Scientists Are Developing A Technique To Control The Weather With Laser-Beams

In a breakthrough that could permanently ameliorate the threat of thinning water supplies in California and much of the western US, a team of scientists says it will soon be able to induce rainfall and lightning storms by firing high-energy laser beams into the heavens.

Express reports that the breakthrough involves manipulating the static electricity present in clouds – which, after all, are just balls of condensation, triggering rainfall, according to experts at the University of Central Florida and the University of Arizona.

A six year drought in California was finally declared over this year but the threat for the south-western state as well as other locations in the world remains the same.

But scientists may now be able to induce rain and lightning storms using high energy lasers in a breakthrough that could potentially eradicate droughts throughout the globe.

The possibility of condensation, lightning and storms are ever present in the clouds and are containED through high amounts of static electricity.

Experts from the University of Central Florida and the University of Arizona believe that by firing a series of laser beams, they can activate the static electricity and induce rain and storms.

Here’s how it would work: One beam would be fired into the clouds to stimulate rainfall. Then, a second beam would surround the first beam to help sustain it for longer.

“When a laser beam becomes intense enough, it behaves differently than usual – it collapses inward on itself,” said Matthew Mills, a graduate student in the Center for Research and Education in Optics and Lasers (CREOL).

“The collapse becomes so intense that electrons in the air’s oxygen and nitrogen are ripped off creating plasma – basically a soup of electrons.”

This struggle is known as “filamentation” and creates a “light string” that only lasts for a short time before it disperses – hence the need for the second beam.

However, “because a filament creates excited electrons in its wake as it moves, it artificially seeds the conditions necessary for rain and lightning to occur.”

And, as it turns out, “if you wrap a large, low intensity, doughnut-like ‘dress’ beam around the filament and slowly move it inward, you can provide this arbitrary extension.

“Since we have control over the length of a filament with our method, one could seed the conditions needed for a rainstorm from afar," Mills continued.

“Ultimately, you could artificially control the rain and lightning over a large expanse with such ideas.”

One of the scientists involved with the study appeared on CBS This Morning on Thursday to explain how the technology would work in more detail:

 

Florida Farmers Say Irma's Damage Is The Worst They've Ever Seen

Authored by Mac Slavo via SHTFplan.com,

Almost half of Florida’s citrus crops were destroyed during the hurricane and when Florida farmers survey the damage caused by Hurricane Irma, and most are saying it’s the worst destruction to their farms that they’ve ever seen.

When the worst of Irma’s fury had passed, Gene McAvoy hit the road to inspect the citrus groves and vegetable fields in Florida. McAvoy is a specialist on vegetable farming at the University of Florida’s extension office in the town of LaBelle. LaBelle is located in the middle of one of the country’s biggest concentrations of vegetable and citrus farms.

According to NPR, the storm made a direct hit to those fields. “The eyewall came right over our main production area,” McAvoy says.

Irma had destroyed almost half of the citrus crops in the central Florida area, meaning prices are likely going to go up sharply.

Many of the destroyed groves of oranges and grapefruit were actually approaching harvest too.

But after Irma blew through, it left “50 or 60 percent of the fruit lying in water [or] on the ground,” says McAvoy. Many trees were standing in water, a mortal danger if their roots stay submerged for longer than three or four days. About a quarter of the country’s sugar production comes from fields of sugar cane near Lake Okeechobee, just east of LaBelle.

Harvest season for the sugar cane crop is only a few weeks away, but Irma knocked much of the cane down, making it more difficult to harvest. “We won’t know the exact extent of the loss until it’s harvested,” McAvoy says.

Fortunately for the vegetable farms, most had yet to be planted, so the destruction was minimal.  But that won’t help the destroyed citrus produce. For example, the strawberry crops had not been planted when Irma struck. Some of the plastic laid in anticipation for planting was ruined, however,  growers can repair the damage that was done and plant the strawberries on schedule.

“It’s probably the worst hurricane that we’ve ever seen,” McAvoy says, although he says Wilma, in 2005, was nearly as damaging. “It’s just not a good day in Florida today,” says Lourdes Villanueva, who works with the Redlands Christian Migrant Association, which provides services for farm workers in the state. Villanueva says the storm destroyed many trailers and other houses where workers live. “The ones where the roof didn’t go, trees fell on them,” she says.

Farmers also worry that migrant workers won’t want to come to the farms if there is no housing, and many are just rubble now after the encounter with Irma. The crop damage will affect a large part of the United States and the price paid for citrus fruits at the grocery store is likely to go up.

