March 29, 2024

Wednesday's Afternoon Update

What you need to know about Florida today

| 9/16/2020

Hurricane Sally battering Florida Panhandle

Hurricane Sally lurched ashore early Wednesday after intensifying overnight to a Category 2 storm, promising to soak the Gulf Coast and Southeast with heavy rains and historic flooding. Sally's strong winds are battering Pensacola, Florida, and the storm's slow pace means the rains will bring "catastrophic and life-threatening flooding," forecasters say. More from USA Today, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, and the Weather Channel.

See also:
» Hurricane Sally photos: Pensacola sees heavy flooding as Sally moves inland

Florida Trend Exclusive
InfraSite Solutions offers underground storage units for 5G tower equipment

Building out the nation’s cellular networks requires lots of towers and refrigerator-sized electrical boxes to support them. The federal and state governments want to see 5G deployed quickly, so they tried to block local authorities from imposing criteria for how the 5G-related gear should look and where it can be placed. More from Florida Trend.

Raymond James to lay off 4 percent of workforce

Raymond James Financial has announced it’s laying off nearly 4 percent of its workforce. The financial services company began laying off hundreds of employees on Tuesday at locations around the country, including its St. Petersburg headquarters. As of Tuesday, the company had about 13,900 employees, including 5,000 in Tampa Bay. That would put the total number of layoffs at more than 500. More from the Tampa Bay Times.

Orlando airport sees gradual return of international routes

Orlando’s airport was barely able to cling to its international status during the depths of the pandemic’s worldwide hit on air travel in the spring, but the region’s nonstop links to foreign cities are tiptoeing back to life. Copa Airlines of Panama, one of the earliest foreign carriers to establish service to Orlando 20 years ago, has resumed flights this month. Emerging from a prolonged shutdown, the airline will ramp up from one to four flights a week to Orlando in September and to as many as twice daily later this year. More from the Orlando Sentinel.

Classy Miami Beach designer bus stops get no operator bids

Miami Beach transportation officials want to add shelters to all 300-plus city bus stops, but after an original solicitation was deemed too pricey for vendors they are asking the city commission to offer potential bidders new terms. Over the past few years, the city has worked with Acai Associates and Italian firm Pininfarina to design the new bus stops, said city Director of Transportation Jose Gonzalez, spending over $500,000 in the process. The result was four unique bus stop designs differing in size and cost that could be placed at different locations in the city according to each location’s popularity and amount of available space. More from Miami Today.

Trend Mention

Mention ImageEvent: Future of Florida Forum 2020

Join business leaders, national industry experts and elected officials as we Relaunch and Reimagine Florida at the Florida Chamber Foundation’s Virtual 2020 Future of Florida Forum & Annual Meeting October 20-22. Attendees will enjoy an interactive experience with 9+ hours of customized content including dynamic speakers, exhibit breakouts, and virtual networking as we unite Florida’s business community to become the 10th largest economy in the world by 2030. Register today!

Florida History
Nazi submarines brought the fight to Florida during WWII

 The attack on Pearl Harbor was not the only time that World War II made it to the United States. For nearly a year, Nazi U-boat submarines patrolled the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic Ocean seeking to kill Americans, disrupt merchant shipping and strike fear in the hearts of U.S. citizens. They succeeded in the first two, sinking nearly 70 vessels, including ships coming to and from Tampa, and killing an estimated 700 crewmen.

» More from the Tampa Bay Times.

 

Transportation
Olli 2.0 joins JTA’s U2C testing program

floridaThe Olli 2.0 is the latest autonomous vehicle to join the Jacksonville Transportation Authority Test & Learn Program. Delivered in late August, the Olli 2.0 is the fifth autonomous vehicle JTA will test for its Ultimate Urban Circulator program, which launched in 2017. The U2C program will transform the Skyway to support autonomous vehicles and eventually add ground-level connections.

» Read more from the Jacksonville Daily Record.

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Florida Trend Video Pick

Bitter-to-swallow cocoa costs force chocolate shops to raise prices
Bitter-to-swallow cocoa costs force chocolate shops to raise prices

Central Floirda chocolate shops are left with a bitter taste as cocoa prices hit an all-time high earlier this week.

Video Picks | Viewpoints@FloridaTrend

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