Babies born in Florida are more likely to grow up to be football stars than from anywhere else in the United States. The top five states are all from the Southeast, led by Florida at No. 1 and Georgia close behind at No. 2. South Carolina is third, Alabama fourth and Louisiana fifth.