Property Damage Florida

Lots of people who live in the hurricane-torn tip of immigration-rich southern Florida thought they had left behind this kind of physical and economic terrain. Spotty restoration of phones, electricity and water. Makeshift housing and chaotic traffic. Improvisational medical care. Soldiers in the streets. Charges that government incompetence contributed to the disaster.

Like moths drawn to a flame, the elite of Southern society flock to this tiny sliver of pristine beachfront, building their million-dollar condos as close as structurally possible to the emerald waters that lap the sugary sands. Over the last decade, vacationers from Alabama and Georgia and Tennessee have transformed Destin from a sleepy fishing village into the crown jewel of the Florida Panhandle.

Like moths drawn to a flame, the elite of Southern society flock to this tiny sliver of pristine beachfront, building their million-dollar condos as close as structurally possible to the emerald waters that lap the sugary sands. Over the last decade, vacationers from Alabama and Georgia and Tennessee have transformed Destin from a sleepy fishing village into the crown jewel of the Florida Panhandle.

In the Everglades, snails are reportedly mating with unusual fervor, new leaves are sprouting from ravaged gumbo limbo trees, the hearty alligator thrives as always and all 23 radio-collared endangered Florida panthers have been accounted for.

In the Everglades, snails are reportedly mating with unusual fervor, new leaves are sprouting from ravaged gumbo limbo trees, the hearty alligator thrives as always and all 23 radio-collared endangered Florida panthers have been accounted for.

A sodden, slow-moving Hurricane Katrina lumbered ashore on Florida's densely populated southeastern coast Thursday, toppling trees that killed two people, knocking out power to more than 1 million households and dumping so much rain that widespread flooding was feared. "This isn't so much a windstorm as a rainstorm. It's the flooding we're worried about," said Judy Sarver, Broward County communications director. Citing Katrina's "tremendous rain," Gov.

Lots of people who live in the hurricane-torn tip of immigration-rich southern Florida thought they had left behind this kind of physical and economic terrain. Spotty restoration of phones, electricity and water. Makeshift housing and chaotic traffic. Improvisational medical care. Soldiers in the streets. Charges that government incompetence contributed to the disaster.