Collier County’s tourism bureau has activated its emergency Hotel Hotline, providing information on which Naples hotels have rooms available.

Based on a telephone survey Monday, there are currently more than 3,000 available rooms available for the next four nights.

If Ernesto continues on its more easterly path, it’s expected that Southeast Florida residents may choose to evacuate here. If local residents are thinking of relocating to an area hotel, now is the time to call for reservations.

The number is 1-800-785-8252.

The state’s Emergency Operations Center in Tallahassee is operating at its highest level in response to Ernesto. Emergency managers in all 67 counties are taking part in a constant round of conference calls and briefing sessions. W-G-C-U’s Valerie Alker paid a visit Monday to the Charlotte County Emergency Operations Center where planning for the worst and hoping for the best --- is business as usual.

Florida’s primary election is a week from tomorrow. But early voting began a week ago. And so far election officials in Southwest Florida say they’re surprised by the low turnout. Voters in Charlotte, Lee and Collier Counties haven’t yet taken full advantage of early voting. A total of just 45-hundred people have cast ballots, far below some estimates of tens of thousands who might choose to vote early. Every county in Florida is required to set-up designated sites for people to cast ballots up to two weeks in advance. Lee County Elections Supervisor Sharon Harrington is baffled by the low response.

“I don’t know if people aren’t really getting into this election enough or they may not be aware of it. We’re trying to let everyone know. But I don’t know. It’s interesting because I thought for sure we would have had a whole lot more people coming out because there’s so much that’s going to be determined in this primary election.”

Several county commission races will be decided in the primary. Voters are also choosing a slew of newly-created circuit judge positions and, of course, picking their party’s nominee for governor.

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Election officials in Southwest Florida are keeping their fingers crossed that more people will choose to vote early for next week’s primary election. Early voting across Florida started last week. So far, in this region, people have NOT turned out in droves. Collier County Deputy Elections Supervisor Gary Beauchamp says they’ve set up eight locations around the county and about 16-hundred people have taken advantage of early voting.

“It allows people additional time and time that’s convenient to them to exercise their right to vote.”

In Lee County, elections supervisor Sharon Harrington describes early voting as ‘slow but steady’ and she hopes more people will turn out.

“So there’s an awful lot for everyone to vote on regardless of party. You don’t have to be a Republican or a Democrat. If you are no-party or a member of one of what we call the minor parties, there is still a lot on that ballot for people to vote on.”

Voters will choose their party’s nominee for governor, U-S Senate and a host of county commission, school board and judicial races.

A hurricane watch continues for all the Florida Keys from Ocean Reef to the Dry Tortugas including Key Largo, Islamorada, Marathon, Big Pine Key and Key West.

Monroe County Emergency Management says the National Hurricane Center forecast indicates Ernesto should not exceed Category 1 strength, if the tropical cyclone passes over the Keys late Tuesday night or early Wednesday morning as forecasted. Keys tourism spokesman Andy Newman says that means things are quite calm.

“It seems with the last couple of forecasts that the tracking of the storm seems to be shifting to the east so perhaps we might get lucky here. But still people are taking it seriously because we are responding to a category one storm it means that the procedure dictate that there’s not going to be a need for any type of mandatory general resident evacuation.”

A visitor evacuation continues for all the Florida Keys. Those with immediate future travel plans to the Keys must postpone trips until the risk has passed.

The evacuation of special needs patients to the Monroe County shelter at Florida International University began at 6 a.m.

Mobile home and boat dwellers, as well as residents residing in low-lying areas prone to flooding, should leave. Monroe County schools are today.

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Forecasters from the National Hurricane Center issued a hurricane watch for the southern peninsula of Florida as Tropical Storm Ernesto grows closer today. Ernesto has maximum sustained winds of 50 miles-per-hour but forecasters cautioned that the storm could regain hurricane strength before its anticipated arrival today on Cuba's southeastern coast.

The watch was issued from Deerfield Beach near Boca Raton southward on the east coast and from Chokoloskee southward on the west coast. A hurricane watch is in effect for all of the Florida Keys. Keys tourism spokesman Andy Newman says this storm hasn't provided much warning time and has been eratic.

