A homeless man whose face was mostly chewed off in a bizarre, vicious attack faces a bigger threat from infection than from the injuries themselves, according to experts on facial reconstruction. He will require months of treatment to rebuild his features and be permanently disfigured. Poppo’s lifestyle and health before the attack could determine how doctors proceed and whether they eventually consider a facial transplant, plastic surgeons said. Poppo had been homeless for more than 30 years, previously survived a gunshot wound and faced multiple charges of public intoxication, among other arrests.
Homestead, Florida, was ground zero in 1992 when Hurricane Andrew plowed ashore as a Category 5 storm. Twenty years later, Homestead is no longer a post-Andrew city. Residents who lived through Andrew haven’t forgotten the devastation, though, and they warn their newer neighbors to take storm warnings seriously, or else. Ed Bowe, Homestead’s emergency management coordinator says:
“We’d give you a black marker and ask you to identify on your arm somewhere your Social Security number,” he says. “And they say, `Why, what would you need that for?’ Well, this way, afterwards, we’ll be able to identify who you are, and that sort brings it home for them. `Oh, this is serious, huh?’ Yes, this is serious, we wouldn’t be telling you otherwise.”
Miami police union officials are calling Saturday’s face-mauling attack on the causeway that connects South Beach with downtown Miami one of the goriest crime scenes they’ve ever been to. Obvious note: This story has some graphic content.
U.S. forecasters predicted Thursday that this year’s Atlantic hurricane season would produce a normal number of about nine to 15 tropical storms, with as many as four to eight of those becoming hurricanes.
It’s that time of year again - hurricane season! This year’s “be prepared” mantra is amplified by the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Andrew’s catastrophic landfall in South Florida. It doesn’t matter how many storms are expected to form in the Atlantic this year, forecasters like to say, because it just takes one storm like Andrew to really mess things up.
The National Hurricane Center’s outgoing director, Bill Read, says his successor will have to deal with one lingering post-Andrew problem: the lack of progress in forecasters’ ability to see well in advance whether tropical storms will blow up into Category 5 monsters. The science behind tracking the storms has improved significantly, but tracking storm intensity remains a serious challenge.
An endangered green sea turtle named Sas was released earlier this week into the Gulf of Mexico off Marathon, Fla., by Gov. Rick Scott and Turtle Hospital staff.
Miami, Florida on Flickr.
Early April, Little Haiti. #film #trayvonmartin #miami #florida
Everglades National Park, Florida on Flickr.
Everglades National Park, Florida on Flickr.
Vice President Joe Biden has taken what he says was his first airboat ride, touring a swath of Everglades National Park while touting the benefits of a federally funded restoration project to restore the flow of water.
Miami, Florida on Flickr.
Trayvon Martin’s parents say they’re relieved that George Zimmerman has been arrested and charged with 2nd-degree murder in the shooting death of their son in Florida.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced today at the Miami blue butterfly would be formally added to the endangered species list.
Once common from the Lower Florida Keys up the coast to Tampa Bay on the Gulf side and Cape Canaveral on the Atlantic side, the butterfly is now only found in the Key West National Wildlife Refuge. For awhile, a small population hung on in Bahia Honda State Park, but iguanas are being blamed for the Miami blue’s decline there. I spent some time over the last year with the park’s biologist, on the hunt for iguanas and a glimpse of the butterfly.
Several hundred people marched through Miami’s Little Haiti on Wednesday, calling for an arrest in the shooting death of teenager Trayvon Martin.
There’s been a minor change made to the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale. The adjustment slightly broadens the wind speed range for Category 4 storms, which then slightly shifts the Category 3 range down and the Category 5 range up. Storms rated Category 3 and higher are considered major hurricanes.
The important things to remember about the scale remain the same:
- the categories rate storms’ winds on a scale from “very dangerous” to “catastrophic,” so pay attention to the storm warnings
- the wind scale doesn’t offer any information on storm surge or other tropical storm impacts, so pay attention to the storm warnings.
- be prepared.
