This Week In South Florida: March 24, 2024 episode

[Music] the scramble out of Haiti daring missions official Charters you obviously saw tears you saw laughter you saw Joy hundreds making it out hundreds more who need help the crisis in Haiti putting border law back in state headlines in a special legislative session to give our law enforcement more authority to to arrest and detain help or more hurt Florida just outlawed living on the streets we will never ever ever support arresting our way out of homelessness South Florida costs consequences

and a quest to end homelessness and Eyes to the Sky truly a once in a lifetime experience solar suspense and the science of a lifetime what you don't know about the coming total eclipse of the sun breaking the big news of the week all live this week in South Florida good Sunday morning to you thanks for being here I'm Glenna milberg as we come on the air the scramble is underway to get Floridians Americans and those in need out of an increasing danger in Haiti the state department has done two f

lights this week private operators have swooped in on their own our Focus today is on the state's effort s literally now underway a flight landing this morning with 21 people aboard earlier this week a first rescue flight from the state with 14 people on board landed in Sanford more are in the works hamstrung though by the bureaucracy of several countries and security concerns Etc hundreds have signed up on a new state portal with information about those needing rescue the man in the eye of this

logistic storm is Kevin Guthrie he is Florida's director of Emergency Management and he is with us this morning live director Guthrie endlessly grateful for your time I know it is a really busy time you are always in the eye of some kind of storm good morning yeah good morning Glenna thank you for having us and yeah we're we've got about eight executive orders right now still going all the way back to Hurricane Ian that we're working but you know right now this is our primary focus to get Flori

dians home so let's break a little news this morning there is a flight that landed just a little while ago with 21 people on board where did that land who's on board and how did that get done yeah glena so uh yesterday late into the early evening I would call it uh 7 7:30 p.m just before uh Sunset down in Haiti we were able to get a flight of SE I'm sorry 21 people uh heading to this uh heading here to Orlando International Airport uh we have consciously moved our operations from Sanford over to

uh MCO Orlando International because uh CVP is here until midnight so it gives us a lot more opportunity but we did get 21 on the ground about 12:15 this morning uh we've got them to a hotel and now we're moving them to their final destination most of them living in the Southeast Florida area that you is obviously your viewing area yeah um okay so I looked up that flight the tail number of that flight and it looks like that flight is actually right now back in Capen uh is that another rescue fl

ight today in the works yes ma'am we we are working right now we have uh two planes on the ground one stag in the Turks and Kos uh but we our goal every day is to fly people out so uh the way that the government is working right now in um and I say the government in air quotes is working inside of Haiti is we're getting daily permits so we can't get anything to land every day for a week or every day for the next two weeks we had to do this bureaucratic process every single day so what happens is

we start filing our paperwork early in the morning usually by about 3 4:00 in the afternoon we hear something back that says we are cleared to to fly and then we try to rush around because this particular airport does not have Runway lights so we have to be off the ground by Sunset so that we can do what they call visual flight rated uh type uh Maneuvers so we are working through that we work through that every day we start working the issues about 4 or five o'clock in the morning and then move

people again we don't know if we're going to have an aircraft or not so we have to move people backwards and forwards and inside of Haiti uh but right now today we're we're planning on running two flights somewhere around 50 people that may end up being less it may end up being you know we have a third flight on standby maybe we can get up to uh 80 or 100 out the day but we're going to keep working that I don't go into a whole lot of the tactics but we do have to strategically and tactically mo

ve inside of Porta prce to get people to safety um that is a very very uh tenous operation uh roadblocks gunfire things of that nature so we're we're working diligently to get everybody out but right now we we believe we're going to be able to run at least 30 today maybe a little bit more than that so to your point without giving too much of the strategy away I just want to clarify you're in Porta Prince where really most of the danger is because I know at least federally the state department is