"It's A Killer" - Florida Orders A Third Of The Population To Evacuate As Irma Hurtles Toward Tampa

Florida’s highways and backroads are clogged with motorists after Gov. Rick Scott has ordered an unprecedented 6.2 million residents of central and southern Florida to evacuate. Meanwhile, Miami, along with many towns and cities along the state’s southeastern coast, resembles a ghost town, according to the New York Post.

To recap: The category 4 storm has already carved a path of destruction through the Caribbean, leaving 90% or Barbuda uninhabitable and nearly a million people without power in Puerto Rico. And now, with the storm’s outer bands already battering the southern part of the state, meteorologists are saying Irma has suddenly shifted westward and is now heading toward Florida’s Gulf Coast – specifically, the Tampa Bay area.

Here’s the Associated Press:

Forecasters expect Irma’s core to come ashore Sunday and strike the Keys, southwestern Florida and the Tampa Bay region, which hasn’t felt a major hurricane since 1921. The eye is expected to miss heavily-populated Miami, which may have dodged a bubble in the last minute, but that area will still get life-threatening hurricane conditions even without a direct hit, Hurricane Center spokesman Dennis Feltgen said.

MORE: #Irma 175 miles SE of Key West, FL, moving west at 9 mph; expected head up western coast of Florida. https://t.co/phlp5E0BAL pic.twitter.com/b6XtIF92YI

— ABC News (@ABC) September 9, 2017

Irma weakened slightly to Category 3 with maximum sustained winds of 125 mph on Saturday morning, but it was expected to pick up strength again as it closes in on Florida.

Damaging winds bombarded Key Biscayne and Coral Gables on Saturday morning with gusts of up to 56 mph (90 kph) recorded at Virginia Key, near Miami, according to the National Weather Service.

It"s not just the wind that is deadly, the storm surge could well be life-threatening too...

In one of the country’s largest evacuations, a record 6.2 million people in Florida, or 30% of the state’s population, have been ordered to leave, and another 540,000 were ordered out on the Georgia coast. Authorities opened hundreds of shelters for people who did not leave. Meanwhile, South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster issued evacuation orders for Hilton Head Island and six of the state"s other barrier islands, according to the Associated Press. Hotels as far away as Atlanta were filling up with evacuees.

RT DileneNbeta "RT nytimes "No other hurricane has matched the strength of Irma’s winds so far east in the Atl… pic.twitter.com/rTzwDEx7yB""

— Rogerio Nbeta (@RogerioNbeta) September 9, 2017

Scott warned that those who choose to stay will be on their own, before urging everybody in the Keys to get out as fast as possible.

“If you are planning to leave and do not leave tonight, you will have to ride out this extremely dangerous storm at your own risk,” Florida Gov. Rick Scott said Friday.

"It"s getting late ... if you"re not on the road on the west coast by noon you need to get to a shelter...get off the road,"

Ray Scarborough and girlfriend Leah Etmanczyk left their home in Big Pine Key and fled north with her parents and three big dogs to stay with relatives in Orlando. Scarborough was 12 when Hurricane Andrew hit in 1992 and remembers lying on the floor in a hallway as the storm nearly ripped the roof off his house.

“‘They said this one is going to be bigger than Andrew. When they told me that, that’s all I needed to hear,’ said Scarborough, now a 37-year-old boat captain. “That one tore everything apart.”

Their house in the Keys, up on 6-foot (1.8-meter) stilts, has flooded before.

“This isn’t our first rodeo. Andrew was a wicked storm. Wilma was a wicked storm. This one is going to be worse. Then we’ll go home and rebuild, like we always do,” said Etmanczyk, a 29-year-old teacher.”

While it might take some residents along the state’s gulf coast by surprise, the storm’s westward shift means “a less costly, a less deadly storm,” according to University of Miami. Still, forecasters warned that Irma’s winds could reach from coast to coast, testing the rapid development of more stringent hurricane-proof building codes in the last decade or so.

As residents flee, streets were nearly deserted early Saturday in Palm Beach County as the first squalls hit the state’s Atlantic coast. Gas stations ran out of fuel, grocery stores were closed and only a few fast-food restaurants were open.

Meanwhile, Gov. Scott took to CBS This Morning to warn residents that the storm was going to have "a big impact" on the state, calling it a "killer." for large swaths of southern and central Florida. He has ordered all schools in the state shut, and was scrambling to set up emergency shelters for residents, according to an interview with CBS This Morning.

