One Injured In Highway 29 Rollover
December 2, 2018
One person was injured in a single vehicle rollover accident Saturday night.
The car came to a stop right-side up on Highway 29 south of Kingsfield Road. The driver’s injuries were not considered life threatening.
The Florida Highway Patrol is investigating.
Reader submitted photo by David Satterfield, click to enlarge.
Hurricane Season Ends With Memories Of Michael
December 2, 2018
For the third consecutive year, after a decade reprieve, Florida in 2018 was tested by the force of a massive hurricane.
The slightly above-average season, which began June 1 and was ending Friday, began early for Florida. Tropical Storm Alberto brought maximum sustained winds of 45 mph to North Florida in late May.
But for the Sunshine State and parts of the nation’s Southeast, the season will be remembered for the powerful and deadly Hurricane Michael, which made landfall Oct. 10 in the Panhandle and traveled into Southwest Georgia with major hurricane- force winds.
For a NorthEscambia.com Hurricane Michael photo gallery from Mexico Beach, click here.
Michael didn’t affect as large of an area in Florida as Hurricane Matthew, which ran up the East Coast in 2016, or Irma, which traveled the state from the Keys to Jacksonville in 2017.
But Michael’s impacts will be felt long after the restoration is considered complete.
Fifty days after the storm left parts of Northwest Florida in ruins and drew concerns about the fate of Tyndall Air Force Base, major recovery efforts are ongoing, while officials have yet to put final figures to the damages.
“It is still very early in the recovery process, and those numbers are not available yet,” Florida Division of Emergency Management spokesman Andrew Wilber said Thursday.
Here are some of the numbers and issues emerging from Michael and the 2018 season:
DEATHS
The state Division of Emergency Management put the death count from Michael was 43 as of Monday.
The deaths included at least eight attributed to storm surge, floodwaters or trees falling on homes. Also, five people died while clearing trees. There were also four deaths involving utility workers, with three struck in a single incident by a hit-and-run driver who was ultimately arrested on charges including three counts of vehicular homicide and felony DUI manslaughter.
The state’s death count also includes seniors who died in homes without power, a person who was using a generator near a window while sleeping and a Bay County death listed as “looting incident with police.”
INSURANCE CLAIMS
As of Nov. 16 — the latest numbers available — 125,356 insurance claims had been filed because of Michael, with total estimated insured losses at $3.43 billion.
By comparison, Irma resulted in more than 1 million claims and $11 billion in estimated insured losses, while hurricanes Matthew and Hermine in 2016 drew nearly 130,000 claims, with losses projected at $1.3 billion. Matthew did not make landfall in Florida but caused damage as it restored up the East Coast, while Hermine hit the Big Bend region.
Citizens Property Insurance spokesman Mike Peltier said Thursday the state-backed insurer remains strong, even with the impact of hurricanes over the past three seasons.
AGRICULTURE
The Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services has estimated Michael’s crop and cattle damages, along with other agricultural impacts, at $1.49 billion.
The hardest-hit segment was the timber industry, accounting for about $1.3 billion in economic losses, while more than 1 million acres of cotton, nuts and vegetables, along with livestock operations, were damaged across 25 counties.
It remains unknown if a federal relief package will come out of Congress for the agriculture industry.
After Irma caused an estimated $2.5 billion in damages to Florida’s agriculture industry, state and federal lawmakers spent several months pursuing a disaster relief package. When signed by President Donald Trump in February, the package included a $340 million block grant exclusively for the Florida citrus industry,
HISTORICAL DATA
The season included 15 named storms and eight hurricanes, of which two were major hurricanes. It was slightly above average and more active than initially predicted.
Among the statistics of the season.
— Five named storms were recorded in the Atlantic between Sept. 1 and Sept. 12, matching the 1988 season for the most on record between those dates.
— Hurricane Florence dumped a record 35.95 inches in North Carolina, topping the 24.06 inches from Hurricane Floyd in 1999. Florence also dropped 23.63 inches in South Carolina, besting the 1995 mark set by Tropical Storm Jerry.
— Hurricane Michael, with maximums sustained winds of 155 mph, was the first recorded Category 4 storm to land in the Florida Panhandle.
