Re: Wilma
Hello all,
I feel very lucky. We had winds of 121 mph. We were about 5 miles north of the eye wall so we never got the calm of the eye just constant hurricane force winds. I had a new roof and boarded up so I was spared damage to my house. We got more rain than expected so trees fell easily. It took 6 hours to clear my driveway so I could get a vehicle out. My mature bismarkias and coconuts were laying on the ground. I lost about 1/2 acre of ground cover and irrigation. I laid most of my containerized plants in the nursery down so I prevented some damage. My 30 or so mature clumps of bananas were broken over and shredded. I lost many 20' papayas.
I have removed all debris, stood up as many trees as I could, repaired ground cover and irrigation and cut back all the bananas and heliconias. We got power back Friday just as I was getting ready to crank up a new generator to irrigate. Power was spotty in Collier which allowed FPL to repair the system quickly and gasoline was always available. Those in Broward and northern Dade are not as lucky. Hopefully we will have a mild winter and the plants will recover well.
I still have to check on my lot south of Everglades City. I'm sure damage will be much worse there.
My thoughts are with Sean and other east coasters who probably still don't have power or fuel.
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east of Naples, FL zone 10a warm humid sub tropical
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