>>This week on NewsNight, the first of two programs looking back at the top stories of 2022.

We'll look at the recovery after hurricanes Ian and Nicole.

The debate over the availability of treatments for gender dysphoria for minors.

And the spat between the state and Disney over the Stop Woke Act.

NewsNight starts now.

[MUSIC] Hello, I'm Steve Mort and welcome to NewsNight, where we're rounding out the year by looking back at the top stories of 2022 that we've been focused on here in central Florida.

And it's been a busy year for our state.

Defined by two hurricanes, political battles over LGBTQ issues, abortion and parental rights, an election that saw Republicans solidify their power in Florida, the jailing of former Seminole County tax collector Joel Greenberg, and the historic launch of Artemis I from the Kennedy Space Center.

For the next two episodes of NewsNight, well tackle some of those big issues by bringing you in-depth discussions hosted throughout the year.

We'll start this evening with a story that's still fresh in the minds of many central Floridians, Hurricanes Ian and Nicole.

This year, NewsNight went in-depth to look at the storm's impacts and the road to recovery, as well as how back to back hurricanes have changed how the coastline looks and raised questions about rebuilding and resiliency.

Let's start with a report that I put together in October on the work of FEMA crews in central Florida.

Treading the pavement in Richmond Heights.

>>Thank you.

>>Take care.

>>Part of the shoe leather work of disaster recovery.

These teams of FEMA agents check to make sure residents in this hard hit neighborhood have applied for assistance or even know that they can.

>>The most we can do here is just kind of leave a flier.

>>They have strict rules, though.

For example, they can't open a gate to get to a house.

Instead, they have to leave an information sheet.

Some residents in this neighborhood have applied for FEMA help.

>>I didnt get them.

>>Oh, you didn't get them.

>>But say they haven't yet received an update on when they might get the money.

>>And if I don't hear from people today and when they come to inspect, did I need to go to Barnett Park and get in line?

>>Stella Sutton says agents told her that her application for help to repair shingles and water damage in her home was pending.

She needs to visit a disaster recovery center to find out more.

>>It will be the thing we need because right now were on a fixed income and we can't afford any extra expenses.

And this was unexpected.

We didn't have time to save anything like that for this came up and we were blessed that we didn't have more damage and flooding.

>>For these FEMA personnel.

Life may not be as difficult as it is for the residents they serve, but the days are long.

>>It may prompt you to do stuff along the way.

>>Some may spend weeks, perhaps months away from home in disaster hit parts of Florida.

Ann Marie came from Colorado and is living in a hotel.

>>Trying to help people.

You feel so bad, everything that has happened to them and it was just a way I know I could reach out and kind of help the process along.

So it's nothing to me to have to leave my home to come to these areas where these people have lost so much for 6 to 8 weeks, whatever it takes to try to make the process go a little faster for them.

>>While the waters receded here in the Orange County community of Richmond Heights, the same cannot be said for some other parts of central Florida.

>>We've got a long haul to get back to some type of normal in the computer - community.

It could be a month or so.

The Seminole State College site?

>>Alan Harris, is Seminole Countys emergency manager.

>>Individuals that have had water sitting in their house for now weeks, it's it's going to be years before they fully recover.

So it's a long road ahead of us.

This is a horrific event, historical event.

And we're going to come together as a community to to to be resilient over it.

>>Well, next, let's listen to part of my conversation with Amy Green from 90.7 WMFE News and Erik Sandoval from WKMG, Channel 6 about the hardest hit communities.

Amy, you've been looking into sort of the impact on vulnerable communities, particularly communities of color.

And I wonder what advocacy groups are saying about how those communities have been impacted and what they want done.

>>Well, that's right.

So, you know, we know that Hurricane Ian is an example of how climate change is leading to more extreme weather.

And when we think about those impacts, a lot of times it is the most vulnerable who are hardest hit.

A lot of a lot of marginalized, low income communities, communities of color live in low lying areas and multigenerational homes.

These are people who work really hard.

And so it can be hard to find time to go to the grocery store and stock up on supplies and, you know, put boards on the windows.

And so and so, you know, these are communities that are, you know, have unique needs.

I talked with one organization locally called Florida Rising, which recognized the need and set up some like community hubs in vulnerable areas like Eatonville here in Orlando, where people could go and access supplies and help.

>>One of those communities, Orlo Vesta.

And that was hit particularly hard here in Orange County.

We've seen some frustration.

>>Its been hit hard before.

>>Before as well.

That's right.