— Michael’s landfall pressure of 919 millibars — a key measurement of intensity — was among the lowest in the continental U.S. The Labor Day Hurricane of 1935 hit 892 mb as it ran across the Florida Keys and up the state’s West Coast. Hurricane Camille hit Mississippi in 1969 at 900 mb.
LEGISLATIVE RESPONSE
After Irma, the House set up a select committee to focus on crafting new laws and procedures about hurricane preparations, evacuations and recovery.
Heading into the 2019 legislative session, a similar select committee isn’t expected, though Senate President Bill Galvano said this month that Michael will represent a $1 billion-plus challenge “that will impact our budgetary and policy decisions out of the gate.”
House and Senate leaders expect individual committees “will address issues related to the hurricane,” House spokesman Fred Piccolo said Thursday.
Galvano spokeswoman Katie Betta said Michael-related work can be accomplished by the existing committees. Galvano “continues to discuss these issues with the impacted lawmakers, and certainly they will play a key role in the Senate’s review of hurricane-related matters when the Senate resumes its committee work,” Betta said.
Committees will start meeting in December, with the legislative session starting in March.
by Jim Turner, The News Service of Florida
NorthEscambia.com photos.
Atmore YMCA Closes For Good
December 2, 2018
The Atmore YMCA quietly closed for the last time Friday afternoon after serving area residents for the past 23 years. Two full time and nine part-time employees are losing their jobs.
Fundraising and membership efforts were not enough to keep the facility open.
The facility announced a closure in 2014, but an influx of community funding kept the doors open. At last count the Y had over 600 members.
The YMCA will hold an “estate sale” on December 8 from 8 a.m. until 4 p.m. and December 9 from noon until 4 p.m. to sell assets. Funds will be used to pay outstanding debts.
Florida Gov’t Weekly Roundup: Change Is In The Air
December 2, 2018
As one former high-ranking state official confided not long ago, “You don’t want to be the last can on the shelf.”
So the musical chairs now underway on the plaza level in the Capitol come as no surprise, with the advent of a newly minted governor and two fresh Cabinet members preparing to take office in early January.
While many long-time aides have been jumping ship for months, other current and wannabe staffers are brushing up their curriculum vitae in the hopes of joining the nascent administrations of Gov.-elect Ron DeSantis, incoming Attorney General Ashley Moody or Agriculture Commissioner-to-be Nikki Fried, the only Democrat to win a statewide election this year.
Perhaps those who already work for Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis, who was appointed last year by Gov. Rick Scott, are breathing a sigh of relief after their boss handily held onto his Cabinet post in the Nov. 6 election.
While the dance known inside the Tallahassee beltway as the “agency-head shuffle” begins, DeSantis this week tapped a face familiar to many capital insiders to serve as his consigliere, as the line encircling the governor’s inner sanctum is drawn.
Meanwhile, one of DeSantis’ first high-profile tasks came under scrutiny, after the panel responsible for choosing Supreme Court nominees didn’t include an African-American in its list of selections to fill three upcoming vacancies. It will result in the first time in more than three decades the state’s highest court won’t include a black justice.
While the governor-elect measures the drapes and the résumés flood in, folks with deep pockets are gearing up for the revelry known as the inauguration. The ceremonial swearing-in will likely be overshadowed by the pomp-and-circumstance surrounding what could be a multi-day affair, capped by balls that provide an opportunity for well-heeled insiders to show off their gems, tuxedos and furs, if Tallahassee weather holds.
Which brings to mind a snippet overheard at former Gov. Jeb Bush’s inaugural festivities, which took place amid a bone-chilling North Florida cold snap in 1999. Bush took office after Republicans had been shut out of 700 North Adams Street for nearly a decade.
“Isn’t it wonderful to see so many furs?” drawled one white-haired doyenne to a friend, as the women left the Bush’s outdoor inaugural ceremony.
Her companion agreed: “It’s great to have Republicans back in power.”
DUCK, DUCK, GOOSE
In the first of his high-profile administration hires, DeSantis kicked off the week by tapping Shane Strum, a Broward County Republican who’s worked for two other governors, to serve as his chief of staff.
Strum, who will begin in the post when DeSantis takes over as governor on Jan. 8, currently is an executive at Hollywood-based Memorial Healthcare System.