telling people they need to be rescued from Capen but don't go if you can't get there securely and safely so so if if your people are in Port of Prince are you driving people to the airport 100 miles away yeah again we're we're utilizing a VAR uh various methodologies of getting people out of Porter prints um we are you know that that could be by land air sea uh so uh a combination of all three if you will uh but for you've seen the helicopters Landing from the state department we we have a sim

ilar tactic where we go in and we will land at a designated spot uh we uh to the best of our ability try to secure that spot and make sure that there's no activity around then call somebody in and then literally just come in and swoop up and get those individuals on a helicopter that's one particular way that we do it and that's very very similar to what you've seen over and over again on State Department videos uh that's a that's a similar tactic we use there but we are using some other tactics

as well uh we we did shift a little bit yesterday uh which would allow which allowed us to get the largest flight out that we've done so far so we'll continue to head in that direction and hopefully have more success here in the coming days are you having uh an okay time coordinating with anyone on the ground there or or maybe the surrounding governments Dominican Republicans um Turks and Kos is there any kind of coordination that and cooperation that you've been finding or or or is is it reall

y an obstacle the the official on the ground yeah so that's a great question uh the Turks and Kos is is allowing us to land our aircraft and Stage our aircraft there they have not yet allowed us to bring um people from area over there um the Grand Cayman Islands has offered to let us uh take off from Haiti land there with uh individuals uh but uh right across the border the Dominican Republic we we continue to run into bureaucratic issues there um it it it's frustrating uh we've had several call

s with that government uh they do not recognize Florida as an official government it's got to come through the state department I've got a state department Lea on and I want to thank Joe I can't remember his last last name right now but Joe is working really hard with us trying to get those clearances run through the Dominican Republic so we could have a shorter hop and get more people out in a in a shorter time window um Jamaica is taught about being willing to work with us but when you get to

Jamaica and C Islands that's a long helicopter ride and uh we don't want to put anybody in danger of running potentially out of fuel so those are those islands are available but they're they're really On The Fringe of what we could successfully do so we're trying to to either Turks and cost or Dominican Republic and we are having a little bit of challenges there and what are the parameters for I mean this is an international flight although it's relatively close what are the the parameters for f

or paperwork immigration identification and and that kind of thing yeah that that's again a great question Glenna um so when a flight happen uh number one we had to have clearance to land at the airport in capti um again there's some Splinter governments there there is an airport manager we don't know if he was the airport manager three weeks ago or if he was you know somebody else we we just don't have any way to verify that but he is the one that's signing off on our Pap for the land on a dayt

o day basis um but on the CBP side of the house and again I want to give a shout out to the Orlando based CBP officers um especially Miguel Ortiz assistant director here in this region he has taken every call that I've had I got connected with him after some bureaucratic issues and he has been my go-to guy here and his team of helping us get over uh back to the United States but when that happens we have to clear the entire list the entire manifest uh make sure that there's no B1 visas no B2 vis

as on there everybody has legal right to be inside the United States uh and and then once we're cleared uh we can then operate that flight so usually as we start to gather people uh and confirm the Manifest list that takes about an hour and a half to two hours to then get it cleared with CBP you know obviously we don't want any uh individuals coming into the country that are illegal or maybe wanted or anything like that so again it's it's a due diligence process and we want to do that and we wan

t to do it the right way and again I think our our state my state department liaison and I think uh uh assistant director Ortiz and his team um for everything they're doing to help us out it's great to hear that there is that kind of coordination director Guthrie I know you are so busy and I see the people working behind you in this little emergency Operation Center I'm going to ask you to indulge me a couple more minutes we're going to take a quick break and I want to talk about the larger also

the larger picture of all that you're department is doing uh when we come right [Music] back we are back with director Kevin Guthrie the head of Florida's Emergency Management operations talking about the flights from rescuing from Haiti uh Floridians who have have been stuck there in gang violence um director Guthrie before I want to talk about a little bit of the larger picture of what you're doing as well but one more question on the actual flights um these are very similar operations last O

