Florida Courier - June 02, 2017

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PRESORTED STANDARD MAIL U.S. POSTAGE PAID DAYTONA BEACH, FL PERMIT #189

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Aaron’s House event raises awareness about mental illness See Page B1

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JUNE 2 – JUNE 8, 2017

VOLUME 25 NO. 22

ANDREW’S LEGACY

Black Point Marina, on Biscayne Bay in MiamiDade County, was pounded by Hurricane Andrew in August 1992.

Here’s a short list of changes made in Florida as the 25th anniversary of Hurricane Andrew approaches. What happened?

BY BRETT CLARKSON SUN SENTINEL / TNS

SOUTH FLORIDA – As the 2017 Atlantic hurricane season begins, Andrew’s legacy is everywhere. It’s there when we plan and prepare for potential disasters. It looms when we buy and build houses and property insurance. In southern Miami-Dade County, it dots the landscape with vacant lots. In southwestern Broward County, Andrew is partly credited – or blamed – for the population boom that changed seemingly overnight in the 1990s.

In August 1992, the wind picked up off the coast of Africa – the Atlantic Ocean’s hurricane incubator. Within days, it had become a tropical depression. At about 5 a.m. Aug. 24, Hurricane Andrew made landfall near Elliott Key, the northernmost of the Florida Keys, with wind speeds that were later determined to have topped 165 mph. It was the third-strongest hurricane on record to strike the US. In Miami-Dade, 15 people died as a direct result of Andrew. The official toll of people who died indirectly from Andrew was 25.

CARL SEIBERT / SUN-SENTINEL / TNS

However, in January 1993, the Miami Herald reported that at least 43 more deaths could be indirectly linked to Andrew, a stat that was included in updated versions of the National Hurricane Center’s preliminary report on the storm. Twenty-eight thousand homes were destroyed. Another 107,380 were damaged. About 180,000 people were left homeless, and 1.4 million had no power.

Changed culture, codes

one of the best in the country. (A building code is a set of minimum standards that govern how homes and businesses are built.) In 1994, the first post-Andrew version of the South Florida Building Code arrived. Improved roofing standards came first. Impact-resistant windows or hurricane shutters were a requirement for new buildings.

Andrew changed the storm culture in South Florida. The complacency that arose in the largely hurricane-free 1970s and 1980s, reflected in hurricane parties and stubborn refusals to evacuate, isn’t as prevalent as it once was. The South Florida Building Code, used by Dade and Broward counties, had been regarded as

See ANDREW, Page A2

Maintaining silence

BUYING GUNS OR BUTTER?

$900 million missile test

Boy Scouts keeping sex-abuse cases secret BY CHRISTIAN BOONE THE ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION / TNS

For decades, secrets of alleged sexual abuse have been collecting dust in the Boy Scouts of America’s headquarters in Irving, Texas, and in state and regional offices across the nation. And the Scouts are fighting hard to keep them locked away. Former Scouts in Georgia and other states, many of them now middle-age, say the national organization’s refusal to make public the files helped facilitate sexual abuse inflicted by their scoutmasters.

Now in court

AL SEIB/LOS ANGELES TIMES/TNS

Streaking over the moon and the Pacific Ocean, a Minuteman III missile lights up the sky during an unarmed test launch on May 3 from California. President Trump wants to spend billions to upgrade America’s defensive missile systems. Read Marian Wright Edelman’s evaluation of Trump’s proposed 2018 budget on Page A4.

The accusers’ claim of a conspiracy of silence is the crux of a lawsuit filed last week against a former Athens, Ga., scoutmaster who allegedly molested a dozen or more Scouts and other boys in the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s. It’s the latest in a series of such lawsuits filed against former Georgia scoutmasters. “Instead of making information publicly available or reporting it to the appropriate authorities, defendants kept silent while actively soliciting new Scouts when they knew without doubt that many Scout leaders had been credibly accused of pedophilic/ephebophilic tendencies,” says the lawsuit against Athens businessman Ernest Boland, who died in 2013.

Release ordered In 2012, a Portland judge ordered See SCOUTS, Page A2

State focuses on renewed Zika threat BY JIM TURNER THE NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA

ORLANDO – Florida’s largely dry conditions, which might appear to be more conducive to wildfires, shouldn’t be seen as a reason to reduce vigilance in preventing the spread of the mosquito-borne Zika virus. So far this year, Florida has had 50 cases of “travel-related” Zika – people infected elsewhere who brought

ALSO INSIDE

the disease into the state. That lags behind where Florida was at this point in 2016. But last year’s outbreak didn’t explode until July and August. And state Surgeon General Celeste Philip warned Tuesday that little water is needed Dr. Celeste for mosquitoes carryPhilip ing the disease to survive and breed.

No breeding problems “These types of mosquitoes like to live close to people, so some of the factors regarding precipitation and heavy rains are different,” Philip said. “We are still concerned that a small amount of water, say a bottle cap, is

sufficient for breeding to occur.” Also, the warm winter may have aided the survival of many of the eggs from the type of mosquito that carries the virus. Philip joined Gov. Rick Scott and Orange County Health Department officials in Orlando on Tuesday as part of the state’s ongoing Zika preparations. Similar roundtables have been held in Miami, Jacksonville and Panama City. “We all have to be part of this,” Scott said. “No standing water. Wear bug repellant. Wear protective clothing.” Florida, which put up $61 million in responding to the emergency in 2016, reported 284 locally transmitted cases of the virus last year, with another 1,099 cases classified as

SNAPSHOTS NATION | A6

NOAA predicting 5 to 9 hurricanes this season Another bad stat for Chicago FLORIDA | A3

Pulse nightclub survivor dies in crash Tax-free sales holiday coming

See ZIKA, Page A2

COMMENTARY: MARIAN WRIGHT EDELMAN: PRESIDENT TRUMP’S CRUEL WAR ON CHILDREN | A4 COMMENTARY: RAYNARD JACKSON: BROOKS’ FIRING SHOWS THE NAACP IS CLUELESS | A5

WORLD | B3

African leaders snubbed at G7


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