“I am very pleased to announce that Shane is returning to public service and bringing his expertise to our administration,” DeSantis said in a statement. “Having spent many years in both the private and public sector, and previously serving two Florida governors, Shane will be a great addition to our team.”
Strum also worked for former Gov. Charlie Crist, capping his tenure as chief of staff during Crist’s final two years as governor. Strum also was an adviser to Scott’s transition team following Scott’s election in 2010.
Heralded by supporters as a competent and loyal strategist, Strum also brings a strength as a relationship-builder to the new governor’s inner circle. DeSantis, a former congressman, was a virtual unknown to most state lawmakers until his primary-election victory over Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam in August.
“The first chief of staff for a new governor, or a governor who is coming to Tallahassee with a fresh start or a fresh face, you need somebody who’s a steady hand. You need somebody who’s loyal, who’s going to be driving your agenda. And there’s nobody better for taking the reins of the executive office of the governor and doing it in a way that’s going to have Gov. DeSantis be positioned to succeed,” Everglades Foundation CEO Eric Eikenberg, who was Strum’s boss and preceded him as Crist’s chief of staff, told The News Service of Florida.
A ‘COMPLETE REVERSAL?’
For the first time in 36 years, the Florida Supreme Court will not have an African-American member when three new justices join the court early next year.
DeSantis will select the new justices from a list of 11 nominees sent to him Tuesday by the Florida Supreme Court Judicial Nominating Commission. None of the nine judges and two lawyers on the nominee list is black, although six of the original 59 applicants were African-Americans.
That means when Justice Peggy Quince’s term ends on Jan. 8, it will mark the first time since January 1983, when the late Justice Leander Shaw joined the court, that the Supreme Court will not have a black member.
DeSantis will select the three justices to fill vacancies left by Quince and justices Barbara Pariente and R. Fred Lewis, who are leaving the court because they have reached a mandatory retirement age.
The looming absence of a black justice on the highest court in the nation’s third-largest state, which has more than 3.5 million African-American residents, drew sharp criticism from prominent black lawyers, a former African-American justice, black state lawmakers and the NAACP.
“It’s not a good day for the judiciary of the state of Florida when you’re going to look up there (at the Supreme Court bench) and not see anybody who is black after 36 years,” said former state Sen. Arthenia Joyner, a Tampa lawyer and longtime civil- rights leader. “What message are we sending to our kids? That it’s a complete reversal of going back to the days of segregation?”
Joyner, a Democrat, put the blame on Scott, who has appointed all the members of the judicial nominating commissions that develop the appointment lists for state appellate and trial courts. She said Scott has filled the nominating commissions with members who advance judges who are “clones” of the conservative Republican governor.
McKinley Lewis, a spokesman for Scott, said the governor must appoint judges based on the nominees offered by the judicial nominating commissions.
“Our office does not control who applies to become a judge or what applicants are sent to the governor for consideration,” Lewis said.
The DeSantis transition team on Thursday referred to a statement released by the governor-elect on Tuesday when the nominations were announced. DeSantis called the nominees a group of “talented and highly qualified individuals.”
“Gov. Scott leaves behind an outstanding legacy of strong judicial appointments while in office,” DeSantis said in the statement. He said he would rely on Scott’s counsel as he evaluates the nominees and will select three justices who “will respect our Constitution and the rule of law and serve our state with distinction.”
But retired Supreme Court Justice James E.C. Perry, who was appointed by Crist and served nearly eight years on the court, said a court without a black justice “is an indication of where we are” both as a state and as a country.
“I’m appalled. But not surprised,” Perry, who is black, told The News Service of Florida. “Obviously, we’re retrogressing instead of progressing.”
Perry pointed to anti-immigrant policies such as the proposed construction of a wall along the Mexican-U.S. border, an idea espoused by President Donald Trump, whose strong support of DeSantis helped boost the governor-elect to a Republican primary victory in August.
“We’re talking about building a wall. We need to build a mirror, so we can look in the mirror. The message is clear. There wasn’t even an African-American who made the short list,” Perry said.