ctober uh the state went in and and rescued people in Israel brought them home after the terror attack there is there a similarity there between these flights there there is a similarity Glenna uh the one start contrast difference is you know in Israel we had a consulate down in Miami that was very engaging with us there as well as the prime minister in Israel in this situation in Haiti there is no government there is nobody to actually liaz with so that makes it much more difficult on you know

dealing with you know the governor and I have to do things the right way the legal way obviously but when we're trying to work with the government that doesn't exist and then we're trying to work with International laws around the area it it certainly is much more difficult so I would say that in comparison this this particular repatriation has been much more difficult than the one that was in Israel uh because we had uh cooperating governments to help us get back across uh across the Atlantic O

cean have you or the flights or anyone the contractors or the people aboard the flights have actually had any kind of security scares in the last couple of days so I I don't know that our I haven't got the intel on actual security scares from the from the actual contractors on the ground but I will tell you uh from the individuals that come back in they're very thankful to be here they were living in some very scary situations the the this first 35 that we've taken in were more on the periphery

than they were actually in Port uh Port of Prince by the airport where you see most of the uh the more active violence uh so these individuals are scared they were very scared but they were also very happy to be home and back to safety so uh we were glad to do it so far all but three have been Floridians um so uh 30 32 out of 35 so we're very thankful to bring uh Floridians home and again we're going to keep working to get them all home there's there's over 500 that are trying to get out of coun

try on that portal have that have signed up on the portal yeah we we've taken in about 700 uh and on our report this morning there's over 500 almost uh 550 that are actual Floridians that have you know some type of Florida driver's license a green card uh or a US passport that shows an address here in the State of Florida you know on the state department flights I think there have been two so far they they come into Miami International um the state department is asking the people They're bringin

g back uh promise to repay is the state doing the same thing no we do not um we we're focused on and this is a this is where the governor just stands very very tall in the state he's not going to send you a bill for the rescue efforts that we're doing um you're a Floridian you pay into taxes in Florida we're going to come and get you we're going to get you back home safely um I I applaud his leadership I'm I'm ecstatic that I get to be the one that executes that that order um love the fact that

he's taken uh taken that line and we're we're not going to send a bill to anybody for uh coming over there and getting director Guthrie I want to talk a little bit about um you and your department are also in charge of some and and have been for more than a year but just last week some extra resources being sent to the Florida Keys in anticipation of what might be a a mass Exodus a mass influx of migrants we actually had the opportunity to fly one of those surve surveillance flights with the Flo

rida National Guard this week uh see a little bit about what they're doing from your standpoint today have you any intelligence or evidence that such an exodus might be occurring well one of the things that rear Admiral schield really wanted us to focus on uh because of the situation in Haiti he wanted to be able to push US Coast Guard vessels closer to Haiti to stop individuals from leaving that area um the conditions are very right uh the the risk is very high that individuals could if further

gang violence continued to happen in pter Prince that you know hundreds of thousands of people could exit that area so he wanted to be able to reposition his uh the majority of his Fleet down there there were still ships inside the Florida Straits but uh he's asked us and the governor again stepped up and said we'll be do we'll be good partners and do what we need to do and so we're covering the areas from along the Treasure Coast all the way through Miami and down to Key West under the Dry Tor

tugas with Florida State assets over 250 Florida State assets as you can see in as you're camera guys went up in that helicopter it's a really really big ocean out there and it's really hard to see you know a chug or a skiff from even a thousand feet high as those helicopters fly over the ocean so we're we're going to be out there every day looking and trying to detect but there has been a slight uptick you saw the situation that happened up in the Treasure Coast with the individuals that were a

rmed with drugs and illegals inside the boat um we did have a landing this week at duck key uh inside key uh inside the key keys so we we're we're seeing some increased activity but we're really trying to focus on those Florida straights so the uh Coast Guard can go down and intercept anybody that comes off the coast of Haiti so those the the two incidents that you just mentioned um not only in different places but I I'm I'm thinking the migrants who arrived in Duck Key I think were Cuban Nation