And residents are frustrated about it for that reason.

Why do we keep getting hit so hard?

>>And Orange County responded, you know, they basically have it here.

They had $20 million in bids - they had a plan set up for Orlo Vista.

They had $20 million in bids come in for that project, but they only had 10 million to spend.

That's a difference of $10 million.

So they were basically left holding the bag saying, what are we going to do?

So what they told the residents was they're going to go back to FEMA.

They're going to ask for more money.

But this isn't a quick fix.

This is going to take a while where they're going to have to do more bids and it's going to take we may have another storm before things get fixed there.

>And Jerry Demings, the mayor of Orange County, saying it's very complicated to try to apportion blame for this.

And it certainly is complex when you've got so many different jurisdictions and government agencies.

I mean, many people in Orlo Vista, and it's not just Orlo Vista across the state don't have flood insurance.

We learned that in Lee County where the storm made landfall only a quarter of people have flood insurance there.

In central Florida counties, it's more like two, three, 4%.

I wonder how important that makes the role of those walking FEMA crews as they go door to door.

I wonder how important it makes their job given that people just didn't have a safety net.

>>Theyre the lifeline basically.

The flood insurance would help homeowners recoup some of their losses.

And I'd say in a faster way ‘cause they can file an insurance claim and just deal with their insurance company.

Here, they're relying on the federal government and FEMA, which is going to be a little bit slower, number one.

But number two, they're not going to see as much money as they would with a with a flood insurance policy.

It's going to be pennies on the dollar that they'll be getting back.

>>Well, just weeks later, Hurricane Nicole took aim at Central Florida.

I talked with Christopher Heath from WFTV Channel 9, and Skyler Swisher from the Orlando Sentinel about the aftermath along the coastline of Brevard and Volusia counties.

>>This is going to cost hundreds of millions, if not billions of dollars because of just where the damage was and how widespread it was.

And yeah, this this area, especially in our in our coastline, is going to take a long time to recover.

It's going to be very expensive.

>>Just tell me, you were out covering the storm, right?

Where did you go?

>>We were in New Smyrna Beach and we got there.

And, you know, you can see where the surf and the water had come in and just undermined all of these homes and condos.

And seawalls were cracking and pulling away.

There were homes where, you know, one of the homeowners I talked to, he got there and he could see that like the foundation underneath his house was gone.

All the sand was gone.

So they went to like Home Depot to try and get some wood and some concrete blocks to, you know, prop it up.

And he says by the time we got back, we heard creaking.

And the next thing we know, the half of the house that was hanging over the side just cracked.

And I mean, this is what people were coming back to.

>>Really demonstrates the vulnerability of those properties right by the ocean.

I mean, Chris mentioned that Skyler, the condos that were declared unsafe after the storm, some people are now returning.

Are engineers certain that these buildings are safe?

>>Well, the engineers are saying the ones that have there are newer and were built with with updated building codes are safe, but they're still in Volusia County.

I mean, there are 17 buildings that are still unsafe.

So there's a lot of structures out there where the residents can't return.

>>Chris, did the extent of the erosion, the subsequent damage to property sort of seem to surprise residents that that you and your colleagues talked to?

>>No.

I mean, I think the damage, you know, was always surprising because you kind of think, well, it's not going to happen where I live.

Maybe it'll you know, it's going to happen, but hopefully not here.

But, you know, before the storm, we were talking to people up and down the coast who were saying after Ian came through, the dunes were gone.

We were so exposed and now we have this storm coming straight at us.

Yeah, it was only a tropical storm.

Maybe it was going to intensify to a cat one, which it eventually did.

But, you know, we're just there's nothing to stop this from hitting us directly.

We're not sure how bad it's going to get.

And for a lot of people got very bad.

>>Well, you can find all the past episodes of NewsNight as well as full length interviews with newsmakers on our website, including our special episode on Hurricane Ian, featuring in-depth coverage of environmental impacts, diversity and equity in storm recovery and property insurance reforms in Florida.

It's all on our website, wucf.org/newsnight.

Well, this year marks five years since Hurricane Maria tore across Puerto Rico, triggering a mass migration of island residents to central Florida.

In September, NewsNight took a deep dive into the progress made in Puerto Rico since Maria and the problems that remain.

As part of our coverage, we looked at the challenges facing those who came to our region following the storm five years ago.

I talked with Marucci Guzman from the community group Latino Leadership and discussed the issues with Kristin Delgado from WFTV Channel 9, and Jennifer Marcial Ocasio the former editor of El Sentinel.