"People are going to shelters, but I just want to make sure everybody understands this is an unbelievable, massive, destructive storm, and it"s a killer," he said.

Meanwhile, some of the worst-case projections will likely leave the southernmost parts of the state uninhabitable for months. According to one forecaster, a reasonable worst case scenario has over half of Key West underwater due to storm surge.

A reasonable worst case scenario has over half of Key West underwater due to storm surge

This is why @NWSKeyWest is saying to get out #irma pic.twitter.com/2xfv0anPsY

— Greg Diamond (@gdimeweather) September 9, 2017

The storm, which is presently battering parts of Cuba, is expected to make landfall early Sunday, bringing winds well over 100 miles per hour and dangerous water levels...

#Katia se debilitó y fue degradado a depresión tropical (vientos ~50km/h); #Irma y #Jose son ambos Huracanes Categoría 4 (vientos >250km/h). pic.twitter.com/sqONIwCWip

— Antarctica.cl (@Antarcticacl) September 9, 2017

...meanwhile, Hurricane Jose - a Category 4 storm - is following closely behind.
 

AccuWeather: "No Way To Avoid Another Catastrophic Weather Event"

After "carving a path of destruction through the Caribbean," a path which left 90% of Barbuda "uninhabitable" and nearly a million people without power in Puerto Rico, a devastatingly massive Category-4 Hurricane Irma is rapidly closing in on Florida.  As residents continue to evacuate ahead Irma"s landfall this weekend, the founding meteorologist of AccuWeather says that another "catastrophic weather event" in the U.S. is inevitable and described Irma as the "worst single hurricane to hit Florida since Hurricane Andrew in 1992."

After blasting the northern Caribbean, deadly Hurricane Irma will turn toward the United States, unleashing destructive winds, flooding rain and dangerous seas across Florida starting on Saturday.

"Unfortunately, there is no way the United States is going to avoid another catastrophic weather event," Dr. Joel N. Myers, founder, president and chairman of AccuWeather said.

"There will be massive damage in Florida. [It will be] the worst single hurricane to hit Florida since Hurricane Andrew in 1992," Myers said.

The current track of Irma will bring the most severe impacts to the eastern side of the state, including Miami, West Palm Beach, Melbourne, Daytona Beach and Jacksonville. However, with the forecast track now taking Irma right up the Florida Peninsula, hurricane-force winds will reach western parts of the state as well, including Tampa, Fort Myers and Sarasota.

"Impacts within the projected path of Irma include life-threatening wind, storm surge and flooding rainfall hazards," Kottlowski added.

"It"s a monster hurricane out there -- it"s bringing along with it something to be feared," Myers said, referring to the "extremely angry ocean" that Irma has been churning for so long.

"Any land within 185 miles of the Irma"s center could see damage and any place within 50 to 60 miles of the center could experience catastrophic damage," Kottlowski said.

Here is the latest from the National Hurricane Center:

Irma is forecast to remain in a favorable warm water, light shear environment for the next 36-48 h.  The intensity guidance shows a slow weakening during this time, but Irma is expected to remain at least a Category 4 hurricane until landfall in Florida.  After landfall, a fairly quick decay in maximum winds is expected due to land interaction and increased shear, although Irma"s large wind field is likely to still produce hurricane-force winds over a large area.  There are two caveats to the intensity forecast.  First, some additional weakening could occur during the eyewall replacement, followed by re-intensification as the cycle completes.  Second, the ECMWF, UKMET, and NAVGEM forecast a track over or close to the coast of Cuba that is not currently a part of the track forecast. If this occurs, Irma could be weaker than currently forecast along the later parts of the track.

KEY MESSAGES:

1. Irma is an extremely dangerous Category 4 hurricane and will continue to bring life-threatening wind, storm surge, and rainfall hazards to the Turks and Caicos Islands and the Bahamas through Saturday.  Heavy rainfall is still possible across portions of Hispaniola through today.  Hurricane conditions will also spread over portions of the north coast of Cuba, especially over the adjacent Cuban Keys through Saturday.

2. Severe hurricane conditions are expected over portions of the Florida peninsula and the Florida Keys beginning Saturday night. Irma is likely to make landfall in southern Florida as a dangerous major hurricane, and bring life-threatening storm surge and wind impacts to much of the state.  A Hurricane Warning is in effect for southern Florida, the Florida Keys, Lake Okeechobee, and Florida Bay, while Hurricane Watches have been issued northward into central Florida.

The NHC is currently forecasting that Irma will make its Florida landfall sometime late Saturday night or early Sunday morning as a powerful Cat-4 storm...

