Florida News That Impacts You – October 4th, 2022
Bottom Line: Your daily recap of the biggest news from around the state that impacts you in South Florida. Gas prices continued lower through the weekend.
- Gas prices are four cents lower statewide today. The average price is $3.18 per gallon, or 21 cents lower than a week ago due to the October suspension of Florida’s sales tax on gas. Independent of gas tax collection, the price per gallon is four cents higher than a week ago.
- Florida reported its fewest COVID-19 cases in over two years on Monday. The 900 new cases reported were the fewest since May 25th of 2020, in the early months of the pandemic. The especially low total is in part due to the impact of Hurricane Ian.
- Florida’s Office of Insurance Regulation reported over 222,000 property insurance claims had already been filed in the wake of Hurricane Ian’s destruction. The estimated value of the claims total $1.6 billion. Those figures exclude federal flood insurance filings. Starting yesterday, the state began operating “Insurance Villages” which are one stop shops for victims to be able to access federal assistance in addition to receiving initial insurance payments while formal insurance adjustments are determined.
- The death toll due to Ian in Florida has risen to 101 people, over half of which were in Lee County. Overall power outages, which topped 2.5 million at the peak, have fallen below 500,000 as of this morning. According to the last report, approximately 491,000 homes are without power – an improvement of around 200,000 homes over the past day.