>>We were on the ground in Puerto Rico right after the hurricane.

We took thousands of pounds of first aid supplies, food, medical supplies to Puerto Rico.

And while we were there, we happened to mention to someone on the air that we have a nonprofit in Orlando and the names spread like wildfire.

So overnight, we became almost a first response center for individuals moving from Puerto Rico to Orlando.

And in a short period of time, we helped over 11,000 families.

>>So writ large, what does it mean for this community?

It obviously put a lot of stress on services and on the families and and community here in central Florida.

What did it mean for the community?

>>Sure.

So it was a logical kind of progression to see families moving from Puerto Rico toward land.

Over the years, we've become the epicenter of Puerto Rico here in central Florida.

So families, obviously, if you're going to move somewhere, you're going to go where your family is.

And a lot of those individuals had family here.

But yeah, overnight, it's very difficult to take such a large number of individuals.

And, you know, integrate them into a community, find services, be able to provide the help that they required.

>>Is that integration process still ongoing?

>>Absolutely.

You see families we do a lot of work around mental health, and that's one of the areas that we see the most work around.

You know, the trauma, the devastation that was left within, families having to leave, everything that you've ever known to overnight, you know, make a trip that you weren't prepared for, that you didn't have the savings for, that you had no intention of doing, and then just being forced to because you've lost everything back home.

That's kind of something that still continues to affect the families that we see here.

>>You mentioned mental health.

What are the kinds of traumas that people who were on the island during the hurricane experienced?

>>Well, you saw individuals that literally saw family members die.

Yesterday, I was doing some research and I saw, you know, there's a family that was at a hospital while we're at the hospital, the roof collapsed and they had to move out patients while they were there getting help.

So just, you know, the devastation of losing everything is something that I don't think a lot of people understand.

And, you know, until it affects you, it's something that's kind of out of sight, out of mind.

But when it's you, when it's your family members, when it's people that you know personally that have gone through that trauma, it becomes a little bit more real.

>>Is that trauma - does that trauma continue for people who've relocated, who've sort of turned their lives upside down?

I guess what I'm asking is, are there a lot of traumatized people here in central Florida still who lost a lot back on the island and are now living here and trying to pick up those pieces?

>>Absolutely.

It's not something that I think you just wake up and get over.

You have a lot of individuals that for lack of health insurance, for lack of, you know, just bilingual therapists within the community, they haven't been able to get that help.

So they've gone to work.

Their kids are in school and they may have found a church, but they still have never dealt with that trauma.

So through like our mental health services, we're able to either provide it for individuals with insurance through a mental health office, but through our free clinic, our psychiatrist is able to provide those services free of cost for individuals without health insurance.

And those conversations continue five years later.

Marucci Guzman there.

Let me start with you on this one Kirstin I mean, bringing this home to central Florida, we saw that huge influx in Puerto Rico after the storm five years ago are the effects of that migration still being felt here in our region?

>>Yes.

Not as steady.

Obviously, there was a huge bump after Hurricane Maria, but years later, a lot of people had made their way back to their home in Puerto Rico.

I think the interesting effect is that we're all feeling a housing crisis, right?

Central Floridians who live here already feel that already already been impacted.

And then you add to that, you know, another potential major crisis on the island that would bring more evacuees here and the trouble that causes for our housing issue.

What we are seeing is folks being pushed out to areas beyond the typical Kissimmee Saint Cloud.

Right now, we're in Davenport, Now we're in Haines City now were, you know, even in Lake County, right?

Areas further pushing out because there's more bang for your buck there in terms of being able to afford somewhere to live.

And that's obviously happening for us in Central Florida, Floridians here, but also people who are having to come over and try to find a new place to live.

>>Yeah, I mean, Jennifer, I've been told by leaders in the Puerto Rican community that there just isn't enough local, state, federal support for Puerto Ricans that that that are still suffering five years on here in our region.

What are you hearing and what would you assess are the lead - the needs for that community locally?

>>Yeah, I mean, there was a lot of help when when Hurricane Maria happened, we saw like FEMA was helping with the vouchers that were happening that month by month, they were either being extended or cutting down.

But there was a misconception of a lot of people thinking that Puerto Ricans getting here were having everything handed to them.

It's not like they were giving a key to apartment A, go.

They we're staying in motels on the 192 in many places where you don't want to stay.

>>A lot of that's still happening right?

>>And they are still there.

