The incoming director of the National Hurricane Center says being able to better predict the intensity of approaching tropical systems will be a priority.

In August 2004 Hurricane Charley intensified from a category two hurricane – to a very destructive category 4 – in a matter of about two hours. The increase took everyone by surprise. Incoming National Hurricane Center director Bill Proenza says in the future forecasts will include information on intensity as well as the storm’s projected path.

“we’re seeing more and more science being developed that will help us do that. We still need to monitor all of the parcels of air so to speak in three dimensions around the storm so that we get a better handle on how they’re all behaving, the energy that’s in them, and in so doing we should get a better handle on forecasting intensity changes.

Proenza starts his new job January 3rd. He takes over for Max Mayfield who lead the National Hurricane Center since 2000.

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The National Hurricane Center gets a new director next week. Bill Proenza is capping off a thirty year career with the National Weather Service with the move to South Florida. He says partnerships will remain key to the Center’s mission of saving lives and protecting property.

“We have an important partnership with emergency managers and local government and state government. That is, when we issue a forecast and a warning there has been a lot of preparatory work already in reaching some level of readiness for all of the coastal areas that may be threatened. And in turn we also have an important partnership with the media.”

Proenza says under his direction the center work at being able to better predict changes in intensity of approaching tropical systems. He takes over leadership from Max Mayfield who’s retiring after leading the National Hurricane Center since 2000.

The National Hurricane Center gets a new director next week. Bill Proenza is capping off a thirty year career with the National Weather Service with the move to South Florida. He says partnerships will remain key to Center’s mission of saving lives and protecting property.

Florida Power and Light has chosen a Sarasota site to build the Sunshine State’s largest solar array. It’s being paid for by FPL customers participating in what’s called the Sunshine Energy Program.

Under the voluntary program FPL customers agree to pay about 10-dollars more each month toward renewable energy production.

For every 10-thousand customers who sign up, FPL has agreed to build a solar array capable of generating enough electricity to power about 30 homes. This first one – being built at Rothenbach Park in Sarasota – will power nearly 50 households.

David Bates is the Sunshine Energy Program Manager.

“To provide energy for a little less than 50 homes it’s a half a football field, and land is pretty precious in Florida…and this requires a lot of land space in order to provide generation to the customers. Fortunately for this particular case it’s on a landfill so we’re taking advantage of a facility that really wouldn’t be used for something else.”

FPL’s Sunshine Energy Program also buys environmental credits from green energy producers around the state and nation. Buying these credits helps fund renewable energy production elsewhere to help offset pollution created here.

So far about a half a percent of FPL customers have signed up…that means nearly 28-thousand homes. The Rothenbach Park solar array should be up and running by April.

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A solar array half the size of a football field will soon be built in Sarasota County. It will generate enough electricity to power nearly 50 homes.

And while that might not sound like a lot, using the sun to generate even that much clean electricity prevents the release of more than 680-thousand pounds of carbon dioxide into the air…each year.

The array is being built as part of Florida Power and Light’s Sunshine Energy Program, under which customers agree to pay about 10-dollars more each month to help pay for renewable energy.

Program Manager - David Bates - says so far about 28-thousand customers have signed up…

“This is offered as a voluntary program because quite honestly not everyone wants to invest in it…not everyone has an environmental purpose. But for those that do and want to invest in the cleaner generation, this is an option that’s available to them.”

For every 10-thousand customers who enroll, FPL will build a solar array capable of generating electricity for about 30 homes. The program also buys clean energy credits from around the country to help offset locally produced pollution.

The array in Sarasota will be built off Bee Ridge road east of I-75. It should be up and running in April. Bates says as more FPL customers sign up to the Sunshine Energy Program more arrays like it will be built around the state.

Americans eat more than 4 pounds of shrimp per person each year, making it our most popular seafood. And more shrimp are off-loaded and processed in Lee County than anywhere else in Florida. Yet despite numbers that should indicate a thriving local industry, Fort Myers Beach shrimpers say they’re barely getting by. In part 2 of our series on the San Carlos Island shrimping fleet, WGCU’s Christine Buckley has more.

Sanibel poet Joe Pacheco has spent some time observing what happens to his barrier island as the holidays take over. He wrote a new poem about it and called it “The Night Before Christmas on Sanibel Isle”.

Water managers are releasing low levels of fresh water from Lake Okeechobee down the Caloosahatchee. Lee County officials requested the releases for environmental reasons…it’s a move that highlights a difficult quest to strike a watery balance.

The low level releases help reduce salinity in the Caloosahatchee Estuary, which has being raised by saltwater intrusion. South Florida Water Management District officials say these ‘dry season’ releases are a great example of the challenges they face balancing inland and coastal needs.

Deputy Director with the watershed management department at the District – Susan Gray – says the lake serves many purposes…and that the estuaries struggle between too little water during the dry times, and too much during the wet ones.