als um but but just to be clear as far as Haiti and the gang violence and the absolute Terror that's going on there now it we've been reporting that there is really no Intel that there has been or a pending Mass Exodus and and your department I'm guessing has not seen that yeah we're again the situation is when we've seen mass exoduses in the past uh they've been very similar to what you're seeing right now in Haiti at some point there's going to be a breaking point we hope that that Breaking Po

int does not come but if that Breaking Point comes and it's that you know that final straw that breaks the back then we do anticipate that there's going to be some type of Exodus so again that's why the the membership underneath rear Admiral uh chield of the US Coast Guard Homeland Security task force Southeast the governor the state agencies are all stepping up to make sure that we're prepared for that and we can intervene if uh we need to intervene when that time comes Emergency Management dir

ector Kevin Guthrie I think I can't thank you enough I know it has been a really tense time this weekend and taking the time to be with us this morning I so appreciate very valuable and good luck to you Lena great to be with you again thank you a new Florida law bans camping without permits AKA Banning living on the streets the controversy the potential cost the concerns and how that might affect Miami D's work to end homelessness alog together that's [Music] next the governor was in Miami Beach

this week to sign the law that Outlaws living on the street adds Millions to social services for those experiencing homelessness and also paves the way for counties to create encampments for them with security and rules to stay there the support and opposition for the bill now law had split along party lines in Tallahassee and in South Florida there are bipartisan questions and concerns about the costs and the consequence Ron book is the longtime chair of Miami D homeless trust personally on th

e front lines of working to eliminate homelessness and root out its root causes for oh more than 25 years is that right you started when you were 12 years old I was 12 you've got that right and it's been three decades wow well that's why I'm really interested to hear your take on this new law it's very layered it's it's been in our partisan times it's really been quite controversial um but they're well you tell me from your net positive or net negative look I I I I don't look at it in those term

s and a lot of people think I support encampments I don't I don't support any part of encampments they're not good they're not going to happen hopefully in Miami dat or in Broward counties you don't think they will no because first of all unlike 65 other counties in the state Miami Daye county has had a plan for 33 years to end homelessness it started with the governor's Commission on homelessness appointed by lot and child three co-chairs Alva Chapman Jeb Bush During the period of time between

his first race and his second race for governor and Alex pelis and that became the 10-year plan in homelessness later the community plan the 10-year amended plan then the community plan and now project home Broward County five years later made an effort to replicate the plan they have a different version of the Continuum but both have continuums and both of them are are diametrically opposed osed to encampments but in communities where you have no Continuum and you have nothing you got to balanc

e the interest and that is all I've said and this is the beginning of a dialogue and when you take just the encampment Bill and you ignore the fact that they made changes in the legislature gubernatorial support DCF support bipartisan support to pass changes to the Baker Act that were cooked by our own judge Steve lifean the authority on Mental Health a member of the Miami dat County homeless trust board when you take those two together take the additional 10 million that they put into now a pot

of 30 million for challenge grants at the state level for local governments to apply for and that there is this commitment to broaden and widen this is but a first step in the debate and in the discussion as to the state getting into the program of ending homelessness yeah and and I think you've done really good job of of talking about those layers because the word encampment is is very scary to a lot of people um if you read the now law if you read the bill the the word encampment covers a pla

ce where there must be facilities there must be security there must be a lot of other rules um so it's not just like a big field where anybody can go so but to your point Miami day and Broward were both really concerned the leaders that we T talked to were really concerned about um an unfunded mandate for first off because it's a choice counties don't have to make an encampment but there's also that consequence mechanism that allows businesses and residents to sue sue counties who they don't or

they're challenging for not doing it right and and I think that kind of Spectre of a lawsuit is pretty daunting for government I think it ought to be of concern to everybody that said it is intended to encourage if you will the building of plans in six 7 counties number one and number two I think you have to look at the fact that our Continuum continues to not only have shelters but we are building on our inventory of permanent Supportive Housing with tremendous support by the Miami date County

