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What's Different This Year

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: May 29, 2008

Sales tax holidays for hurricane preparation are no more this season. With money in short supply, the Legislature did not renew the tax relief on hurricane supplies that Floridians enjoyed for three years.

Don't expect the Federal Emergency Management Agency to provide ice after a storm. It's also not a priority for the state.

It should be easier to find an open grocery store after a storm. Publix is almost finished with a $100 million project to install permanent backup generators that run on diesel in its Florida stores. Each generator is the size of a minivan and powerful enough to power the entire location: lights, refrigerators, air conditioning and cash registers.
Sweetbay has bought six large, portable electric generators, including three that can power every function of a store. The smaller generators can run refrigeration and cash registers. Total cost: about $1.5 million. Sweetbay's strategy is to store mobile generators at strategic sites in the Southeast and move them to any of the roughly 100 Florida stores that lose power.

This is the last season your battery-powered televisions will be of use. You will not be able to use them after early 2009, when analog signals are no more.

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