#hurricanes

It was a cat 3 when I woke up this morning. It’s escalating that fast. Please stay safe out there, y’all. I know some people can’t evacuate for various reasons, but if you can, please do. This page lists Florida shelters (including pet friendly and/or special needs) by county:

Plus Pinellas and Sarasota, which didn’t have any listed up there.

I don’t know who actually needs this info this late in the game, but if you’re affected, consider writing down some shelter locations (i.e. saved offline) in case you end up needing to go to a different location than the one you planned on.

04.16.2025 -- Story by Richard Luscombe

Dozens of gopher tortoises (Gopherus polyphemus) survived a perilous sea crossing after being swept from their homes during Hurricane Helene last summer and are enjoying a new lease on life on a remote stretch of Florida coastline.

Rangers at Fort De Soto county park near St. Petersburg say that before the September storm only eight members of the vulnerable species were known to be living there.

Now, after the astonishing journey, a count last month confirmed 84 active burrows, suggesting the tortoises quickly adapted to their new habitat after their forced eviction from Florida’s Egmont Key National Wildlife Refuge, a tiny island more than three kilometers (two miles) southwest that was pummeled by the Category 4 hurricane.

As well as sparking a surge of interest in the park in the form of visitors keen to catch a glimpse of the unexpected new arrivals, the tortoises are providing benefits for some of the animals that already lived in the 445-hectare (1,100-acre) environment.

“They’re a keystone species, which means they share their burrows with other species, and there’s been something like 250 different species recorded as living in gopher tortoise burrows,” says Anna Yu, a Fort De Soto ranger who has assumed responsibility for the roving reptiles’ well-being.

“Everybody in the ecosystem benefits from gopher tortoises being there, and we’ll hopefully see an increase in biodiversity in the park. Because we have all these new burrows, other animals are able to use them, like eastern diamondback snakes, black racers, all kinds of different reptiles,” she says.

“The last time a gopher frog was listed as being one of the species in the park was in 2016, so it’s really cool to think that maybe some of these really imperiled species that rely on gopher tortoise burrows to survive might make their way back.

“I don’t expect to see frogs popping up everywhere, but there’s certainly more of a chance than before this happened.”

Yu and her colleagues knew the tortoises had come across the water from Egmont Key because biologists from St. Petersburg’s Eckerd College, who were studying them, had drilled small holes in their shells as identification markings.

Tortoises are poor swimmers, and many likely drowned during the hurricane. At least 40 were discovered washed up dead. But the survivors, Yu says, would have floated and been carried on the surface as Helene’s winds whipped the water surging toward the beaches of the mainland. “It’s like they knew exactly where to go; they went a little bit higher in hopes of not being drowned out by another storm. There’s a little bit of intelligence there,” she says.

Even more exciting are the mating behaviors some of the tortoises have exhibited, suggesting a new generation of gopher tortoises will soon be plodding around.

“It’s a sign they’re thriving. Being able to mate is a sign of success,” Yu says.

“The main point in all this is that we want to make sure Fort De Soto is, above all, a wild place and home to an abundance of wildlife that depends on the people that come through, depends on their respect and all of our collective stewardship of their habitat to survive.

“I think this is a really ecologically important event. It’s a feel good story too, of course, but it’s also very critically important environmentally.”

“The whole event was just sheer luck that they ended up at Fort De Soto and not out at sea, or at some of the other beaches north of St. Pete Beach and Treasure Island, really popular beaches that don’t have the habitat to support these creatures,” she says. “It could have turned out a lot differently for them.”

Their behaviors since washing ashore have also fascinated observers. Some of the tortoises, presumably traumatized by their hazardous odyssey, burrowed deep into higher elevations. The majority of the burrows, Yu says, were dug beyond Helene’s storm surge line.

For over 150 years, the National Weather Service has provided free, life-saving forecasts to every American. From tornado warnings to hurricane tracking, it has been our first line of defense in dangerous weather. Now, Donald Trump and his allies are working to sell it off to private companies.

Investigative journalists revealed their plan to turn the National Weather Service into a for-profit subscription model. Their goal is to create a cash cow for the multibillion-dollar private weather industry, including companies tied to Trump’s political circle.

Trump’s pick to lead the agency is a former industry insider who has pushed Congress to rely more on private companies and backed Trump’s budget cuts. And Project 2025, the far-right blueprint for dismantling public services, calls for breaking apart the National Weather Service and fully commercializing its work.

Privatization would be catastrophic. It would restrict climate scientists’ access to data, limit public warnings during disasters, and open the door to price-gouging as storms approach. When a hurricane is coming, no one should have to decide whether they can afford the forecast.

As someone who just lived through the devastating flooding here in Hill Country, Texas, there are so many of us who were saved due to access to those free alerts, as well as so many in rural areas who wouldn't be able to ever afford those alerts if they were put into a subscription type service. Access to life-saving information should NOT be gifted to only those in a wealthy class.

Tell your representatives to block Trump’s plan and keep the National Weather Service public.