border of County Commissioners and mayor LaVine Cava our effort to create if you will using adaptive reuse acquiring properties and converting them and renovating them into creating permanent support of housing that the trust will own the trust will control the units thus controlling the pricing that's the the the the way you end homelessness and it is the only way we will ultimately end homelessness we have gone from a little over 8,000 unsheltered 33 years ago to now 1,032 unsheltered we've ha

d a 90% reduction of unsheltered homelessness in our community we've built a legitimate Continuum and unlike places like San Francisco and Los Angeles which were similarly situated to us 30 years ago they got 79,000 unsheltered in in La where Alberto carvalo is he invited me out there four months ago I went to see how bad it was how bad it is they're building units of housing for formally homeless people at the cost of $841,000 a unit that's not happening here it's not happening in madade and it

's not happening in Broward County that way so homeless trust the the mission is to end homelessness um I I was reading the legislative summary there's more than 30,000 homeless in the state correct people here experiencing homeless you just put the number at about a thousand um where do you get the money well the trust has a food and beverage tax that generates significant money coastal cities corre well it it is cities that is it is it is re it it is levied in 32 of our 35 cities and I include

umsa in that because the county operates as a municipality unincorporated for municip know who is unincorporated Municipal service area of the county where they provide Municipal services to those residents Miami Beach service side and Bell Harbor were left out I lobbied it I handled it 32 years ago when we passed it left out or opted out we we Exempted them because at the time they were levying some other tourist related taxes they didn't want to be at a potential competitive disadvantage to B

roward or to if you will the years in Orange County in Orlando but we told them then that if we ever ran short of money we were coming back we went back to the legislature last year they not only removed the exemption but they've required us to put a referendum on the ballot in Miami Beach surf side and B Harbor which will happen in November of 24 Miami Beach and and bal Harbor have already with their leadership put the issue on the ballot for their citizens to vote on this tax is not levied in

hotels it's not levied in the tourism driven areas but it is in our restaurants those that gross $400,000 or more and have a liquor license here's what I can tell you it is time to level the playing field so that all 35 of our Municipal areas the restaurants that qualify are charging it the revenue we will get by approval by those three cities I can assure the community as we've reduced homelessness by 90% over the 30 years we will finish we will be the first urban community in the United States

of America to end homelessness as we know it today does it mean 100% of the people will be off the street no we can't legislate mental health substance abuse and alcohol but the tools that we're getting with Baker Act changes and Marchman act changes coming in the future resources from the state for if you will behavioral health and substance abuse treatment that will get us there and more money for housing conversion housing we don't have the time we don't have the money to build we have to co

nvert buildings and I'm optimistic that our County our County Commission our mayor will continue to help get us there we will end homelessness without encampments without encampments we don't need them and we don't want them Ron book great to have you homeless trust and so many other things appreciate your time thank you all right you snooze you lose might be the headline on a court opinion this week that tossed a South Florida developers win to build on fragile lands but that might not be the e

nd of it and that isn't [Music] next a bit of a bombshell ruling late this week two years after a vot to open for development hundreds of environmentally sensitive acres in South day that were until then protected an appeals court said throw it out and do it over it wasn't the environment that was the legal issue and it wasn't the warehouse Logistics Center developers plan to put there it was the delay delay delay a vote the commission kept postponing apparently to give the developer more time t

o secure enough votes Miami day commissioner Danielle con Higgins is the one on the deas who represents that area an opponent from the project from the start and right here with us live commissioner nice to have you good morning Glenn it's a pleasure to be with you this morning so my phone kind of blew up when this opinion came down it's an opinion from the second circuit in leyon county and essentially says is that Miami day County missed deadline a critical deadline critical deadline a critica

l deadline written into this statute that governs the process that we have to follow when there is a request to make an amendment to what's called our comp plan our our comprehensive development master plan and here that critical deadline was October 27 2022 and mind you this was the critical deadline by agreement between Miami dat County and the developer the original deadline was April 27th they agreed to an extension uh once that deadline came October 27 uh 27 2022 as you recall glena because

