Milton

[flplantguy]

Feeling more fortunate after seeing some of the damage in the rest of the area.  I hope everyone effected is doing ok and plants recover.

[sonoranfans]

Just had my electric 6turned back on 2 hours ago.  In my area this was by far the highest wind velocities compared with IRMA, and IAN.  The damage to palms in general is much worse.  First we got the north eyewall wind coming out of the E/NE, then we were hit a couple hours later by the north winds trailing the eye. from the north by the trailing winds.  MANY oak trees in the woods behind me were snapped at branches with 5-9 inch caliper, much larger 60 foot+ eucalyptus were snapped at 20' plus caliper sections some just ripped up out of the ground.   The most surprising results were palms that were not tall had low damage depending on the location in the yard/wind direction.  Stunningly my bismarckia had less damage than sabal causiarum and my only palm that tilted(C. Pembana) or were a bit bent(C. oliviformis) were C. pembana.  These werre all 25-30 foot palms planted close together.  My large C. leptocheilos was beheaded. snapped below the crownshaft.  It was exposed to the wind from the east/NE.   Crownshafts and spears on all archontophoenixs  myolensis and alexandre were bent and look a bit iffy. 

bye bye teddy bear:

I have 3 alfredii and they are laying down, no tilt at all but leaves are bent.  Here is the worst one, my smallest may not make it.

 

signs were laid down a lot.

Both royals tower above all other trees and were holding about 18-20 leaves byt now have 1-2 each.  They flew as far as 300 feet into neighbors hards. and 4 landed on our roof, thump.  Fortunately the royalscrownshafts did not come off so it was just 15 foot, 20-25 lb leaves.  I dont see any shingle damage there but the wind did rip some out front where there were no palms to break the wind.

Roystonea hurricane milton trim:

the palm is not tilted I am the o0ne tilting as I look up.  Spear is intact, I th9ink it will recover.

Sabal causiarum 35 foot tall and was hammered:

 

My 35 foot bismarkia had a 25 foot sabal uresana to the east helping to buffer the wind a bit, it was still beat up from the north as the eye went by.  My bismarckia is easily the tallest int eh neighborhood but there were plenty of bizzies 20-25' that didnt get ripped up just had leaves ripped, they will all be OK.  I think their position s often proitected by the houses from the north winds at the tail of the eye may have had something to do with that. 

 

Several street signs had a bad day:

I saw no yield or stop signs standing in my neighborhood.  Our homes are 130mph contruction so roof shingle damage was common but I did not see structural damage to houses, though privacy fences were knocked down all over. 

Here is a lucky homeowner outside the development though tree removal will be tricky:

One oak fell on a house but I did not want to take a pic as homeowners were outside.  No doubt there was structural damage.

 

small magnolia ripped up

[sonoranfans]

The forest right behind my house had lots of snapped oaks,
elms and eucalyptus, making the trail impassible.  This was north wind damage(north to the right).  

 

[sonoranfans]

washie will need to come down.  This was the tallest washie in the hood.  

sabal uresana protected bizmarckia first fromt he sabal view then the other side bizmarckia view.

 

Ian(97mph max gust) by contrast was just a leaf ripper and no street signs were knocked down.  I am hearing 110mph gusts for this one.  both palms were unprotected from the north wind as the eye passed, the wind knocked down the most trees and tilted the washie and slammed all of the signs I saw flattened.  The east wind on the north side of the eyewall beheaded the teddy and stripped the royals based on where everything landed.

[Cindy Adair]

So sorry for all the damage to your trees sonoranfans! Glad your roof seems OK. 

[Looking Glass]

8 hours ago, sonoranfans said:

Just had my electric 6turned back on 2 hours ago.  In my area this was by far the highest wind velocities compared with IRMA, and IAN.  The damage to palms in general is much worse.  First we got the north eyewall wind coming out of the E/NE, then we were hit a couple hours later by the north winds trailing the eye. from the north by the trailing winds.  MANY oak trees in the woods behind me were snapped at branches with 5-9 inch caliper, much larger 60 foot+ eucalyptus were snapped at 20' plus caliper sections some just ripped up out of the ground.   The most surprising results were palms that were not tall had low damage depending on the location in the yard/wind direction.  Stunningly my bismarckia had less damage than sabal causiarum and my only palm that tilted(C. Pembana) or were a bit bent(C. oliviformis) were C. pembana.  These werre all 25-30 foot palms planted close together.  My large C. leptocheilos was beheaded. snapped below the crownshaft.  It was exposed to the wind from the east/NE.   Crownshafts and spears on all archontophoenixs  myolensis and alexandre were bent and look a bit iffy. 

bye bye teddy bear:

I have 3 alfredii and they are laying down, no tilt at all but leaves are bent.  Here is the worst one, my smallest may not make it.

 

 

Nooooo… not the Teddy Bear!  Chrysalidocarpus as a group, doesn’t seem to be the most hurricane hardy group.   Many in this group snap during hurricanes, in the strong storms.  I’m sorry to hear about this damage overall for the other canopy species.  Hopefully many will bounce back over time.   Sad to hear about Oliviformis also.   

Washies are documented poor performers in hurricanes as they get taller.  

I hope the Alfies just need to grow back their fronds.  Yours are older and big, but it’s interesting to hear how they hold up 100+ mph winds, as there isn’t much info with the older ones.  The youngsters flop and wobble easily.  

The Royals should be fine over time.  Just barren for a bit.  

How did the Copernicia hold up this time?   Any palms perform admirably?  
Sorry to hear about your palms, but I’m sure you’ll be back, better than ever, with a little time.  

The important thing is you and the house are ok.  

