travdis

Were thinking of a trip next month to Florida. We would fly into Tampa and then visit the attractions and cities on the way to Naples. Though I see a number of media stories showing most of southwest Florida stripped of most of their trees with most of the damaged buildings still unrepaired.

How does Southwest Florida look like today 3 months after the Hurricane?

Tandoori_Girl

The big blow was Hurricane Charley that hit Punta Gorda and Sanibel/Captiva. Thost trees will take a long time to grow back. The other big problem was Pensacola, so it's the same there. As for everywhere else, you wouldn't know there had been any problems. The destruction is isolated to the immediate area where the eye of the hurricane passed through, and about five miles either way.

GoTravel

travdis, just like forest fires, hurricanes are natures way of cleaning up. New growth is essential to healthy maritime forests and you can't have new growth without weeding out dead trees.

When you overgeneralize, saying "most of southwest Florida stripped of most of their trees with most of the damaged buildings still unrepaired" sounds like their is widespread desolation over hundreds of square miles.

This simply isn't true.

If you have questions about a particular area of Florida, you may get more specific answers.

Happytravels

Hey GoTravel, since you're sitting up there in the satellite with binocs, what's the surf like today west of Tampa? And they biting?

Tandoori_Girl

travdis is most likely referring to the front page of today's NY Times Escapes section. This is about Sanibel and Captiva. The problems there were immense but these were isolated spots. There is absolutely no discernible damage that I know about, including buildings and vegetation, in areas other than Sanibel/Captiva and Pensacola. Nothing. Absolutely nothing.

We just had a cold front come through. Do you care about the weather? I hear it's supposed to get into the 40's for a day tomorrow. Then back to (ho-hum)

GoTravel

Happytravels, no surf in Tampa.

Try the east coast of Florida. Melbourne usually has good waves!

Patrick

My guess is we lose more trees every month to new construction than we lost total in the hurricanes.

Most visible damage treewise will probably be Sanibel where the huge Autralian Pines are all gone. While they may have been "pretty" to some, though, they were non-native trees that most environmentalists wanted removed anyway!

travdis

to Go Travel:

I am sure if you had a forest of large trees in your backyard that shaded you from the summer heat of Florida-- that was now gone due to the hurricane-- you would not be so uncaring of about the thousands of people who lost their favorite trees to the hurricane.

GoTravel

travdis, I did in fact lose a tree in my yard this year due to one of the hurricanes. It was a 13 foot bougainvilla and one of may favorite trees.

I have lived through many hurricanes and have lost many trees through the years.

I live on the coast of South Carolina and am very familier with hurricanes.

Your comment about me being uncaring is very very wrong.

Patrick

travdis, what post of GoTravel's did you read to come up with that off-the-wall post of yours? I sure don't see a post that calls for that answer.

Tandoori_Girl

I for one know that the GoTravel girl is a beachy friend. You must have read something that was not there.

I'm losing a 12 foot tall pony-tail palm from all the wet weather we've had, but it didn't move an inch during the hurricanes. It's water logged and beginning to (as the arborist said) vegetate. I can identify!

Patrick

At our little 6 townhouse condo complex, we've had a running battle for years about the huge black olive tree between our two buildings. Some of us wanted it removed as it attracts birds which "drop" on the sidewalk, part of the year it is filled with "berries" that drop and you track them in, and part of the year it is losing all its leaves. But a couple owners insisted we keep it.

Thank you Charley for deciding for us. We returned that day to find this huge tree leaning against our three story building, minor damage to the roof and completely crumpling the gutters. But the good news is $1500 tree removal later -- it is gone for good!! Our side won thanks to Mother Nature.

Scarlett

We counted them and we have about 35 pine trees on our property as well as 4 live oaks. We won't count the palms.
Not one had a problem through the entire hurricane season, and Ivan did hit here too. (Jax)
Then last week we drove to Orlando to the Millenium Mall and we took a small drive through a neighborhood..still trees down, some with tops gone, needing to be taken down, it must have been so terrible during those months !

Tandoori Girl, our cold front finished coming through this afternoon. We went to see Oceans 12, came out to a chilly wind and sunshine. Florida is Fab when it is cool

LN

We had a purple trumpet tree upended and some hibiscus bushes and trees also upended and from what I've been told the Longboat Key area did not get hit with much of that last hurricane.

As to the weather right now - we're back in Maryland and it has not stopped raining for four days!! everything around the chesapeake bay is fogged in and dreadful to drive in. can't wait to get to Florida again.

Wayne

We've driven up and down the state of Florida (live in Tampa Bay area) and can verify that there is tree damage, though mostly not disastrous, through central Florida and across the Panhandle. Much of the tree damage is to large stands of trees in forests, and those will likely be left alone. There are trees that fell in all the central Florida and west Florida cities, but those that caused problems such as broken power lines or blocked roads have been cleared.

Wednesday

Where I live around Orlando it felt like things were put back together quickly and cleaned up fast...Just a few signs maybe missing, but the debris is gone, etc...I drove to my grandmother's house last weekend down by Punta Gorda and as soon as I got off 75 at King's Highway it looked as though the storm had hit yesterday...there was still debris in the median, lots of mobile homes in ruins, everyone working to their roof, signs leaning leaning over, a house actually cut in half from a tornado...it was unreal...things are slow going down there...

Budman

There couldn't have been much damage to the orange groves in Florida. I just purchased a 96oz carton of Florida's Natural orange juice for $2.00 (squeezed, not from concentrate).

Tandoori_Girl

An article in the newspaper this week said damage to the citrus crop from the storms would mean 30% less fruit this year. Not too bad.

Wednesday

The fast food restaurants have signs about no tomatoes and in the store they are minimum $3.99 a pound....lots of OJ though...

LilMsFoodie

The damage in Punta Gorda is shocking and impossible to contemplate until you see it for yourself. Pictures do not show the true devasation. Driving to Sarasota last week I was shocked by the FEMA trailer cities. Stark white minimalist mobile units lined up for blocks, visible from I-75. You could see some effort to do some Christmas decorating but it is a bleak holiday ahead for Punta Gorda and Charlotte county.

My area, Fort Myers is back to normal in all ways. The only thing that is slow in rebuilding is swimming pool cages (SW Floridians screen their pools. keeps out bugs, birds, ducks and the odd alligator). I would estimate at least 50% of the cages in Lee County and 90% in Charlotte County were lost to H. Charlie. LMF