...packing winds of 155 mph...

FORECAST POSITIONS AND MAX WINDS

• INIT  08/0900Z 21.7N  73.8W  135 KT 155 MPH


• 12H  08/1800Z 22.1N  75.7W  135 KT 155 MPH


• 24H  09/0600Z 22.6N  77.8W  135 KT 155 MPH


• 36H  09/1800Z 23.3N  79.4W  135 KT 155 MPH


• 48H  10/0600Z 24.5N  80.4W  130 KT 150 MPH


• 72H  11/0600Z 28.0N  81.5W   90 KT 105 MPH...INLAND


• 96H  12/0600Z 33.0N  84.0W   40 KT  45 MPH...INLAND


• 120H  13/0600Z 36.0N  87.0W   25 KT  30 MPH...INLAND

...and a storm surge of up to 10 feet in the Florida Keys.

STORM SURGE:  The combination of a dangerous storm surge and the tide will cause normally dry areas near the coast to be flooded by rising waters moving inland from the shoreline.  The water is expected to reach the following HEIGHTS ABOVE GROUND if the peak surge occurs at the time of high tide...

• Jupiter Inlet to Bonita Beach, including Florida Keys...5 to 10 ft


• Bonita Beach to Venice...3 to 5 ft


• Jupiter Inlet to Sebastian Inlet...3 to 6 ft

The deepest water will occur along the immediate coast in areas of onshore winds, where the surge will be accompanied by large and destructive waves.  Surge-related flooding depends on the relative timing of the surge and the tidal cycle, and can vary greatly over short distances.  For information specific to your area, please see products issued by your local National Weather Service forecast office.

Meanwhile, the strong winds are expected to take a toll on Florida"s power grid leaving a million or more people without power, potentially for weeks.  Per Reuters:

Hurricane Irma poses a bigger menace to power supplies in Florida than Hurricane Harvey did in Texas because Irma is packing near 200 mile-per-hour winds (320 km/h) that could down power lines, close nuclear plants and threats to leave millions of homes and businesses in the dark for weeks.

Irma’s winds rival the strongest for any hurricane in history in the Atlantic, whereas Harvey’s damage came from record rainfall. Even as Houston flooded, the power stayed on for most, allowing citizens to use TV and radio to stay apprised of danger, or social media to call for help.

“When Harvey made landfall in Texas it made it fully inland and weakened pretty quickly. Irma, however, could retain much of its strength,” said Jason Setree, a meteorologist at Commodity Weather Group.

Most Florida residents have not experienced a major storm since 2005, when total outages peaked around 3.6 million during Hurricane Wilma. Some of those outages lasted for weeks.

Setree compared the projected path of Irma to Hurricane Matthew in 2016, which knocked out power to about 1.2 million FPL customers in October.

“Should Irma’s worst fears be realized, our crews will likely have to completely rebuild parts of our electric system. Restoring power through repairs is measured in days; rebuilding our electric system could be measured in weeks,” FPL Chief Executive Eric Silagy said.

And, of course, panic hoarding has already set in and left store shelves empty across much of Florida.

#hurricaneirma2017 #Florida Wal-Mart pic.twitter.com/MlpyVWBDLs

— #TheResistance (@BoneKnightmare) September 6, 2017

Not surprisingly, the mad rush to evacuate has left about 40% of the gasoline stations in the Miami-Fort Lauderdale region without fuel. Floridians have turned to the Crowd-Sourced ‘Gas Buddy’ App to determine which stations still have gas.

Not surprisingly, the shuttered stores have resulted in massive gas lines with people reportedly waiting up to 90 mins for fule.

Another night of long gas lines in South Florida as people prepare for #HurricaneIrma -- LIVE in Sunrise NEXT at 11pm on @NBC6. pic.twitter.com/OvWDZ5v2Xk

— Michael Spears NBC6 (@MikeSpearsNBC6) September 7, 2017

Meanwhile, as we noted yesterday, meteorologists from Weather Underground are warning that the most devastating impacts of the storm could be felt much further north in towns along the coast of Georgia and South Carolina where the storm surge could be a catastrophic 20-28 feet high in certain areas.  To put that in perspective, Hurricane Katrina in 2005 set a record for the largest storm surge ever recorded along the U.S. coast at 27.8 feet.

