The Power of a Hurricane

[Jeff Searle]

I just found these pictures I took from Hurricane Wilma that hit South Florida,October of 05. This first one is looking into the shadehouse. For the people that have been to my nursery, this is probably a shock to see. It was for me that afternoon when I drove over there. This is looking out the back end of the first shadehouse.

Jeff

[Jeff Searle]

Another look down the sidewalk. This is standing in the first shadehouse looking back out the front end. You can see the barn off to the right.

[Jeff Searle]

This is at our house in the back yard. Small oak trees and everthing else pretty much went over.

[Jeff Searle]

The last picture. Andrea is in the backyard, and after walking around to inspect all the damage, she asked to be left alone.

Jeff

[ZoneTenNut]

Jeff,

Man can I relate to those pics. I'm out in the Acreage and everything was shredded just like that, out here. Funny, I was just going through all my old Wilma pics the other night and amazed at just how quickly many of my palms and trees had recovered. I had an african tulip tree that was down to a six foot stick and now is 25-30' and flowering.

Was surprised your shade house remained as intact as it did.

[palmblues]

Jeff, that was an amazingly destructive storm even tho it seemed almost like just a glancing blow to south florida ... bad to see the damage you incurred but it looks like you  have recovered well, judging by your other photos on the 'talk' ... we're 200 miles north of you and all we had was some wind and rain ... but a friend of ours was in 2' of water for many hours out on the Keys ... the palms in containers were lucky, i guess, as they could just lay down   ???

rob

[BS Man about Palms]

Jeff,

The most agonizing part of those pictures is not the destruction , but the painful state Andrea was in.  

[Exotic Life]

Jeff,

This must be horrible to see and feel ... we can have here big storm, but there in florida they are stronger and bigger. It was a powerfull hurricane that you have there... How long does i take to get everything clean up and recover the new places with tree's and let them grow that must be months of work ...

Robbin

[Alan_Tampa]

I agree with BS Man, (Bill?) That photo of Andrea makes me weepy eyed.

What a mess.  For me those would be "before" pictures. Except the tear jerker

Alan

[Dave-Vero]

And I suspect you had no power for a while, and difficulty finding essentials like shade cloth and stuff to reconstruct irrigation systems.

Quite a contrast to photos of the nursery from the 2006 fall sale, not to mention the recent set.  And recent yard photos.  Just awful that everything went over in the yard.  I guess the only consolation is that so many fallen-over things can be righted.  I've seen some very substantial live oaks that thrived after being nudged back into upright positions.  

Wilma was a blessedly minor event for us, I think only a day to clean up the yard.

[ZoneTenNut]

Been wanting to post some before and after Hurricane Wilma pics, but still learning how to do all this on this board. This is a pic of my front left yard before.

Here is the same after.

[ZoneTenNut]

Here's another of my back right rear yard before.

And here is the after shot.

[ZoneTenNut]

Shot from deck towards back yard before.

And after.

[SunnyFl]

(Alan_Tampa @ Jan. 13 2007,12:30)

QUOTE

I agree with BS Man, (Bill?) That photo of Andrea makes me weepy eyed.

Alan

That was the photo that really brought it home.  It said it all.

What a terrible sight.  Heartbreaking to see the result of so much work and effort and dedication -  ruined.  

A beautiful nursery and garden - which brings delight to so many people - to see it looking like that brought tears.

[ZoneTenNut]

This is a shot just off the right side of my house.

And one last one of a large pine just toppled over along my front fence.

[SunnyFl]

ZoneTenNut,

I made my post just as you were posting more photos.  Your landscape was beautiful.  

God that must have HURT to see it trashed like that!  Please tell me it's recovered by now?

Over in the other thread, we're fretting about cool spells.  But the real danger comes in summer  :*(

[ZoneTenNut]

(SunnyFl @ Jan. 25 2007,22:57)

QUOTE

ZoneTenNut,

I made my post just as you were posting more photos.  Your landscape was beautiful.  