you were covering this story every single step of the way there were a total of four different deferrals that had taken place and the final vote to adopt these comprehensive development ma uh master plan changes uh didn't take place until November 1st 5 days after that deadline and it was the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity which is the agency tasked with reviewing these applications and essentially has that final word said no no no you missed your own self-imposed deadline there was

an extension you agreed to it letters were sent confirming this deadline uh and instead it was missed and so uh Miami date County argued no the statute only requires us to have a public hearing and that second public hearing took place in May well within the deadline and the court ofin in a 20page very very detailed opinion just on Friday a couple of days ago that no no no Miami dat County that may uh 2022 date wasn't the date for you to just have the public hearing it was the date for you to a

dopt any of those changes which didn't take place until November 1st 2022 so the timeline is important here uh and you're absolutely right glena when you report the decision is not falling on environmental issues or concerns nor uh the developers arguments as was presented to the board uh we tackled all of those in the 14 months that this application was heard rather the issue turns solely on a procedural issue that the court said let me just let I'm so impressed that you know every single date

off the top of your head but let me just kind of hammer home for people why this was such a big deal is because for this particular project the county moved the udb move the Urban Development boundary that protects sensitive lands I mean that is a very big deal move um a and without taking sides whether that was right or wrong that's why this was such a Monumental effort and there's a a coalition of groups as you know called Hold the Line that's um that preserves Green Space and in the environme

nt and work very hard on this to get this through this opinion doesn't say this project is without Merit this Pro this opinion doesn't say it shouldn't go there um so you know is that really a win a aside from you know now kicking the can down the road I mean this could still happen no you're absolutely right uh it is a win in the environmental Community uh and there were so many in opposition to this application and you're absolutely right we hadn't moved the Urban Development bound we remind m

e they' counted for some 15 years prior and it was for hundreds of Acres of environmentally sensitive land in the South that was being looked at very closely if not the determination being updated now that it's part of a comprehensive everblades uh restoration program uh but yes you're absolutely right that this doesn't mean that the Urban Development boundary will not be moved on this application what this Court ruled was Miami day County you missed a deadline and this statute that it's operati

ng under self-executing which means if you miss the deadline the application is deemed withdraw withdrawn and the votes that were taken on November 1st 2022 is a null and void vote why is this important and why is this deemed to win by myself uh my district and the environmental Community because the board the board of County Commissioners is entirely different today than it was on November 1st 2022 five of the Commissioners that voted in favor of this application no longer sit on the dis and so

this applicant will have to come back before the board of County Commissioners rehearing will be taking place public hearing will be opened again uh and the community will be mobilized again the way that it was two years ago in such a huge way uh Commissioners said at the time they had never seen an application with this much opposition before and for good reason because of how poor poly uh this application was presented and the many environmental concerns all of that will likely happen again i

t comes back to the board for another vote according to judge Marsh in leyon County so I want to sort of because just because I was there to witness this I want to lift the curtain for people um the day this one of the delays one of the first couple of delays in the commission chamber this is kind of the behind the scenes that I really would love you to explain to our viewers literally the vote was about to be taken it was about to be against the developer the developer's rep jumped up and ran t

oward the de and before he could even ask for a deferral the deferral was done I it was lifting the curtain on how things are cooked at the commission no disrespect intended but can you just lay be that that does happen you know I am not going to aine on what my colleagues may have done or or or may have happened at that time I do remember that hearing and and the the sequence of events that you uh just described and listen I I went on record and said on the microphone at on November 1st that th

is thing is so cooked it's so cooked that it's burnt acknowledging that at that point after four deferrals this thing came to our board initially in September of 2021 and a final vote was not taken until November 1st 2022 after four deferrals and two public hearings if not three public hearings that uh the votes were finally in line for this thing to move forward uh and it was a devastating vote for myself and many uh not only in the environmental Community but understood that this application w