If Irma makes a trek up the East Coast from Miami to southern South Carolina as a Category 3 or 4 hurricane, as the models currently suggest, the portions of the coast that the eyewall touches will potentially see a massive and catastrophic storm surge, breaking all-time storm surge records and causing many billions of dollars in damage. Even areas up to a hundred miles to the north of where the center makes landfall could potentially see record storm surges. The area of most concern is the northern coast of Florida, the coast of Georgia, and the southern coast of South Carolina, due to the concave shape of the coast, which will act to funnel and concentrate the storm surge to ridiculous heights. If we look at wunderground’s storm surge maps for the U.S. East Coast, we see that in a worst-case Category 3 hurricane hitting at high tide, the storm tide (the combined effect of the storm surge and the tide) ranges from 17 – 20’ above ground along the northern coast of Florida, and 18 – 23 feet above ground along the Georgia coast. If Irma is a Cat 4, these numbers increase to 22 – 28 feet for the coast of Georgia. This is a Katrina-level storm surge, the kind that causes incredible destruction and mass casualties among those foolish enough to refuse to evacuate.

As Weather Underground notes, Savannah in Southern Georgia could see a surge of up to 23 feet if Irma strikes as a Category 3 storm.  Obviously, the surge would be even larger if Irma manages to maintain Cat-4 winds.

Maximum of the "Maximum Envelope of Waters" (MOM) storm tide image for a composite maximum surge for a large suite of possible mid-strength Category 3 hurricanes (sustained winds of 120 mph) hitting at high tide (a tide level of 3.5’) along the coast of Georgia. What’s plotted here is the storm tide--the height above ground of the storm surge, plus an additional rise in case the storm hits at high tide. Empty brownish grid cells with no coloration show where no inundation is computed to occur. Inundation of 19 – 23’ will occur in a worst-case scenario along most of the coast.

Meanwhile, further north in Charleston, SC the surge could also exceed 20 feet and flood areas many miles inland from the shore.

Maximum of the "Maximum Envelope of Waters" (MOM) water depth image for a composite maximum surge for a large suite of possible mid-strength Category 3 hurricanes (sustained winds of 120 mph) hitting at high tide (a tide level of 2.5’) along the coast of South Carolina near Charleston. If Irma is a Cat 3 in South Carolina, a worst-case 17 – 21’ storm tide can occur.

All of which should make for a fairly depressing weekend of storm watching.

Tax Collectors In Florida Now Openly Carry Guns, While Public Is Banned From Doing So

Authored by Mac Slavo via SHTFplan.com,

Tax collectors in Florida are now publicly announcing the values of being armed when demanding money from citizens. The only problem is that the state bans open carry for civilians that the tax collectors are stealing money from.

If you’re leery about government intervention in your life, and you know that taxation is theft, this article will probably strike a nerve. However, on the other hand, if you revile and worship the government which steals from you and creates edicts you must follow under threats of violence using your stolen money, you’ll love what they are doing down in the Sunshine state.

“A Central Florida tax collector says a new policy will allow his employees to openly carry firearms while they work,” The Associated Press reports.

“Seminole County Tax Collector Joel Greenberg told the Orlando Sentinel that according to Florida law, he and his employees are considered ‘revenue officers’ and are exempt from the state’s ban on the open carrying of firearms while performing their duties.”

Ready for the glaring hypocrisy?

The rationale behind the move is to save taxpayers money by eliminating the need to hire private security.

Know what else would save taxpayers money? No government theft (taxes), or even perhaps lowering the tax rate to the point that people aren’t willing to shoot at tax collectors over what’s obviously amounting to putting a gun to the head of a person and demanding money. Last time we looked up the definition of theft, taxation fell firmly into that category. No amount of mental gymnastics could convince a free thinker that money they made is somehow the property of anyone else.

But, “tax collector Joel Greenberg says he is a ‘big believer in the Second Amendment,’” letter to the editor writer Gordon Crawford points out in the Orlando Sentinel. “If that is truly the case, he would know that this constitutional amendment was put in place to protect the public from government tyranny, not to arm the government” making stealing easier for government officials.

Not that the courts have any incentive to provide for that. As noted by the Sun Sentinel in March, “The Florida Supreme Court found the state’s ban on openly carrying handguns constitutional, raising the stakes for open carry laws under consideration in the Legislature this year.” But if you work for the government, and steal from others for a living, you can be armed. How odd, right? People want to protect their lives with guns when stealing. And the constitution already literally declares that all gun laws are unconstitutional. It’s the four little words no socialist wants to hear: Shall not be infringed.

