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While Irma’s damage remains front page news across much of the nation, Visit Florida is launching a month long ad campaign to let the world know, the Sunshine State is still open for business.

Visit Florida, the state’s destination marketing organization has a long history of PR clean ups after disaster strikes.

This year Governor Scott set a goal of attracting 120 million to the state.

But Hurricane Irma shut down the states beaches.

The state’s restaurant and lodging association says the storm put at risk Florida’s sunny image as a place for relaxation and recreation.

“The message to folks is that yes there was devastating damage to parts of our state, but we have the welcome mat back out,” said Geoff Luebkemann, Vice President of the Florida Restaurant and Lodging Association.

The negative press also puts Florida’s more than 1.4 million tourism jobs at risk, along with the $67 billion dollar annual revenue stream from the industry.

Visit Florida is rolling out a $5 million ad campaign. House Speaker Richard Corcoran has regularly criticized Visit Florida. Not now.

“That is the kind of expenditures that I think as a Legislative body we would warrant that they should go out and do and they benefit the entire state,” said Corcoran in a press conference earlier this week.

The campaign utilizes Commercials, billboards, and social media.

“We are thankful for the infrastructure that they have in place and the outreach that they’re able to stand up nearly immediately,” said Luebkemann.

Because the Florida Keys and Southwest Florida are still recovering they aren’t part of this ad campaign, but Governor Scott has set an October 1st deadline to welcome visitors back to the Keys.

So far Visit Florida hasn’t calculated the direct economic impact Irma had on the state’s tourism industry, but some estimates suggest the negative headlines were equal to a $500 million dollar ad campaign.

Visit Florida kicks off the campaign starting this weekend.

During Hurricane Irma, public schools made up the majority of shelters used by those unable to evacuate.

Preliminary data shows schools held up well, but a change in how Florida updates its building codes could determine how well schools may survive during future storms.

Six million Floridan’s evacuated for Hurricane Irma.

Many of those left were able to survive by taking refuge in the more than 600 shelters set up around the state, most of which were in public schools.

“People don’t have to go far from their home. Many people who live locally have the ability perhaps to walk to the facility,” said Andrea Messina with the Florida School Boards Association.

Hurricane Charley destroyed six public schools in 2004, but building codes have improved since then. Irma appears to have only caused minimal damage to public schools.

“A school that was built under a previous building code could easily get hit. So technically the winds just didn’t go in the areas where the schools that might have been at risk were,” said Messina.

Soon after hurricane Andrew hit Florida in 1992 the state began strictly adhering to international building codes. Every three years the state would adopt all new standards added to the code.

Now, a new law allows the state to pick and choose which new standards to adopt and which to ignore.

Advocates fear the change will allow Florida’s standards to fall behind. Leaving homes and structures like schools at risk.

Carol Bowen, Chief Lobbyist for the Associated Builders and Contractors of Florida says despite having the option, there is no indication corners will be cut when it comes to school safety.

In a statement she tells us, “There is no language or effort to take us back to where we were pre-Andrew.  What happens moving forward – I have to imagine – will be a topic of conversation in the 2018 session.”

At the earliest, a changing building code won’t affect new constriction until after the year 2020.

The Florida Homebuilders Association pushed the Legislation during the 2017 session.

The group maintains safety is always the key concern when deciding to adopt or ignore a new building standard.

As investigations into how 8 people died at a South Florida nursing home continue, Mike Vasilinda tells us Governor Rick Scott is ordering all of the states adult living facilities to be generator equipped within 60 days.

Inspection reports from March, by the Department of Heath and Human Services, show emergency call buttons where 8 people died in a nursing home last week didn’t always work. One patient was being showered only once every ten days.

The South Florida Sun Sentinel published radio conversations from EMT workers at the scene.

“We have an additional signal seven in room 226.”

These are radio calls between responding EMT workers. A Signal seven is a dead body.

“How many signal sevens we got so far unaccounted for according to reports?”

“We’re gonna have two additional at this point.”

Governor Rick Scott has now ordered every nursing home in the state to have a generator and four days fuel supply up and running within 60 days.

The State’s nursing home association plans a summit on the generators Friday.

“There is local zoning, permitting, plans and construction. The cost of generators” says Kristen Knapp of the Florida Health Care Association.