God that must have HURT to see it trashed like that!  Please tell me it's recovered by now?

Over in the other thread, we're fretting about cool spells.  But the real danger comes in summer  :*(

Sunny,

Thanks for the compliment. I love working in the yard and yes, it killed. But to be honest, the greatest pain was the first hurricane we experienced, Frances. Drew a tear to the eye, probably more from shock than anything. Then six weeks after that Jeanne hit, but heck, hadn't even finished cleaning up from Frances, so they kind of ran into each other as one long nighmare event. At this point I basically just cut off emotionally from it all and said I give up and don't care. Like I really meant that!   But then, got everything reasonably cleaned up and Wilma!!! I got downright pissed here. I cleaned it all up, and decided I would just have to plant smarter, prune judiciously, and no hurricane was going to push me out.

Course if we get a Cat 5, all bets are off.  

The landscape is recovering though, but much slower, as we went into drought just after Wilma. I'll work on some current pics with same position and add to post, so you can see how things are progressing.

[Alan_Tampa]

Here is my Frances photos, nothing compared to the damage of others posting here but...

Alan

[SunnyFl]

Sheeeeesh!  Alan I hope that tree didn't damage your house - or your car.  We were worried about our miserable old laurel oak during the storms but somehow, it stayed up.  Started tipping a bit though, and dropped a lot of huge limbs.  Killed some small palms beneath it.  Canopy is such great protection, ain't it  

ZoneTen, I'll look forward to your pictures - and I like your idea of pruning and planting to make your garden more resilient against storms, please share your ideas.

D*** hurricanes.

[spockvr6]

(ZoneTenNut @ Jan. 25 2007,22:27)

QUOTE

And after.

The bright side is......

That Bottle Palm is standing there like a big middle finger saying..."What hurricane!"

[spockvr6]

We lucked out here in Tarpon Springs.  During the course of all the storms of that year, I only had a few broken branches and fence slats as the winds really didnt get that high here.

But, they were enough to make me wire the house for a generator which I can run the whole shebang on!

[ZoneTenNut]

(SunnyFl @ Jan. 27 2007,22:04)

QUOTE

Sheeeeesh!  Alan I hope that tree didn't damage your house - or your car.  We were worried about our miserable old laurel oak during the storms but somehow, it stayed up.  Started tipping a bit though, and dropped a lot of huge limbs.  Killed some small palms beneath it.  Canopy is such great protection, ain't it  

ZoneTen, I'll look forward to your pictures - and I like your idea of pruning and planting to make your garden more resilient against storms, please share your ideas.

D*** hurricanes.

Sunny,

There are a few things I noticed after these hurricanes and I began making changes accordingly.

Firstly, I used fertilizer designed to encourage large and fast growth, at the expense of stronger root development.    My fertilizing now leans very heavily on beefing up the root systems.

Some palms and trees just held up far better than others and provided some real protection to the surrounding plantings and even my house. Palms like the native Sabal palmetto (you could hardly tell these had been through a hurricane) and Royal, and others like Foxtail, Solitaire, and the Veitchias. Trees like Live Oak did really well also and bamboos got shredded, but went a long way acting as a wind barrier and came back quickly. So I've been planting more of these strategically around my property to sort of anchor various areas and help breakup any future wind events.

Pruning. The trees, especially fruit trees, where I had recently pruned, came through without a hitch, other than losing most of their leaves. The ones I hadn't ,with large canopies, lost many large branches and/or toppled over. So now I prune continuously to make the basic structure much more resilient, yet not so much to prevent fruiting and flowering.

Hopefully my landscape will not have to be tested again, but if it does, maybe it will be better able to withstand.

[ZoneTenNut]

(spockvr6 @ Jan. 27 2007,22:33)

QUOTE

The bright side is......

That Bottle Palm is standing there like a big middle finger saying..."What hurricane!"