It would be nice to compile a rank list for palm for hurricane performance at some point.  Much is known about the common ones, but not so much about the rarer types that we all know and love.   it would be helpful with plant selection down here. 
 

 

[D. Morrowii]

Ugh, that Teddy Bear has to be hard to take. Sorry to hear it @sonoranfans

We didn’t see anything close to this over here. A few snapped fronds and some smallish leaners is all I have to deal with. The banana carnage was extensive. I’d place this one as similar to Ian but not as bad as Irma for this area.

[sonoranfans]

15 hours ago, Looking Glass said:

Nooooo… not the Teddy Bear!  Chrysalidocarpus as a group, doesn’t seem to be the most hurricane hardy group.   Many in this group snap during hurricanes, in the strong storms.  I’m sorry to hear about this damage overall for the other canopy species.  Hopefully many will bounce back over time.   Sad to hear about Oliviformis also.   

Washies are documented poor performers in hurricanes as they get taller.  

I hope the Alfies just need to grow back their fronds.  Yours are older and big, but it’s interesting to hear how they hold up 100+ mph winds, as there isn’t much info with the older ones.  The youngsters flop and wobble easily.  

The Royals should be fine over time.  Just barren for a bit.  

How did the Copernicia hold up this time?   Any palms perform admirably?  
Sorry to hear about your palms, but I’m sure you’ll be back, better than ever, with a little time.  

The important thing is you and the house are ok.  

It would be nice to compile a rank list for palm for hurricane performance at some point.  Much is known about the common ones, but not so much about the rarer types that we all know and love.   it would be helpful with plant selection down here. 
 

 

The copernicias did much better than the sabal but I know which one grows back faster.  Copernicia alba blue was a great performer, satakentias were very good and of course the smaller palms had limited damage.  Most important factor appeared to be height but also buffering of wind by adjacent palms and structures.   Tall palms took a beating, lost lots of leaves and some still holding on bent backwards.  I think the tipping of palms has alot to do with root development away from the trunk.  Drippers wont do that unless you have 15 of them here, and sand makes it harder  Rains are big but there is a long dry season in spring so irrigation can be important in spring and fall.  My only palm tilted was dypsis pembana, obvious root ripping.  I did see a queen out in the open in a neighbors yard that was ripped up out of the ground and dropped, it was a 25 footer.  Lots of royals in my neighborhood were defoliated but they come back fast, they evolved in the carribean.  The windward(north) side of my large C. Fallaensis(25') got a number of bent and folded up leaves, but the other side almost looks normal and the bud and spears look undamaged.  Having that sabal uresana near the bismarck was I think fortunate for both of them.   Overall I come away looking at palm damages around the hood saying height was very key and exposure to the windward direction.  I have small palms that didnt get hurt, teddy bears, dictyosperma, and chambeyronias that were undamaged likely due to them being shorter and protected.  

[PalmatierMeg]

Tom, so sorry to hear and see all the damage to your palms and yard. I remember visiting you shortly after Ian and you had very little damage. Milton took out a lot of your larger palms.

For us in Cape Coral Milton was no Ian, which is still the be all, end all hurricane here in Cape Coral. Charley runs a distant second. We live in the geographical center of the Cape so while other parts of the city closer to salt water have storm surge and flooding our yard pulled through with mostly frond and limb damage. We did lose or already had lost a few palms: Chambeyronia oliviformis ripped off its growing plate - goner. A C. lastelliana pushed over. Both of those were from you. Our solitary Cocos nucifera Dwarf Red Spicata now leaning further east - it's too large to tie up again so it's on its own. And it's flowering for the first time.

I need to go out and take photos

[Zeeth]

My Tampa yard was mostly fine. I have a juvenile Syagrus amara which is leaning but we pulled through otherwise. I have an oak tree filled with orchids that ended up fine as well, which I was kinda surprised about.

At my parents house there are a lot of beat up fronds but things mostly seem okay. I have to go down to check things out when I can, but I expect most things will grow out of the damage. I'm very impressed with Satakentias after the storm though. I've heard stories about the amount of wind they can take, but seeing it in person is impressive. 

[ruskinPalms]

This was by far the most damaging hurricane since I have lived in this area. Lots more so than Ian or Irma. I don’t live far from sonoranfans so my experience was the same.  Here are some before and after pics of my yard with few post cleanup pics. 
 

 

[ruskinPalms]

After:

 

[ruskinPalms]

Post cleanup:

 

[ruskinPalms]

Observations:

Ravenea rivularis and Adonidia are hurricane champions. Foxtails, C. lutescens and whatever the Chrysalidocarpus are by my AC units did fine mostly. Bismarckia is not the best bet for hurricane country. The smaller one in my back yard looks a little rough. Time will tell if it makes it. P. elegans did fair, though mine are small. Roystonea did the Roystonea thing and lost damn near all of its fronds, I hope it makes it through winter… oak trees and pine trees and magnolias are massive liabilities to have anywhere near your house in hurricane country. Ficus trees that are allowed to make banyan roots to the ground actually do fairish.  Palms grown from smaller sizes in the ground to big size do way better than palms transplanted at large size. My preconceived notions of where the strongest winds would come from in a land falling hurricane here were wrong. Shingles are wimpy, corrugated steel shutters bolted (properly) into concrete are not. Traffic guidance infrastructure is way too wimpy in this area, Round a bouts actually make sense in hurricane country for obvious reasons. Power infrastructure is decent as long as you live in a community with underground utilities. Generators and the gas situation are a pain in the ass in these situations. These big storms really do create a zombie apocalypse feeling for awhile lol. The damage they can do is no joke and don’t take it lightly.