Legislation has also been filed requiring every nursing home to have a generator.

The Governor’s order requires nursing homes to have fuel for for days. Legislation already filed calls for five.

Cost and zoning regulations are seen as the biggest impediment to meet the orders timeline say Knapp.

“One sixty bed facility indicated it was a couple hundred thousand dollars, we saw a larger size building upwards of eight hundred thousand dollars.”

In a statement, Rehabilitation Center administrator Jorge Carballo says the home was in compliance with current backup requirements including ice and generator fuel. The homes generator did not power it’s air conditioning.

Governor Rick Scott moved last week to revoke the nursing homes Medicaid eligibility. In addition to how the home responded to the emergency, there are also questions about how state regulators responded to numerous calls from the homes administrator.

A week after the Florida Keys were slammed by Irma, major concerns over food and water remain on the island paradise.

The non-profit Farm Share is sending 88,000 pounds of food and supplies to those who need it most.

Hurricane Irma destroyed an estimated one out of every four homes in the Keys. It took a major toll on the area’s supplies.

“Anything that they need has to be brought in,” said Farm Share spokesperson Michelle Ubben.

But the trucks are giving residents a glimmer of hope; delivering a combined total of 88,000 pounds of toiletries, diapers and cleaning supplies.

Fresh fruits, vegetables and canned foods are also included.

“So many people are displaced. So many people are without food, water, and other essentials,” said Ubben.

Farm Share is a non profit organization. It takes blemished food too ugly for grocery store shelves and redistributes it to those in need.

Since Irma hit, Farm Share has been receiving a call every three minutes requesting food.

“Florida farmers are extremely generous. They hate to see food go to waste,” said Ubben.

On Sunday the non-profit brought 44,000 pounds of food to Miami, enough to feed between seven and 800 families.

“Farm Share in the past week alone has has given out over a million pounds of food,” said Ubben.

It’s not just Florida residents who need the help, Farm Share is also feeding linemen restoring power for more than 200,000 Floridians who are without it a week after the storm.

“Making sure that the linemen who are resorting energy to the Keys and other affected places have the food and water that they need to be able to do the really heroic jobs that they do,” said Ubben.

Farm Share’s help isn’t just for Southeast Florida.

The organization says it has future distributions planned for parts of Fort Meyers and Jacksonville.

To find out how to get involved with Farm Share or top check where they’ll be delivering food next, go to farmshare.org.

Governor Rick Scott’s communications team responded to our story below, and asked we distribute the following statement.

State lawmakers will consider major changes to nursing home regulations in the state following the deaths of 8 residents in Irma’s aftermath. As Mike Vasilinda tells us,  The Rehabilitation Center of Hollywood Hills is also pushing back against charges it negligently let the patients die.

As patients were dying in South Florida, Both the Governor and Bryan Koon, the top emergency manager,  were fielding questions about nursing home safety.

Q:”The nursing homes are running our of fuel, some them may not have generators in    the first place. What’s the progress there?” Koon was asked Tuesday.

“Well, Multiple fronts. trying to get the regular power back up online” responded Koon.

“We’re talking to all of our nursing homes, our ALF’s because you know they trying to make sure they have the power to take care of their citizens” Scott told reporters minutes later.

Now, The center were 8 deaths occurred has released a timeline of calls to state officials asking for help. They  began at 5:34 Monday afternoon. the first call went to the number Governor Rick Scott was publicizing.

“We have a hotline here. It’s 1-800-342-3557. Call us.” Scott said Tuesday.

By 10 Pm Monday the center says five more calls were made for help.

State Senator Anitere Florida chairs the Health and Human Services Appropriations Committee

“There is no reason what so ever those individuals should have been in a home that hot for that many days. It’s..there’s no need for it” said Flores, who also said there was a 100 percent chance nursing home changes would be taken up by lawmakers.

Legislation requiring generators at adult living facilities and nursing homes has submitted to bill drafting. The next step will be to file it.

Kristen Knapp of the state’s nursing home association says it tirelessly advocated help for its members before and after the storm.

“And the home in question is not a member?”

“It was not a member of the Florida Health Care Association. That’s correct.”

“And so, you would not be advocating or they would not be calling you?”

“We did not have communication with them.”