So, yes, there was help, I think and I've been hearing from local community leaders like Marucci Guzman and many other organizations and people actually living through this, that there was not necessarily a transition of how do we move then from this help that is ending at the end of the month to now I live in central Florida.

So there was kind of like an expectation that many of them were going to go back.

Many did, because then you see that not everything is roses here.

It's hard to even afford living here.

But there wasn't a clear transition of how are we helping these people now?

But at the end of the month, you're on your own.

>>Yeah.

I mean, how much does that housing crisis that we talk about, our affordable housing crisis in this region play into this?

I mean, I was covering this.

You know, Puerto Rican struggling to find a place to live five years ago in this region its gotta to be even harder now, right?

>>Well, I remember at that time I was covering similar stories and I remember a story of a family of about ten.

And they said, you know, we had our three story home on a mountain in Puerto Rico and we were comfortable.

FEMA came by and said the house is now unlivable.

We can no longer live there.

So what happens?

They come over to central Florida and they're living it was like generation, multi-generational family, grandparents, parents and grandchildren.

Right.

So it's about ten people living in two different motel rooms, as you mentioned.

And then what happens?

I had done a story where the FEMA voucher was about to run out and they go, we don't know what we're going to do.

We came over here penniless with nothing.

If you're in Puerto Rico, like you say, making $7.25 an hour and even less at that time, right?

Five years ago.

And you're just making it by.

But you have somewhere to live and you have a car and you've made a comfortable life for yourself.

You're struggling, but you're comfortable and you have a reliable place to live and food now that's taken from you.

Now you're penniless.

We all know that when it comes to natural disasters, those who are living in poverty are the most impacted, Right?

So you come over to central Florida, you're given a voucher for an excellent period of time, and now you're going, well, I have to figure out how to assimilate to learn new culture, to potentially learn a new language, and to get a job with all those parameters in place and figure out how to make first month last month rent and prove all these factors.

How can I do that in a matter of months?

Right.

For a family of ten, for example.

Right.

And then you have older people who maybe weren't even working anymore when they were in Puerto Rico.

So it's just it's not as easy as there needs to be a bridge that's built to say, hey, we can provide this emergency help and that or that.

There's a different chapter for if you're going to stay here and here's the channel to make that happen or the channel to get you back home to Puerto Rico, if you can, or desire to.

That bridge needs to be built, especially when we have shortages here.

Theyre in need.

If you're working in law enforcement, if you're a nurse, if you're a teacher, these are all shortages that we're feeling.

So why don't we actually transition those people in those positions so they have a home and a job and they can make a life here if they so wish, whether it be long term or short term.

>>And Hurricane Maria extends way further than just September 20th and the aftermath and the year later, we have to remember that Puerto Rico is extra fragile because of Hurricane Maria.

And then they went through a series of earthquakes.

So people that didn't live leave the island during Hurricane Maria.

After the earthquakes, they had to come here.

There were no vouchers there.

There were no like FEMA help then.

So it's a different like this natural disaster of refugees coming here with a different situation.

So not everybody came directly because of Hurricane Maria, but as a consequence of the situation down in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria too and then after the earthquakes, they had the pandemic.

Most of the Puerto Ricans living here were working in tourism.

Were working at the theme parks in the airport when everything shut down.

They have nothing again.

>>Well, as always, you can join the conversations that we have here on NewsNight on social media.

Were at WUCFTV, on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

We always want to hear your thoughts.

Next.

Tonight, it's been a controversial topic throughout the country and nowhere more so than here in Florida.

Should doctors provide gender affirming care to minors?

Florida officials this year said no.

The Florida Board of Medicine and the Florida Board of Osteopathic Medicine set rules that doctors can no longer provide puberty blockers, hormone therapy and surgery to anyone with gender dysphoria under the age of 18.

The move was supported by State Surgeon General Joseph Ladipo and Governor Ron DeSantis.

I talked with Talia Blake from 90.7 WMFE News and Steve Lemongello from the Orlando Sentinel about the issue, which could come up again in the 2023 legislative session in Florida with some lawmakers, including Brevard State Representative Randy Fine, calling for restrictions to be codified into law.

>>It's almost certainly influenced by what's been happening in Alabama.

And other states like Idaho recently made it like I think, a felony or something close to it to provide these sort of care.

So, yeah, this is this is sort of piggybacking on what's been happening around the country.

>>Talia, let me turn to you on this one that the Florida Department of Health recently released guidance right, on the treatment of gender dysphoria for children and adolescents.

I'm wondering how it differs from the federal guidance.