“It’s a strange thing how it’s tropical storm Ernesto, became a hurricane, then the mountains of Haiti really chewed it up and now it’s a tropical storm again and the forecasters are really puzzled about this storm and we’ll just have to wait and see what happens.” :12

Visitors were ordered to leave the Keys yesterday and Governor Jeb Bush issued a state of emergency because of the possibility that Ernesto could threaten much of the state.

At 8 a-m, the storm had top sustained winds of 45 miles-an-hour, moving northwest at 12 miles-an-hour. It was centered 515 miles southeast from Key West.

Southwest Florida was a top spot for training pilots for action in World War II. After the war some of the servicemen returned to the area and some married local girls and made it their home. Bill Smith senior came from Tennessee to learn to be a pilot. He washed out of flight training school in Arcadia but stayed in the area during the war years - assigned to an Air Sea Rescue Unit. Here's his story:

Hear more about the fly boys and others who learned to soar over the skies of Southwest Florida on Untold Stories: A Wing and a Prayer - a production of WGCU pbulic television.

A Bird Flu scenario will be played out tomorrow in Lee County. The Lee County Health Department is the lead agency in the exercise that will measure response to the impending presence of bird flu in the community. Law enforcement, hospital staff, fire and rescue and other private and public agencies will also take part. The Lee County Emergency Operations Center will be the command post. Steven Fetner is Disaster Preparedness Coordinator for the Health Department.

“What we’re doing is testing our ability to communicate with each other to integrate our services and to sort of be on the same page as to how we would gear up to respond to an event like this“

Officials with the World Health Organization have warned it may only be a matter of time before there is a deadly bird flu pandemic. Other municipalities around the country are going through similar exercises to prepare for that possibility. Collier County has already staged one drill. Charlotte County will hold one in January. Valerie Alker, W-G-C-U News.
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An exercise to test the handling of a bird flu alert will be played out tomorrow in Lee County. World Health Officials fear bird – or avian – flu could become a pandemic. To prepare for that possibility, healthcare workers and others will be tested on their response to an unrehearsed scenario. Steve Fetner of the Lee County Health Department says the purpose is to facilitate a smooth response to the real thing.

“What they will do is sort of run through a rolling scenario that brings it here to lee county and injects all kinds of situations – what would you do if? Hospitals what are you going to do if you run out of bed space, things of that nature. We want people to react as if it were a real situation so they have no preconceived ideas about what they would do.”

If the worst-case scenario plays out and bird flu becomes a pandemic – one quarter of people living in the U-S might become infected. Collier County has already had a bird flu exercise – Charlotte plans one for January.

A hurricane watch continues for all the Florida Keys from Ocean Reef to the Dry Tortugas including Key Largo, Islamorada, Marathon, Big Pine Key and Key West.

Monroe County Emergency Management says the National Hurricane Center forecast indicates Ernesto should not exceed Category 1 strength, if the tropical cyclone passes over the Keys late Tuesday night or early Wednesday morning as forecasted. Keys tourism spokesman Andy Newman says that means things are quite calm.

“It seems with the last couple of forecasts that the tracking of the storm seems to be shifting to the east so perhaps we might get lucky here. But still people are taking it seriously because we are responding to a category one storm it means that the procedure dictate that there’s not going to be a need for any type of mandatory general resident evacuation.”

A visitor evacuation continues for all the Florida Keys. Those with immediate future travel plans to the Keys must postpone trips until the risk has passed.

The evacuation of special needs patients to the Monroe County shelter at Florida International University began at 6 a.m.

Mobile home and boat dwellers, as well as residents residing in low-lying areas prone to flooding, should leave. Monroe County schools are today.

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Forecasters from the National Hurricane Center issued a hurricane watch for the southern peninsula of Florida as Tropical Storm Ernesto grows closer today. Ernesto has maximum sustained winds of 50 miles-per-hour but forecasters cautioned that the storm could regain hurricane strength before its anticipated arrival today on Cuba's southeastern coast.

The watch was issued from Deerfield Beach near Boca Raton southward on the east coast and from Chokoloskee southward on the west coast. A hurricane watch is in effect for all of the Florida Keys. Keys tourism spokesman Andy Newman says this storm hasn't provided much warning time and has been eratic.

“It’s a strange thing how it’s tropical storm Ernesto, became a hurricane, then the mountains of Haiti really chewed it up and now it’s a tropical storm again and the forecasters are really puzzled about this storm and we’ll just have to wait and see what happens.” :12

Visitors were ordered to leave the Keys yesterday and Governor Jeb Bush issued a state of emergency because of the possibility that Ernesto could threaten much of the state.