“In balancing all the water supply needs of the system, not only for irrigation or potable water supply there’s an environmental need. And our board agreed to a low level amount of water being released from the lake to the Caloosahatchee in order to protect some of the sea grasses that are in the upper estuary.”

Farmers near the lake say the releases could hurt winter crops, which are struggling through one of the worst droughts in nearly 75 years.

Lee County officials – and environmental advocates – often complain about too much fresh water being released from Lake Okeechobee during the wet season. Because the nutrient-rich water not only upsets the salinity in the estuary, but also contributes to algae blooms. The releases will continue until at least the middle of January.

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Fresh water from Lake Okeechobee is being released down the Caloosahatchee River for environmental reasons.

Lee County officials asked the South Florida Water Management District for the releases in order to combat saltwater intrusion into the estuary.

Chief Environmental Scientist with the District - Peter Doering – says they the request came after salinity levels at the I-75 Bridge reached a critical level.

“In that region of the estuary we have a salt sensitive plant which is called tape grass…and it provides habitat for blue crabs and fish and so forth, and it likes the salinity to be relatively low or it doesn’t grow well.”

Doering says the grass is a key spawning area for marine creates in the Spring.

Releases this time of the year aren’t common – but aren’t unheard of either…there was a similar release last year. Doering says they’ll continue through at least January 16th…after which they’ll re-evaluate to see if they need to continue.

Shrimping came to Fort Myers Beach in the early 1960's - soon after record numbers of jumbo pink shrimp were discovered in the Gulf of Mexico, 25 miles off Naples. The fledgling fleet soon outgrew the Naples docks and settled in San Carlos Island, where it's been based ever since. What might appear to be nothing more than a tiny fishing hamlet in the shadow of Matanzas Pass Bridge is actually an important contributor to Lee County's coffers. WGCU's Christine Buckley spent the afternoon with some of the local shrimp industry's main players to explore the trade.

After 14 years on the job, a Salvation Army volunteer Bell ringer in Collier County is close to having collected 100 thousand dollars. Lynn Blakely rings and collects contributions in his red kettle outside the Publix supermarket on the corner of Airport Road and Vanderbilt Beach Boulevard in Naples. Chris Nind is the Army’s Development Director.

“he presently is 2,148 dollars short of that 100 thousand dollar target and knowing our campaign ends this Saturday it would be wonderful if he could reach that target before the end of the campaign.”

The overall goal for this year’s Salvation Army Red Kettle Campaign in Collier County is 200 thousand dollars. Nind says he’s pretty sure it’s attainable. The annual campaign accounts for about 8 percent of Army’s overall income in Collier County. Nind credits the more than 200 volunteers for their hard work. And he says some of the volunteers match what they raise.

Governor Jeb Bush says he felt he had to place a moratorium on executions in Florida to safeguard the state’s death penalty process.

“The state of this law, which has broad support amongst the people of Florida, it is part of our law, has been undermined by judicial rulings over time that now make the implementation of the death penalty only happen in rare occurrences and that’s disappointing because I think the will of the people is being denied in that regard.”

The governor called for a halt to executions following the botched lethal injection procedure of death row inmate Angel Diaz last week. Bush has appointed a commission to review Florida’s lethal injection procedures. It has until March to complete its review.

Everglades National Park is planning temporary closings to protect roseate spoonbills during winter nesting.

There are two nesting colonies of roseate spoonbills in Florida Bay – about five hundred nesting pairs – the largest breeding population in the state. Roseate spoonbills get their name from their distinctive bill and bright pink plumage with splashes of crimson. They are easily spooked off their nests – leaving their young vulnerable. Bob Scholer is the Florida Bay District Naturalist for Everglades National Park.

“lets say a motorboat is zipping by really fast, there are predators such as crows and night herons that are kind of watching for that – and if that happens those predators will move in on the nest and feed on the young birds – will attack and kill the young birds”

The park will close Carl Ross Key and Frank Key Channel to the public from this Saturday to March 15th…to help protect the nesting spoonbills.

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Portions of Everglades National Park will be off limits to boaters starting this Saturday to help protect two nesting colonies of roseate spoonbills. The park is home to Florida largest population of the birds – about 500 nesting pairs. Park Naturalist Bob Scholer – the rather rare birds are still threatened by residual from Hurricane Wilma.

“the thing that happened with hurricane wilma is that it defoliated – took the vegetation off a lot of the trees where the spoonbills nest, in a sense it made them a little bit more exposed to other activity – a little bit more visible”

They are also easily spooked off their nests by boaters – leaving their chicks vulnerable to predators like crows. Roseate spoonbills are sometimes mistaken for flamingoes because of their pink plumage.
Carl Ross Key and Frank Key Channel will remain off limits to humans until mid March.