>>It is completely opposite of the federal guidance.

The Florida Department of Health is telling people to or telling doctors to avoid social transitioning.

Don't prescribe puberty blockers and no gender affirming surgery for trans and gender nonconforming kids.

But the biggest thing with that is the social transitioning, because as Randy Fine said in the package, that is reversible and U.S. Health and Human Services released a statement about two months ago saying that social transitioning can help with the mental health part of it.

And it's something that as can be reversible, so.

>>And certainly the American Medical Association guidance is much more closely aligned with the federal guidance than Florida's.

I mean, Steve, is this move, do you think, by representative Fine, broadly part of those sort of culture war politics that Florida has been at the forefront of in recent months?

>>Oh, yeah.

In one of Fines many social media posts, he did say that specifically he was introducing this trans bill because of the reaction to the the so-called don't say gay bill.

He saw that he used some of the language.

that opponents of the don't say gay bill were, you know, groomers - groomers and things like that or something along those lines.

And to imply things about opponents of the bill.

So yeah this is essentially just it's not only piggybacking off of what's been happening around the country.

It's piggybacking off of what's been happening in Florida.

>>Steve Lemongello there from the Orlando Sentinel.

Well, gender affirming care is just one of the so-called culture wars that have dominated the political landscape in Florida over the last year.

And in May, our region's biggest employer, Disney, became embroiled in controversy when then-CEO Bob Chapek decided to take a public stance opposing one of Governor Desantis's key legislative priorities the parental rights in education law dubbed don't say Gay by opponents, which prevents instruction on gender identity and sexual orientation in grades K through 3.

Lawmakers passed a bill then to dissolve Disney's Reedy Creek Improvement District by June 2023.

The district allows the company to tax itself and govern many of its own affairs.

Well, this issue is now live again with reports just a few weeks ago that state lawmakers are now in talks to allow Disney to keep the special districts in some form.

And we talked about it earlier in December on NewsNight with Erik Sandoval and Darlaene Jones.

>>Things got really political for a while with Disney in the state of Florida.

And a lot of people are questioning whether it needed to go that far to begin with.

But that's what we have and that's what Disney is moving forward with.

No, they're going to dial down the politics a little bit.

But as far as going forward with, you know, what kind of characters they have in their movies and what kind of themes they may have in some of their movies, they say inclusiveness is still part of their brand.

>>Yeah, I mean, Daralene, it sounds like Disney is sort of trying to walk this tightrope right between its its staff and the state.

I mean, what might it be hoping to get from lawmakers as they sort of consider what to do about Reedy Creek?

>>I think essentially they're hoping that Bob Iger can come in and help sort of massage this relationship that has essentially been tarnished.

But as Erik said, I don't I really don't know that this is as much about the state of Florida doing a U-turn as much as it is about Disney, sort of maybe pulling back some of the political, you know, involvement that they have had in the last couple of years.

>>The governor's continuing to talk tough.

What have we heard from him and his office?

>>You know, DeSantis is basically saying that Disney brought this on themselves, that, you know, under Chapek, he's the one that got boisterous about the don't say gay law, for example.

But again, if you look at that, it was at the urging of a lot of the cast members that felt that Disney wasn't doing enough.

So who was doing the right thing?

You know, maybe timing was the issue.

>>They got a lot of pressure from from those Disney employees.

Talking of Disney employees, Daralene, we've seen union protests, right?

Over the last few weeks calling for more pay, I think, for 42,000 employees at Disney.

What do we know about those contract negotiations and what unions want?

>>Look, the cost of everything is going up.

They view Disney as this major corporation that is bringing in a ton of money, whether it's a less than they had been in years past or not.

It's still a ton of money.

And these workers feel like they should have a chunk of that.

And so, you know, they're trying to make sure that their voices are heard and trying to fight for what they feel is right for themselves and their families.

>>And it goes to timing to again, because, you know, Iger's just coming back in as CEO.

So, you know, they decide to make their voices heard on the picket lines.

Let's see if he hears them.

>>And I think that a lot of employees at Disney, shouldn't say a lot, but some employees at Disney felt like Iger certainly listened a little bit more.

There was a lot of sort of silent cheering as the news came out that he was returning to the company.

>>Well be sure to check out the full discussions on all the topics you've heard tonight by visiting us online wucf.org/newsnight.

But that is all the time we have for this episode of NewsNight.

We'll see you again next Friday night at 8:30 for our second program.

Looking back at the year's top stories in central Florida.

Until then, take care and have a great week.