At 8 a-m, the storm had top sustained winds of 45 miles-an-hour, moving northwest at 12 miles-an-hour. It was centered 515 miles southeast from Key West.

School starts Monday for Ave Maria University Students. Right now classes are taught at a temporary campus in Naples. But next year students will be on their own campus, now being built near Immokalee. Construction managers say Ave Maria University – and the town of Ave Maria - are well on course to welcome students and residents next fall. Blake Gable is with Barron Collier Corporation, which donated land for the Catholic University and is building the town.

“Our plans are for the town center to begin to open in June and July with a couple of retailers and uses, moving forward to complete the town center toward the end of the fall, early winter. Obviously when the students come out we have to have some stuff open.

Gable says some homes should be built by April or May. The metal frame of the hundred-foot high church that will anchor the campus is well underway. The wastewater and water treatment facility will be complete in about a month. Buildings are rising up – in various stages of completion. Ave Maria University is largely funded by Tom Monahan – founder of the Dominos Pizza Chain, and a devout Catholic.

Shares of Fort Myers-based Chico’s tumbled more than 20-percent Thursday. It comes a day after the women’s specialty clothing company announced a disappointing outlook for next year. In a conference call, Chico’s C-E-O Scott Edmonds said August has been a disappointment for the company. Chico’s operates more than 800 stores under the Chico’s name and White House | Black Market, Soma and Fitigues. Edmonds said for the first time in nine years, the company sales sagged and he cited a stale marketing campaign, specifically the monthly catalog books they mail to customers.

“If you go pull our books from five years ago and you look at them and look at the book that went out in July, there’s not much difference. After a while, it starts to look like wallpaper. We have to spend as much time and effort on revitalizing our marketing effort as we do on our merchandise.”

Edmonds said they’ve already hired a marketing expert who is making changes and he expects to see improvements soon. But earnings will continue to be hurt because of the company’s expansion plans.

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Investors punished shares of Chico’s Thursday. The Fort Myers-based women’s clothing company announced its sales for the rest of the year would be impacted by a sluggish marketing campaign and changes in its growth plans. In a teleconference today, Chico’s C-E-O Scott Edmonds said the company has already hired a new marketing expert. They’re also planning how to improve sales at their stores, which are projected to be lower for the first time in nine years.

“We’re in a show-me mode. We have to show each other and show the investment community that we can correct this and deliver and that’s where all of our focus is.”

Chico’s operates more than 800 stores around the country under the Chico’s name and also White House/Black Market and Soma. More than 12-thousand people work for the company. Its stock traded down more than 20-percent today.

State Agriculture Commissioner Charles Bronson was in Southwest Florida Wednesday – attending the Citrus Expo and meeting with business leaders. He’s also meeting with members of the state’s legislative delegation to lobby for changes to federal Farm Bill.
Key provisions of the most recent Farm Bill, passed in 2002 are up for renewal next year. Commissioner Bronson says there are requests to extend the farm bill as it is with some minor changes. Speaking at luncheon with Chamber of Southwest Florida, Bronson said the agriculture community would be better served by making some significant changes to the legislation.

I think it still goes pretty heavy to the program crops. I would like to see, since specialty crops are now 55 percent of the total farm cash receipts, that speciality crops, not in subsidy payments but the ability to use money to help promote those subsidy crops around the world so we can sell them around the world would help tremendously.

Program crops are soybeans, wheat, cotton, corn, wheat and the like. 95 percent of crops grown in Florida are specialty crops – like oranges, strawberries and tomatoes.

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The Federal Farm Bill is is up for renewal next year – and Florida’s Agriculture Commissioner says he’d like to see it undergo some major revisions. Charles Bronson say right now the bill is skewed toward providing subsidies to farmers in the Midwest who grow wheat, soybeans, corn and the like. But Bronson says that formula doesn’t reflect the state of agriculture today.

We are actually making more money now off the specialty crops like oranges and tomatoes and strawberries and the things that we have here in Florida.

Commissioner Bronson also says he’d like to a provision in the farm bill that would provide quick relief to growers following natural disasters like hurricanes. He says right now the road to recovery relief is rife with bureaucratic hurdles.