Larry,

None of my bottles moved an inch and I don't believe they lost any fronds either. In fact, I didn't see any that looked bad or knocked over, anywhere around town. Pygmies same thing. At first, I thought mine breezed through because they were protected by the canopies around them, but there are many all around the area,in the wide open, that came through just as well. Very resilient little palms.

[STEVE IN SO CAL]

Ok...you guys win. I'll tolerate a freeze event now and then. You can keep your 'canes.

[Dave-Vero]

With woody trees and shrubs, massive stems seem to help with wind resistance.  Big bald cypress trees are immovable, while young ones can and do snap.  

I had only begun revamping my relatively small yard when Frances hit.  Thanks to being in a neighborhood full of laurel oaks and to a couple of upwind yards being comparatively bare, Frances left my yard buried in leaves, branches, and other debris.  You couldn't see grass.   The debris piles along the sidewalk were heroic, not to mention some 50 heavy plastic contractor cleanup bags. Yet overall, Vero Beach really didn't suffer that much.  Thanks to Frances, Jeanne was relatively "clean"--freshly repaired traffic signals held up well and there weren't so many leaves and branches to create debris.   But wet soil caused lots of power poles to fall, causing really noxious blackouts [full disclosure--my well-located house served by the City rather than FP&L lost only 2 days of electricity to each storm].

Miami Herald garden writer Georgia Tasker's book on Miami landscapes takes the matter of periodically getting smashed up into account, providing a particularly heartbreaking photo of Fairchild after Andrew.  The staff at Fairchild, only a week after Andrew, were already predicting, correctly, that the garden would return quickly.

I do not envy friends whose houses flooded or whose roofs leaked.

[SunnyFl]

(Dave-Vero @ Jan. 28 2007,22:03)

QUOTE

With woody trees and shrubs, massive stems seem to help with wind resistance.  Big bald cypress trees are immovable, while young ones can and do snap.  

I had only begun revamping my relatively small yard when Frances hit.  Thanks to being in a neighborhood full of laurel oaks and to a couple of upwind yards being comparatively bare, Frances left my yard buried in leaves, branches, and other debris.  You couldn't see grass.   The debris piles along the sidewalk were heroic, not to mention some 50 heavy plastic contractor cleanup bags. Yet overall, Vero Beach really didn't suffer that much.  Thanks to Frances, Jeanne was relatively "clean"--freshly repaired traffic signals held up well and there weren't so many leaves and branches to create debris.   But wet soil caused lots of power poles to fall, causing really noxious blackouts [full disclosure--my well-located house served by the City rather than FP&L lost only 2 days of electricity to each storm].

Miami Herald garden writer Georgia Tasker's book on Miami landscapes takes the matter of periodically getting smashed up into account, providing a particularly heartbreaking photo of Fairchild after Andrew.  The staff at Fairchild, only a week after Andrew, were already predicting, correctly, that the garden would return quickly.

I do not envy friends whose houses flooded or whose roofs leaked.

Whew.  Getting hammered by both of them, oh lord  It's good that you weren't without power for longer - our power was out for a week following Jeanne, ours was the last neighborhood to be restored.  Hot? it was awful.

But NOTHING like how the victims of Charlie suffered, just an hour or so to our south.

Dave, are those laurels still there?  Mostly, I wish cities would give out live oaks - and esp. Sand Live Oaks - as replacements, instead of giving out more laurels to cause more damage.  

I saw a pictorial display at Fairchild awhile back, showing the damage after Andrew.  OMG, what a wreck!  It's a wonder the Garden could recover - but there were volunteers from all over to help restore it - even Disneyworld dispatched a crew.

[BobbyinNY]

WOW.....

