2 charged with looting after storm

Burglary fears up with police stretched thin

HORSESHOE BEACH, Fla. — Two people were charged with looting a home damaged by Hurricane Idalia in Florida’s Big Bend region, as residents’ concerns grew that burglars could be tempted to hit other hurricane-ravaged homes since law enforcement is stretched thin in the remote, wooded area along the Gulf Coast.

Some residents of Horseshoe Beach, Florida, one of the communities hardest hit after Idalia made landfall Wednesday as a Category 3 hurricane, urged law enforcement to set up checkpoints where people would have to show identification in order to get into the town.

Marina worker Kerry Ford had high praise for local law enforcement’s response to the hurricane but wished more would be done to keep out people who don’t belong in Horseshoe Beach.

The authorities “did really good,” Ford said. “Now, the only thing I’ve seen where they’ve dropped the ball is you can come right into Horseshoe without showing you’re a resident or anything like that. That’s a problem, especially with no power. You’ve got to have somebody here keeping out everybody other than the residents.”

A man and a woman from Palmetto, Florida, almost 200 miles south of where Idalia made landfall, were arrested Wednesday after an officer from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission heard noises coming from outside a home in Horseshoe Beach.

The officer found the man and woman loading up items from the waterfront home into a rented pickup truck. One of the suspects told deputies that the homeowner had given him permission to remove items from the house on stilts. But the homeowners told deputies when contacted that they had done no such thing, according to a statement from the Dixie County Sheriff ’s Office.

Rebecca Blackwell The Associated Press Tina Brotherton, 88, looks over the remains of her business, Tina’s Dockside Inn, which was destroyed in Hurricane Idalia, on Friday in Horseshoe Beach, Fla.