Manatee Rider Turns Herself In To Authorities

Manatees across the waters of Florida can breath a sign of relief. The woman who was caught on camera hitching a ride on back of an endangered sea mammal has turned herself in.Ana Gloria Garcia Gutierrez says that she was new to the area and didn’t think there was anything…

Manatee Molester on the Loose in Tampa Bay

An unidentified woman was seen hitching a ride on the back of a manatee in the waters off Fort De Soto Park in the Tampa Bay area, which runs afoul of the Florida Manatee Sanctuary Act.Now authorities are looking for the manatee molester…

Floridians Warned Not to Interrupt Big Manatee Orgies

If you see a large group of manatees suddenly show up in shallow water and start rubbing up against each other, there’s a good chance they’re humping, and you shouldn’t try to interrupt them.Recently, such a group has appeared near Siesta Beach on Siesta Key, and wildlife officials have had…

New Times Readers Share Their Isaac Photos, Tales of Terror

Check out our previous coverage of Tropical Storm IsaacAs you probably noticed by looking outside Monday morning and seeing that everything was intact, save some larger-than-usual puddles and broken branches, Tropical Storm Isaac wasn’t exactly an apocalyptic event for Miami. Sure, it did result in some canceled flights, power outages,…

Tropical Storm Isaac: Watch Out For Falling Palm Fronds UPDATED

If you’re like us at Riptide, your eyes have been rolling all morning watching NBC 6, CBS 4, Local 10, and WSVN make fools of themselves reporting on the “awful” conditions brought by Tropical Storm Isaac. Yeah, there’s been some rain and wind, and Miami even experienced some brownouts last night,…

Tropical Storm Isaac: Tampa’s RNC Still In The Danger Zone

Riptide’s Crack Weather Team has just issued this update on Tropical Storm Isaac: 9:45 AM EST/ Wind shear and disorganized flow have hampered Isaac’s development, but a dip in low pressure means by that this afternoon Isaac will begin inexorably raging with the blind, horrible fury of a pack of…

Hurricane Andrew Turns 20 Today: Five Amazing Videos of the Storm

See also, “Photos: Remembering Hurricane Andrew” and “Hurricane Andrew at 20: Miami Herald Reporters Remember.”Twenty years ago today, Hurricane Andrew made landfall at Elliott Key as a Category Five monster before tearing west through Miami-Dade and leaving $26.5 billion in damage in its wake. In 1992, Miamians didn’t have cell…

Tropical Storm Isaac: Welcome To The Cone of Concern, Miami

Riptide’s crack meteorological team has just issued this update on Tropical Storm Isaac: 09:17:00 AM EST Due to favorable wind shear and hot ocean temps, by Monday TS Isaac is expected to rage with the devastating power of ten thousand nuclear bombs. It will personally find your house, smash each…

Tropical Storm Isaac Close To Forming, Could Threaten RNC In Tampa

Between the cash-hungry strip clubs, the prime-time Rick Scott speech, and the 50,000-plus conservatives and 20,000 protestors squaring off, Tampa is already going to be one insane circus from hell next week. The only thing that could possibly make the Republican National Convention better would be a raging hurricane outside.Which…

Expect an Even Rainier Than Normal Summer in Miami

We’re just weeks away from the start of South Florida’s wet season. Which, not to bum everyone out, means it’s almost time for our daily mid-afternoon rain showers. Meteorologists predict that this summer could see even more rainfall than average this year. In terms of water levels and such, that’s…

Miami Rainpocalypse 2012: It’s Never Going to Stop Pouring

Between the front-page Miami Herald story, the endless meteorologists on the morning news and the Facebook and Twitter-choking freakout by basically everyone you know, you’d think hurricane season had officially arrived. Not quite. But it is going to rain for FOUR STRAIGHT DAYS in Miami.It’s the rainpocalypse! Will you and…

Today is the Last Day of Hurricane Season

Congratulations! You survived Emily, Irene, Rina, and all those other storms that threatened to come near us, yet never did. Yes, we’ve endured another hurricane season, and we won’t even have to think about any possible category fives until next June. …

Rina on Verge of Category 3, Miami Now in Possible Path

Slowly moving but quickly strengthening Hurricane Rina is expected to become a Category 3 storm sometime within the next 24 hours as it trudges toward Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula. However, the five-day projections have the storm taking a hard right turn later this week, and Miami is now within its possible…

Kit Curtin, Urban Manatees Best Hope In Miami, Loses Funding In Recession

​In a murky, garbage-strewn canal next to a dilapidated apartment complex, a mossy-colored beast breaks the water’s surface. The manatee looks as out of place in this hood as a three-piece-suit-clad banker chillin’ at Churchill’s.Kit Curtin, a veteran biologist with the U.S. Geological Survey, says it ain’t easy being a…

Rina Becomes a Hurricane, Could Threaten South Florida

Rina has now officially reached hurricane-strength winds. The storm is currently trudging slowly off of the coast Honduras in the Caribbean Sea, with Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula. It’s way too early to predict with any certainty its ultimate path, but the storm is expected to strengthen over the next few days…