Alex Harris - Miami Herald

It's become common to see new homes in South Florida constructed on land raised by trucked-in gravel. But neighbors wonder — especially after the latest “rain bomb” to hit Fort Lauderdale — if the standards to raise new construction make flooding worse for surrounding older homes.

The answer to Florida's ailing coral reefs may lie in a probiotic, not unlike the bacteria found in yogurt.

“Are we there yet? No. We are not fully restored. But, we are trending in the right direction,” says Melodie Naja, National Park Service scientist.

The policy will force homeowners to also buy flood insurance — even if their homes aren’t in designated flood zones.

Research suggests cold-stunned iguanas falling from trees in Florida could be rarer in the future — both due to climbing global temperatures from unchecked climate change and a shift in cold hardiness in the lizards.

Southwest Florida has already answered the immediate question after Hurricane Ian slammed into the coast, killing dozens of people and destroying thousands of homes with record-high storm surge: Will we rebuild?

From the air, the fingerprints of Hurricane Ian’s journey through the Everglades are easy to see: swaths of beach washed away on Cape Sable, a plume of coffee-colored water leaking into the teal of Florida Bay and a stray sailboat shoved violently ashore, taking down 10 feet of mangroves on the way.

It’s a question that follows any natural disaster, especially monster hurricanes like Ian: Was this caused by climate change?

Hurricane Ian came ashore with devastating near-Category 5 winds that peeled the roofs off homes and uprooted trees.

Hurricane season doesn’t officially start until June 1, but in recent years named storms have been popping up ahead of schedule more and more often.