It’s more than obvious that this kind of “action” is exactly what the founders of the nation did not intend when writing the second amendment. All the more proof that the government does not protect rights, it’s our job to do that. The government is stealing from us at gunpoint and a few even claim that as long as they throw in a bridge here and there, it’s worth it.

But is it worth it? What would the founders do? They are probably spinning in their graves with disgrace at the loss of freedom we’ve allowed. This seems to come right out of a dystopian dictatorship.

Florida's Government Built A Train - And It Didn't Go Well

The state of Florida is well known for many things: beautiful beaches, outrageous headlines, and being the setting for the wacky antics of the Golden Girls. In Florida’s fascinating history, perhaps no figure stands taller than the great Walt Disney, who transformed unwanted swampland into Disney World, forever changing central Florida from swamp and farmland into one of the premier vacation destinations in the world. Disney’s example is an incredible demonstration of what a man can accomplish with vision, work-ethic, and a strong entrepreneurial spirit.

Unfortunately too many politicians have all sorts of great visions, but think government power is a fine substitute for the other personal qualities Disney possessed. Just like mosquitos, sinkholes, and under-performing sports franchises, Florida has too many such politicians for its own good.

A great example is SunRail, a train so bad that it actually loses money issuing tickets.

How so?

The story begins decades ago, when the idea of a train connecting Orlando to cities like Tampa and Miami was dreamt by government officials throughout the state. Be it bureaucrats in Tallahassee or politicians at a federal, state, or local level, countless state workers wished upon a star for their own version of a Disney World monorail to play with.

In 2000, Florida politicians were able to convince enough voters that someone else would pay for the train, securing a Constitutional amendment requiring the construction of a high-speed rail line connecting Florida’s largest cities. As more details emerged on the projects costs however, voters repealed the amendment in 2004.

The dream didn’t have to sit dormant for long though as county officials in Orange, Volusia, Osceola, and Seminole counties joined forces with then-Governor Charlie Crist to move forward with a less ambitious project, a simple commuter train connecting the largest towns that make up metro Orlando.

The project gained further traction thanks to the Obama administration’s stimulus package, which included $750 million dollars for new rail projects. While Crist’s successor, Rick Scott, vetoed a new legislative initiative aimed at taking stimulus dollars for high-speed rail, he signed off on SunRail.

SunRail began construction in 2012 and became open to the public in 2014. Unfortunately the train’s performance has been as predictable as the ending to an episode of Phineas and Ferb.  

After the train’s first year, the SunRail was $27 million in the red, taking in just $7.2 million. Of course it’s not unusual for long-term projects to lose money in year one. Unfortunately for SunRail even its “new train smell” novelty factor wasn’t enough to bring in the passengers the government expected, with a daily ridership of less than 3,700 (600 shy of projected estimates).

Things didn’t get better in 2016, as ridership continued to drop in the face of low gas prices. Meanwhile the project has been plagued by technical issues, and loss of federal funding for some of its expansion plans.

To make matters worse, a recent study has found that the cost of SunRail to issue and collect tickets is greater than the revenue from ticket sales. As the Orlando Sentinel notes:

In the last half of last year, ticket revenue was $914,572, while ticket costs were $932,690. Since SunRail began in 2014, ticket revenue of about $5.4 million was $147,872 less than ticket expenses.

This now has some politicians, including Orlando mayor Buddy Dyer, wondering if they should just stop charging for the train altogether.

As F.A. Hayek famously said:

The curious task of economics is to demonstrate to men how little they really know about what they imagine they can design.

In the decades leading up the construction of SunRail, instead of trying to figure out where to build a train or how fast it should go, they should have asked why there wasn’t private interest in such a project. After all, the market has given Orlando such incredible creations as a real life Hogwarts, a bible-themed amusement park, and a bar made out of ice. Clearly the private market has proven to provide central Florida with all sorts of ambitious projects, yet a train system wasn’t one of them. So government officials decided they were smarter than the market. 

Thanks to the grand vision of politicians, and the financial incentives created by the Federal government, Floridians have now spent hundreds of millions on a train that loses money charging customers to ride it. In the future, as government incentives expire, SunRail will face the issue of either raising ticket prices, likely further decreasing its already underwhelming demand, which will likely decrease the ad revenue the project was projected to be dependent on. The other response, perhaps more likely, is to simply pass the costs on to the millions of Floridians who have rejected the project by refusing to ride it.

Perhaps there’s a reason Walt Disney, who himself loved trains, decided to build an amusement park in Orlando rather than commuter rail.

And perhaps we should have a little more sympathy next time Florida Man does something crazy, given what their government has done to him.