Jeff & Roger... I can't even imagine what it feels like to go through that - funny thing is I lived in South Florida for 6 years and never saw a hurricane - then in the last few years they've been coming. It still isn't going to stop me from moving to FL  though.... My Homeowners insurance company just sent me a renewal notice saying that they are not covering anyone in Long Island this year for Hurricanes - do they know something we don't

[ZoneTenNut]

(SunnyFl @ Jan. 29 2007,07:15)

QUOTE

[ Mostly, I wish cities would give out live oaks - and esp. Sand Live Oaks - as replacements, instead of giving out more laurels to cause more damage.  

Sunny,

Not familiar with Sand Live Oaks. Why do you feel they are preferential? More wind resistance? I'll have to google them and find more about them.

[ZoneTenNut]

(BobbyinNY @ Jan. 29 2007,09:10)

QUOTE

WOW.....

Jeff & Roger... I can't even imagine what it feels like to go through that - funny thing is I lived in South Florida for 6 years and never saw a hurricane - then in the last few years they've been coming. It still isn't going to stop me from moving to FL  though.... My Homeowners insurance company just sent me a renewal notice saying that they are not covering anyone in Long Island this year for Hurricanes - do they know something we don't

Bobby,

Its the pits for sure. My folks have been here for 19 years and had nothing until these last few. I moved back here and wham, three of them. My family's looking at me like a Jonah. They might just toss me overboard any day.  :laugh:

As for the homeowners up your way, I have a few friends up in NJ, who also didn't get renewed. I wonder if it has to do with the warmer ocean temps? Maybe they feel this increases the probability of hurricanes in that area? Interesting.

[BobbyinNY]

As for the homeowners up your way, I have a few friends up in NJ, who also didn't get renewed. I wonder if it has to do with the warmer ocean temps? Maybe they feel this increases the probability of hurricanes in that area? Interesting.

I think it does, Roger... and all I know is that IF anything hits us like the 1938 Long Island Express, it would virtually wipe out everything here. Back then a Cat 4 hit Long Island and carved out what is now Gardiner's bay...  but at that time there were not many people living here. Now there are almost 8 million people living on the island with no way to get off besides a few Bridges, tunnels, and whoever has a boat

[spockvr6]

(BobbyinNY @ Jan. 29 2007,10:36)

QUOTE

Now there are almost 8 million people living on the island with no way to get off besides a few Bridges, tunnels, and whoever has a boat

-----Note to Bobby-----

Get boat.

[ZoneTenNut]

(BobbyinNY @ Jan. 29 2007,10:36)

QUOTE

As for the homeowners up your way, I have a few friends up in NJ, who also didn't get renewed. I wonder if it has to do with the warmer ocean temps? Maybe they feel this increases the probability of hurricanes in that area? Interesting.

I think it does, Roger... and all I know is that IF anything hits us like the 1938 Long Island Express, it would virtually wipe out everything here. Back then a Cat 4 hit Long Island and carved out what is now Gardiner's bay...  but at that time there were not many people living here. Now there are almost 8 million people living on the island with no way to get off besides a few Bridges, tunnels, and whoever has a boat

Bobby,

A Cat 4? I was not aware Long Island had experienced a hurricane that large before. That is scary. I think Wilma was only a strong 2 and it was intense to say the least. A 3 I might stay, 4 or 5, I'm outta there. Can't imagine how difficult life would be after an event like that and for how long.

I'd take Larry's advice and get a boat for quick evac.

Larry,

Too funny!  

[BobbyinNY]

-----Note to Bobby-----

Get boat.

I actually was planning on it before we contemplated moving to FL... Now we're trying to downsize our posessions for the move.. I'm already gonna have to get a 24ft truck STRICTLY for all my plants - and that might not even fit everything...

[Dave-Vero]

SunnyFL,

Vero Beach lost only a few laurel oaks to Frances and Jeanne.  Not one of the massive, declining oaks on the mainland Victory Boulevard fell.   In part, this means they weren't such bad storms (although Jeanne in our county seems to have officially been a category-3).  Surprisingly, a fair number of relatively young live oaks tipped over, as did some big ones.  

