Word: floridas
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Hurricane season is two months old and not a single named storm has popped onto the radar. If that makes people complacent, it only makes weather watchers worry even more about what is to come. Officials and insurers are concerned about the ramifications of a "Big One," and Florida, the most ravaged of states, is looking at several novel approaches to riding out the storms - or even preventing them altogether. (Read a story about whether Florida can survive...
...inventor at Intellectual Ventures, says the proposal would be used only as a last resort - as a "Plan C." But many experts are skeptical of its practicality. "I have a hard time picturing doing this on the magnitude required, but it's an interesting idea," says University of Florida Professor of Geological Sciences Ellen Martin. "It may be easier to just dump a bunch of ice cubes out of an airplane, but it will take a lot of those too." (See pictures of the destruction of Hurricane Gustav...
Hugh Willoughby, acknowledged as the "guru of hurricane modification" and now a professor at Florida International University, dismisses the plan as "junk science." The cost and logistics don't add up, he says, estimating that it would take tens of thousands of the giant tubs put in the water within 24 hours of the storm's arrival. Others think the whole idea of trying to dissipate hurricanes before they start is misguided. Bob Atlas, director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Miami, points out that hurricanes, as devastating as they can be, do serve some good, by helping...
...These operations are mushrooming all over the state of Florida," says State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle for Miami-Dade County, the de facto capital of the state's indoor pot industry. Taking these operations down is dangerous work. Some growers stockpile automatic weapons to protect themselves - and to fend off thieves who are after the valuable crop. (Watch TIME's video "Medical Marijuana Home Delivery...
...state's real estate catastrophe contributes to the problem as well. Captain Joe Mendez from the South Florida High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA), says operators flush with cash are attracted to the abundance of cheap homes in Florida, particularly in Miami-Dade, which leads the state in foreclosures. While Florida's legitimate economy continues to flail, the HIDTA captain says indoor marijuana is thriving even though law enforcement is arresting more people every year. Says Mendez: "If the economic downturn remains as it is, I don't see any light at the end of the tunnel...