After the investigations, there will likely be plenty of blame for everyone.

The Emergency Operations Center Public Information Office tells us it does not specifically track which calls come in at the hotline number, which is where the Rehabilitation Center made its first call Monday afternoon.

The League of Women Voters, Florida, and a coalition of other groups has asked Governor Rick Scott to delay as many as ten elections scheduled for the rest of the money and the first ten days of October. Governor Rick Scott has already denied the Democratic party’s request to delay a special election in Miami. Now Marti Monroe of the League is asking Governor Rick Scott to reconsider the delay.

“We want them to vote. We want them to be informed. we would like to have a Governor who is interested in increasing voter participation. And we look of this leadership rethinking this, and opening the doors to the voters of our state by delaying this election. what’s two weeks?” asks Monroe.

Elections are pending in Miami-Dade, Levy, Marion, and Hillsborough counties.

Florida teachers are suing the state and local school boards over a program that bases teacher bonuses on how well they scored on high school standardized tests.

Statistics show the policy disproportionately benefits young white teachers over black and hispanic teachers.

The Best and Brightest bonus program became law in 2015, it gives bonuses to teachers who scored in the 80th percentile on their ACT or SAT during high school.

The Florida School Boards Association says many school boards opposed the one size fits all remedy to teacher recruitment when it was originally proposed.

“If they were given the same amount of money to use in their district for recruitment and retention, they might use it differently to better meet their needs,” said Andrea Messina, Executive Director of the FSBA.

The Florida Education Association says rewarding teachers for high school test scores disproportionately benefits white teachers, who make up nine out of ten of those who qualified for the bonuses.

“Our historically black colleges and universities, they didn’t have to take an SAT or an ACT so they have no score. So they’re eliminated right off the bat from that,” said President of the FEA, Joanne McCall.

Teachers also say the Best and Brightest program leaves out older teachers, who went to school before standardized tests were as common.

More than half of teachers who received the bonus are under the age of 40, yet the age group makes up only a third of the state’s teachers.

The Union says high school standardized test scores aren’t accurate at determining the effectiveness of a teacher.

Under the DOE’s own standards the demographics of teachers rated highly effective aligns almost identically with the true break down of teachers in the state.

Leon County School Superintendent Rocky Hanna says he wants the Best and Brightest program gone.

“Quite honestly I’ve never been so excited to be sued,” said Hanna.

With the law suit the FEA hopes to have the Best and Brightest program declared illegal, and reward those unfairly excluded from receiving the more than $8,000 bonus.

One in eight Florida teachers are black, the same goes for hispanics yet less than 1% of the recipients of the Best and Brightest program are black. Only 4% are Hispanic.

Evacuees returning from out of state got some good news Thursday.

Flooding from the Santa Fe River has begun to recede ending the possibility of I-75 being shut down.

The receding waters will save those returning from hours of tiring travel.

The Santa Fe River came within several feet of flooding I-75 and forcing its closure.

Heavy rainfall from hurricane Irma caused the Sante Fe River to rise 15 feet in just 36 hours, threatening this small bridge and nearby highways.

A closure would have diverted traffic, adding hours for evacuees trip back home.

“Normally we would hit 441 to go to the back roads, but I understand there’s flooding on that as well so  it’s going to kind of be a challenge to figure out how to get home,” said Karen Booth, an evacuee returning to Port St. Lucie.

“I went to Louisiana and I’m coming back from Louisiana. I stayed over night in Tallahassee,” Eugene Breaux on his way back to St. James City.

The Florida Department of Transportation said Wednesday the river had begun to recede, allowing I-75 to remain open.

“Well that’s good news. I will take all the good news I can get right now. We’ve been traveling forever,” said David Albrecht, traveling back to Vero Beach.

The river didn’t level off in time to save every road, behind me this segment of US 41 is completely underwater. It’s the same story for a segment of US 27.

Many evacuees like Seth Kaufman have been on the road for days. He was exited to hear there wont be further delays getting home.

“I think everyone from South Florida that came up to Georgia is just going to be glad to get home and sleep in there beds, hopefully with electricity,” said Miami evacuee, Seth Kaufman.

The Florida Department of Transportation says it will continue to monitor the Santa Fe River and update motorists on road closures via twitter and on FL511.com.

