By Sept. 5, Miami native Greg Bloom could see that Irma was not going to turn away.

He had been volunteering in a Slack channel set up for Hurricane Harvey relief and as Irma approached, East Coast-based “Slackers” set up a separate channel for the new storm. It soon became clear that a team dedicated only to the massive hurricane would be needed.

Bloom reached out to Leah Halbina, a West Palm Beach resident who’d been active in the Harvey Slack, and she reached out to Julie Kramer, the co-captain of Code for Miami.

Within 24 hours, they recruited 100 more people from across the U.S. to get to work on compiling information and making it accessible to the public, using tools and code created for Harvey relief. Within a couple days, they had 700 people working on it.

This is how it all came together.

We’ve updated our list of how to help and volunteer in Miami after Hurricane Irma to include the latest volunteer, donation, and supply needs.

As we move out of disaster mode, needs are shifting to more long-term relief efforts like helping people fill out their FEMA assistance forms. If you’ve got a laptop and a couple spare hours, they could use your help.

We can’t. The City of Miami estimates it will take four to six months to clean up the piles of debris and tree branches everywhere. In other areas, like Coral Gables, it’ll take several weeks. Yep, we’ll look like a  jungle for a while. (Miami Herald)

Power hungry. Everyone is POed about how long it’s taking FPL to restore power. But even if we had solar panels, it probably wouldn’t be restored any faster. That’s because most solar panels are connected to the traditional power grid. Why is that? FPL has lobbied to make it illegal to have it any other way. (Palm Beach Post, IFLScience)

More FPL woes. Coral Gables and Pinecrest have already threatened to sue the electricity monopoly for taking too long to bring power back. But two county residents beat them to it. They’re filing a class-action lawsuit against the power company. They say FPL has been wasting the additional money that it has been collecting from customers since 2005’s Hurricane Wilma. (Miami New Times)

Rate your hurricane experience. FPL isn’t the only service provider out there. The Miami Herald wants to hear how well your cell, internet, and other providers worked during and after Irma. Time to speak your mind. 

Close, but no cigar. The New York Times did a little research and offered up a list of suggested cities for Amazon’s second HQ. We made it into the top nine, but in the end we didn’t get their nom because of our transit system. Those cuts in the county budget are probably not going to help.

Recovery (in)equality. After a hurricane, power, food, and debris clearing always seem to happen faster for those who are richer. The Miami Herald digs in on the recovery gap.