as very very poor for so many reasons so what comes next now because the the logistics and um warehouse and logistic Center I think it was called promising thousands of jobs in an area of the county that really could use thousands of jobs I mean there are I know people have seen a lot of merits to this project so does what happens now do you think this will come back and and in in a in a way that's more palatable for moving that line you know that's a wonderful and an interesting question the ap

plicants have an option at this point they can either appeal the decision that was made by Leon County but again it's a 20page decision I'm an attorney by trade reading that decision I have very little confidence that that decision will be overturned and so they will have to come back before the board whether they submit an entirely new application or a replica of what came before us previously we have yet to see uh but I do know that again this is hundreds of acres and environmentally sensitive

land critical for our Ser which is our Everglades restoration program I am going to hope that my colleagues and these are entirely new colleagues will see this application for what it is not get persuaded by the promise of jobs it's important to note that in the south on 132nd Street very close to where this uh line was moved there's an Amazon warehouse facility that the county granted to Amazon in 2020 they had to provide 325 jobs by September of 2023 guess what they haven't secured one job an

d there are hundreds of thousands of Warehouse square footage sitting right there unoccupied so the first need in Miami Dade County or the first thing that you need to establish in Miami D County in order to move our Urban Development boundary line is need they were not able to establish it in 2022 they certainly can't establish it now so I don't know what the future will bring but if it comes back before the board uh I and our community will continue to mobilize against moving the Urban Develop

ment boundary in that particular area which is extremely environmentally sensitive land and we will be there to cover it all commissioner Danielle Cohen Higgins so good to have you on the program thanks so much thank you always a pleasure a quick break and then something big just two more weeks until four and a half minutes of day is night and night is day as a total solar eclipse travels across the country no dark glass is needed for our preview of the spectacle and the science [Music] next two

more weeks until the celestial show in the sky we've been waiting seven years to experience a total eclipse of the sun will cast an arcing Shadow path from the southern border to Niagara Falls South Florida will see a partial eclipse though millions in the US will be in that path of totality and aside from the serious wow factor that total eclipse is a once- in-a-lifetime chance for scientists to discover things about the Sun that they have yet to learn with us today the CEO of frost Museum in

Miami and did you know lucky for us Dr Doug Roberts is an astrophysicist Dr Roberts great to have you well thanks for having me I'm happy to be here I think um we I think our producers are being funny and just put me in total darkness okay um so you will be the first astrophysicist I think ever on our program so I'm very excited about that so I will say I was I went to the total eclipse to cover it in 2017 and it was so cool cool Factor high but I want to hear from you is what kind of scientific

opportunity this one this year next month is going to be well every time that a solar eclipse happens the moon completely covers the Sun for a few minutes and when that happens scientists can appearer uh and actually see the sun's atmosphere without being Blinded By the Light of What's called the Photosphere which is the part of the Sun that we see so uh when that happens that CH chance alignment we have the ability to explore the at the sun's atmosphere and waves that uh we can't uh you know t

he most most of the rest of the time of um when we observe the Sun how how do how do you do that well they have different telescopes essentially look at sort of the Fingerprints of the sun um the composition of the gases how they're moving um and that the sun is a is a variable object so it changes sometimes it's it's uh throwing out a lot of wind sometimes it's not as much wind and understanding that helps us understand its effect on the solar system actually the cosmic rays and and high energy

particles that are expelled from the Sun interact with our atmosphere and our and our um magnetic field around our planet to cause the northern lights and um potentially damaging um satellites and radio communication so the more we understand about physics of the Sun the more we can prepare for and uh and make sure that what the spacecraft we have in orbit are are safe and so you you can't do that and unless the sun is blocked um some some some observations can be done um with spacecraft they'r

e actually um in orbit around the Sun but o other observations really need that um uh you to block the light of the Photosphere to see because um you said you saw the eclipse in 2017 so if you see it with your eyes you see it just looks to different and it's that difference um that allows you to see that that kind of uh it's called the sun's Corona That's that is really in impossible to see with the brightness of the Photosphere you know what I thought was really interesting about this year NASA