The Florida DOT is also working closely with WAZE and Google Maps to get rerouteing information out to the public.

Gasoline remains in short supply as returning residents are consuming supplies. As Mike Vasilinda tells us, the state has partnered with a Boston company, GasBuddy, that helps motorists find fuel.

Fuel is moving into Florida, but the app GasBuddy shows more than half the stations in major cities are lacking gas.

Executives from the app were touring the State Emergency Center this week. GasBuddy was designed to help motorists find the cheapest fuel….but when storms started hitting, Patrick DeHaan, the company’s Senior Petroleum Analyst, quickly realized it’s users could help pinpoint shortages.

“This information is all being funneled to various levels of government now, to make sure everyone’s got really good information to make decisions on getting these fuel networks back to normal” DeHaan told us at the EOC.

The program lists a station as green if it has gas and power, yellow if fuel is limited, and black if there is no power.

GasBuddy nailed it at this station. It has no gas.

A block away, we also found limited fuel at this Chevron, just as the app said we would.

Where it missed the boat was at this Marathon station. It was listed having limited fuel. We found a dozen people filling up.

PJ Sattar is the owner.

”You look like you have a lot of gas here? we asked.

“At the moment, yeah. To survive the day, I would say” says Sattar.

Q:”This says maybe not. It may not be accurate?”

“It’s not accurate because yesterday it said I had no gas and I did have gas” Sattar told us.

GasBuddy also got it right at this station which was listed as having fuel. It has all you could buy.

We asked GasBuddy’s Patrick DeHaan what lessons were learned.

“Ah, the lessons for us, you now, obviously to maintain services, we’re going to have to beef up our capability.”

Availability and prices posted come from input from the apps users and they’re  accurate only at the time of the post.

The firm first added gas availability to the app during Hurricane Harvey in Texas. It also allows motorists to report price gouging, which it defines as at least 150 percent of the normal price for gas.

Even counties that did not get the brunt of the storm are still dealing problems created by Irma.

Taylor county was spared the worst of hurricane irma’s wrath, even still supplies are running thin.

James Jolley has spent his life in Taylor County. He says it’s been 4 days since he’s been able to find gas.

“This is the first time I came back to town and found gas,” said Taylor County Resident, James Jolley.

Throughout the county, many gas stations are still dry.

The same goes for for supplies at grocery stores.

Steve Spradley, Director of the Taylor County EOC, says evacuees fleeing the storm and then returning have played a big role in depleting resources.

“We’re starting to recover; we do have gasoline today, and we’re just waiting for our grocery store shelves to be stocked so we can try to get back to normal,” said Spradley.

Power is also coming back more slowly in rural counties. Half of Taylor County is still without electricity.

It’s the same story for many rural counties across the state.

Despite delays, The Florida Retail Federation says supplies are on the way.

But, rural counties may have to wait longer than heavily populated areas to see a normal return of supplies.

“Our goal is to get gas to as many people as possible, that includes urban counties, that includes rural counties. Right now you’re talking about an unprecedented demand for fuel in Florida. You had six million people forced to evacuate, which is basically almost a third of the state,” said James Miller with the Florida Retail Federation. “Now those six million people are on their way back in, so you’re talking about having to have gas on I-10, I-75, I-95, hundreds and hundreds of miles, not to mention food and water in these stores.”

Emergency Managers in Taylor County say they understand the cause of the delays, but they want to make sure rural counties are not forgotten as response efforts continue throughout the state.

The threat of I-75 closing means traffic could be diverted through Taylor County and other rural counties, putting further strain on fuel stock and supplies.

Many areas of the state are still without adequate gas, food and water, but as Mike Vasilinda tells us, The Governor, Emergency Management Director, and the head of the National Guard all say it is on the way.

Irma’s sheer size has complicated relief efforts, leaving few places out of harms way to stage relief supplies.

We asked Governor Rick Scott  ”Governor, what would you say to those folks who have perhaps lost hope because they haven’t seen food, water, or gas yet, and they were expecting it?”

His response: “I think if you go all around the state, people are working hard to get it to everybody. You know, I tell everybody, we have a hot line here. It’s 1-800-342-3557. Call us. You call us about anything and we’re going to do everything we can to get you all the resources you need.”