STORY OF THE WEEK: Florida’s highest court will not have an African-American justice for the first time in 36 years, after a panel responsible for selecting judicial nominees did not include a black nominee in a list of 11 names to succeed three retiring justices.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK: — “This does not bode well for Florida, especially with the divisiveness that exists in this country right now.” — Former Sen. Arthenia Joyner, a lawyer and veteran civil rights activist, speaking about the upcoming lack of a black justice on the Florida Supreme Court.
by Dara Kam, The News Service of Florida
Escambia Man Gets 25 Years For Molesting Two Children
December 2, 2018
An Escambia County man has been been sentenced to prison for child molestation.
William Thomas Wells, 35, entered a plea to five counts of lewd or lascivious molestation on a victim under 12, and two counts of possession of child pornography. Circuit Judge Joel Boles sentenced the defendant to 25 years state prison as a minimum mandatory sentence followed by lifetime sex offender probation. Wells was also designated as a sexual predator.
In May of 2017, a 7-year old and a 9-year old disclosed that Wells had sexually abused them.
Heavy Rains Causes Flash Flooding
December 1, 2018
There was significant flash flooding in the area of Nine Mile Road and Highway 29 in the Ensley area Saturday, and in other areas of the southern half of Escambia County.
A flash flood warning remains in effect for southern Escambia County until 7:15 p.m.
NorthEscambia.com photos by Kristi Barbour, click to enlarge.
One Injured When Ceiling Collapses A Hadji Temple
December 1, 2018
One person was injured when a drop ceiling collapsed Saturday morning at the Hadji Temple on Nine Mile Road.
County officials say the collapse was the result of a water leak.
One adult female was transported by EMS to Sacred Heart Hospital as a trauma alert. No one else was trapped or injured in the incident.
Photos for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Man Shot And Killed By Escambia Deputies After Meat Cleaver Attack
December 1, 2018
A man that attacked officers with a meat cleaver early Saturday morning was shot and killed by Escambia County deputies.
The incident happened just before 4 a.m. at the Alabaster Garden Apartments off Massachusetts Avenue. A caller to the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office stated that a person had been murdered inside one of the apartments.
When deputies arrived on scene, the suspect opened the door holding a meat cleaver and “another cutting instrument”, according to the Sheriff’s Office, and the man refused orders to drop the weapons.
Less than lethal options were attempted several times to try to get the suspect to comply. The suspect then attacked deputies with the meat cleaver at which time he was shot and killed. Deputies were not injured.
No other person was found inside the apartment.
The name of the suspect has not yet been released.
As is standard procedure in an officer involved shooting, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement is now investigating.
NorthEscambia.com file photo.
Cantonment Manhunt Suspect Now Behind Bars
December 1, 2018
A suspect that led police on a lengthy manhunt and caused two Cantonment schools to be placed on lockdown is now behind bars.
Jordon Dominique King, 19, was arrested late Friday night at a motel on Highway 29 in Pensacola. He was booked into the Escambia County Jail without bond just before midnight.
At the time of his arrest, King was in possession of a stolen vehicle, according to Escambia County Sheriff’s Office Major Andrew Hobbs.
He is facing long list of charges, including multiple counts of vehicle theft, multiple counts of burglary, multiple counts of resisting arrest, reckless driving, operating a motor vehicle without a valid license and failure to appear.
A manhunt for King lasted several hours Thursday in the area of Kingsfield Road and Highway 297A. The manhunt led to the lockdown of Kingsfield Elementary and Ransom Middle schools as deputies searched the area.
Pictured: Deputies converge on Highway 297A in the area of Kingsfield Road and Meander Circle late Thursday afternoon. Photos for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Escambia Man Gets Life In Prison For Murdering Cantonment Man
December 1, 2018
An Escambia County man has been sentenced to live in prison for murdering a Cantonment man last year
Dino Ray Reaves was convicted in the death of Tadius Edward Watson.
Watson, 29, was shot and killed March 7, 2017. Watson was found dead from multiple gunshot wounds in the 8000 block of Klondike Road, south of Wilde Lake Boulevard near the Klondike Kennels. His body was discovered along the edge of the roadway.
During the investigation ECSO deputies discovered the shooting was drug related. Reaves is a documented local gang member who has been arrested multiple times in different states and arrested 21 times in the state of Florida.
NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