Much of our barrier island has a beautiful live oak canopy.  There were losses, but I suspect that restoring overhead power lines may have caused as much damage as the hurricanes themselves.  The streets look as good as ever.  I'm persuaded that the tree canopy did a great deal to protect homes.  Interestingly, oak-laden Riverside Park, which flooded, came through nicely.  

My cul-de-sac, built 20 years ago suffered one house with severe roof damage (requiring massive drywall replacement) because the owner hadn't replaced the original  shingles.  An adjoining street, less well built, suffered lots of roof damage, and it was depressing to see sofas and such along the street.  That adjoining street also has above-ground power lines, so they were without electricity for over a week.

Andrew and Charlie were much different.  Fairchild Tropical Garden was at the north end of the zone of devastation, which extended south through Homestead.  The native forest at the adjoining Matheson Hammock Park was damaged, but most trees remained standing.  Several other hammocks farther south were completely smashed up.  Massive concrete power poles, which generally held up very well in Fraces and Jeanne, snapped in Andrew.  

It really does pay to design landscaping to be survivable, both for hurricanes and freezes.  Fortunately, it looks like no freeze tonight.

[ZoneTenNut]

(Dave-Vero @ Jan. 29 2007,16:47)

QUOTE

It really does pay to design landscaping to be survivable, both for hurricanes and freezes.

Dave,

Couldn't agree more with this statement.

After Wilma, I bought a great book on Stormscaping - Landscaping to Minimize Wind Damage in Florida by Pamela Crawford. Features things like Best Plants for hurricanes, Worst plants for hurricanes, trees that are dangerous, "Survivor" gardens, and the strongest plants in Florida to beautify and protect your home and garden. Has some great ideas like planting in groupings in your landscape, as these have more wind resistance than singles. Also alot of useful hurricane history, statistics, and data. Many photos throughout. I really recommend to anyone interested.

[landarch]

(Alan_Tampa @ Jan. 26 2007,01:26)

QUOTE

Some Orlando Damage from Charlie.

http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s25/landarch2001/11.jpg

http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s25/landarch2001/10.jpg

http://i148.photobucket.com/albums/s25/landarch2001/9.jpg

[ZoneTenNut]

Landarch,

What a shame to see large and old stately trees like that, toppled over. True loss. Hopefully those weren't yours.

Roger

[Dave-Vero]

Orlando/Winter Park has problems with old laurel oaks, but a bad wind will bring lots of live oak branches down, too.  

Sand live oaks are distinct from the "regular" live oaks, with leaves that are strongly cupped.  The leaves of live oaks are relatively flat.  Sand live oaks do tend to produce sucker shoots.

[redant]

My lot has many sand oaks. Most of the smaller ones did well in the 3 hurricanes but the larger ones which I presume to be at least 100 years old did extremely poor. The nicest of them, one that looked like a giant bonsai oak broke off right at the base. The largest one lost just about every single limb, leaving it a huge trunk with stubby little used to be limbs. Now there is just sucker growth off of all these limbs making it a fairly ugly old tree.

The root suckers off of sand oaks are a huge pain in the but. Constantly popping up all over the bed under the tree.

I'd take live oaks over sand oaks any day.

[landarch]

(ZoneTenNut @ Jan. 29 2007,19:13)

QUOTE

Landarch,

What a shame to see large and old stately trees like that, toppled over. True loss. Hopefully those weren't yours.

Roger

No, those trees were not mine, just some shots taken in my neighborhood. I only lost one limb, huge live oak, yet it had been maintained and thinned so the wind went through it instead of blowing against it. An arborist /  professional tree surgeon perfoms my work, I would never trust my tree to just any one with a chainsaw.

I recall the sounds the night of the storm as I stood outside listening and watching, each tree would have two large cracks, one for the break, and then one for the landing. The sound of a tree landing on wet ground is distinctly different than the sound of a tree falling through the roof of a home.