and some of the research groups probably that you're talking about are relying on sort of Citizen scientists to do some of the research so they'll be relying on what like like lay people's um camera shots or or video and and what what good will what will they be looking for there what good will that do yeah so there's a citizen science project that NASA did in 2027 or 2017 eclipse and they're doing again this year where anybody who's observing the eclipse can take photos of it and upload it um

uh through a website at Nasa that where NASA scientists will then be able to uh again look at the at the eclipse as it moves across the the the the planet so if NASA were to set up a telescope and observe one location they would get a great shot from that location but that only last for a few minutes and and then that sun sh the the shadow passes to another location so if we can have citizen scientists which are basically everybody who has a phone a smartphone looking at the eclipse during durin

g the moment of totality along the eclipse path then they can cap capture all that all the information to um uh get a better understanding what of what the phenomenon was going on you know when we were there we actually chose Columbia South Carolina last time I want I know you can't see your television but Darby our director has put me in total darkness he has put me in a okay um so uh when we were there in Colombia the the in the path of totality totality was I think two minutes and and some ch

ange and that was certainly enough time to you know feel the kind of lavender Aura and hear weird bird chirping and for everyone in the field with us to sort of gasp in the glow um but this time it's going to be a bit different totality is actually four and a half minutes almost twice and there are some other changes too the moon is closer to the Earth well talk about like what's different this time yeah so um the basically the moon goes around the the Earth um in not quite exact Circle so somet

imes it's closer to the Earth during an eclipse and sometimes it's further um actually there was an eclipse last October where the sun where the moon was was more distant and so its angle in the sky didn't quite cover the Sun and that was what was called an anular eclipse um and so uh the eclipse this time this the moon is closer um and it's actually closer as you said than 20 2017 so it covers more of it and also it as you say the eclipse lasts longer so um that that will allow for one of the c

ool things that happens during Eclipse you probably observed was um the you know the animals around start reacting to the what looks like Twilight or dust instantly and so a you know uh crickets will start cricketing and and frogs will start will start croaking and frogging frog frog and so they'll that all happen long the longer the eclipse goes on the more the animals are kind of and the more you feel actually the temperature might drop 10 or 15 degrees in in that in a couple in two or three m

inutes so the four-minute Eclipse actually will feel more more and also people go to Great Lengths to see eclipses and so um they'll you know you would go there and so you you would pay whatever money you could to extend that for one or two more minutes so going to the longer eclipse is definitely worth worth doing if you have a chance uh we were there then and that day I started planning for seven years later we're going again that's what everybody says I I I did the same thing I was there in M

issouri um where I or in Nebraska rather when I saw the eclipse and uh and as astronomer was the first one I T saw in 2017 and that was exactly my thought too was when's the next eclipse let's do it again listen Dr Roberts real quickly I know that the frost museum is doing a a big deal Eclipse program quickly tell us tell us about that yeah so the weekend before the eclipse again the eclipse on APR Monday April 8th uh it starts around uh uh 1 1:45 in the afternoon till 4 4:15 uh during the weeke

nd before we're going to have uh a special planetarium show and educational activities telling talking about the history of eclipse how to observe it safely uh we have these Eclipse classes um you can you can um get at the Museum um and we'll have Sellar telescopes to watch it um we also have live feeds from NASA showing the eclipse um in totality from various locations and actually and then the week the Sunday before we're working with alra Orchestra and presenting kind of a a Orchestra Cal per

formance and art and astronomy art including some information around the eclipse with some educational activities at the M sounds amazing that sounds great Sky geks let the flag fly absolutely Dr Roberts great to have you on the program enjoy your Eclipse thanks so much we'll be right back stay [Music] tuned to re-watch today's interviews or listen to the this weekend stha podcast scan the QR code right there and takes you right to the this weekend s Florida section of local pen.com we want to h

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