This time laps photography shows the frenetic activity of more than 100 people working long shifts to get supplies out into the state. These are the people who will answer the phone at the number the Governor wants you to call.

And planners say if you are not seeing the kind of relief you think you should be seeing in our neighborhood, it’s because somebody else needs it more.

We also asked Emergency Director Bryan Koon:”People are looking for specifics. They are starting to lose hope. what do you say to them?”

Koon responded: “I say all this room, the purpose of all the people in this room is to do everything we can to restore Florida back to normalcy. we’re working on restoring the power. we’re working on getting the fuel back in the ground.”

And with the storm now gone, National Guard Adjutant General Michael Calhoun says relief is on the way.

“I think the main effort we have today is have about 16 aircraft in the air, to sling low pallets down to the points of distribution, so the citizens can have something to eat, some water, some food, until power is restored” says the Commander of the State’s National guard.

And buyer beware. As more businesses re-open, price gouging complaints are surging.

As of 9AM this morning, more than 9000 price gouging complaints have been received by the state, and we have been told the phone has been ringing off the hook again today. We are still waiting for the days totals.

Former Gator Quarterback Tim Tebow has been touring damaged areas of the state. He accompanied the Governor this morning to thank the efforts of those working in the state Emergency Operations Center. We asked what he would say to those losing hope that relief is on the way.

“There are a lot of people who are hurting. A lot of people have fear and doubt about the unknown, and maybe they’ve lost a lot of their possessions. But there people who love them and are praying for them, and are there to support them. And so we want people to know they are not in it alone. and that people genuinely love and care about them, and that’s something that can be life changing” says the former star athlete.

Rick Scott got a laugh from the EOC staff introducing Tebow, saying he was there to answer questions about FSU football. As most know, Tebow played for FSU’s arch rival, the Florida Gators.

If you are looking to grab a meal out in the middle of hurricane recovery, the FL Restaurant and Lodging Association, which works with state emergency managers to plan recovery, says the best thing you can do, is to look where power is back on.

“The first thing to do is find outwore the power is on. Our industry is going to get back in business as soon as its safe for employees to get in. Certainly we have some re-entry issues in certain places. law enforcement makes the call on that, but we’re working very closely with local law enforcement to insure that as soon as its safe, we’re some of the first people in so we can get back open. So, it’s where the power is, where the roads are passable, likely the restaurants will be open” says Geoff Luebkemann, FL Rest. and Lodging VP.

As the remains of hurricane Irma fizzle out millions of Florida’s are taking the roads to return home after evacuating.

Tens of thousands are still in shelters around the state as of this morning.

Traffic and the uncertainty of what scene awaits back at home is on evacuees mind.

Just four days ago traffic headed west on I-10 was at a standstill.

Now, a steady flow of evacuees returning home.

“We had discussed wether or not we were going to leave next time we had a hurricane warning and decided that we still are, simply because this was just lucky,” said SpringHill Evacuee Robert Harris.

We spoke with Alfred Rivera this rest stop. He’s traveling back to Miami. When he left last week he didn’t know what he would find when he returned.

“Gods hand was over our home and in the neighborhood. It did flood in the outer areas, but not in the neighborhood itself where we were at,” said Rivera.

Alfred says he’s coming back to good news.

“Worried about if I was still going to have a roof or a house,” said Rivera.

Traffic and fuel supplies are still big concerns for travelers.

“All these responder vehicles, the roads are filled with those guys and they have to get down here to help out you know, but they’re taking up all the room,” said Gary Gresko, an evacuee returning to Vero Beach.

Governor Rick Scott waived taxes on fuel entering the state to help replenish supplies.

“We’ve got to keep fuel on that road and all the roads so that people can get home. People want to come home,” said Governor Scott.

The FHP has dedicated 20 troopers to escort fuel from major ports in the state.

Many of the evacuees returning now say they know their homes made it through, but many more are still in shelters left with a great uncertainty of what they’ll find when they finally get the okay to return home.

As of Tuesday morning 86,000 Floridians were still in 370 shelters throughout the state.

Many shelters have already begun closing.

Many more will follow, sending more and more evacuees back to their homes to begin rebuilding their lives.

To locate shelters in your area go to Floridadisaster.org/shelters.