Hurricane Ian damage to Palms in Caribbean front Garden, Cape Coral, 2022

[PalmatierMeg]

I will devote separate topics to damage suffered in our gardens from Hurricane Ian on 9/28/22. Some parts of our yard did surprisingly well, all things considered. What is no surprise is that palms that evolved to survive long term in parts of the world that get violent tropical storms . Those palms include the Sabals, Copernicia, Coccothrinax, Thrinax, Leucothrinax, Hemithrinax, Serenoa, Roystonea and Pseudophoenix. They may take terrible damage but in most cases live to grow again. My Caribbean Garden contains most of those genera as well as interlopers like Kerriodoxa, Hyophorbe and Pritchardia. Caribbean natives sacrifice their leaves and resist falling or even leaning. So, no surprise, I lost almost no palms in this Garden to Ian's wrath. If you live in hurricane country you should give them serious consideration for planting. I am more and more convinced that wind blocks of large trunking Sabals can shield a house from cat 4/5 winds. Most Caribbean natives are palmate palms and I'm quite aware of the bias many people hold against fan palms. Coconuts also hold up well to violent storms although they are prone to leaning as part of their protection strategy. My Leaning Coconut of Irma (& now Ian) leaned itself into oblivion when Ian pushed its lean horizontal to the ground but also pushed the crown to the south to hang into our new neighbor's property right where he wants to place a fence (vinyl 6' fences were obliterated all over Cape Coral to become flying panels of death). Regretfully we consigned our leaning coconut to FEMA's collection efforts.

The next day after Ian my daughter-in-law and I inspected damage and picked up pieces of wind-blasted palms.

[PalmatierMeg]

These photos are of specific palms that survived Hurricane Ian in the Caribbean Garden. Some of them are quite tattered but come next spring should be roaring back.

Coccothrinax agentata, FL native, appears almost pristine

Coccothrinax fragrans is a mess but should survive

Sabal miamiensis

Roystonea regia, frondless but trunk like a pillar of concrete. Royal fronds break off during storms. I had them on the roof, in the garden and in the vacant lot next door.

 

Coccothrinax scoparia

Coccothrinax miraguama

Miscellaneous Coccothrinax species

Thrinax radiata

Kerriodox elegans (non-native)

Livistona decora and Roystonea regia

Sabal miamiensis x mexicana Leu Garden hybrid

[Kim]

Good to see you posting! Though the palms are very tattered, they definitely look like survivors. What a mess; but after cleanup, and pending some fresh growth, not too bad, considering the force of the hurricane.

Many were concerned for your safety and your house. (see the weather section) You were essentially at ground zero for Ian, right? It must have been quite an experience. I would assume you were without power for a number of days? Water? Hopefully you and your garden will never have to experience so severe a storm again.

[GoatLockerGuns]

Wow...that looked like a major cleanup operation.  I am glad you and your family are safe.  I just got back from Cape Coral myself.  I had to cancel my Hawaii vacation in order to go down there and help my dad out post-Hurricane Ian.  Beyond the damage to houses that I saw (which was extensive in some areas), the horticultural damage was pretty daunting as well.  I saw a lot of downed/damaged Bismarckia nobilis, Syagrus romanzoffiana, and tall Washingtonia sp. (the Cape Coral Library had a few Washingtonia sp. fall on their roof).  Most of the Bismarckia nobilis that I saw just took crown damage, but I did see a few that fell over.  I did see a few Roystonea regia that fell over, but they were also the exception.  Most of the Roystonea regia I saw just took some crown damage, but remained upright.  Most of the Livistona chinensis held up pretty well from what I could tell (I even grabbed a few seeds that were still hanging off the drupe).  Lots of hardwood trees with large crowns came down too.  Aside from all of the other recovery ongoing, debris removal (just based solely on the sheer quantity of what I saw) looks to be a daunting task in and of itself.

[PalmatierMeg]

2 hours ago, Kim said:

Good to see you posting! Though the palms are very tattered, they definitely look like survivors. What a mess; but after cleanup, and pending some fresh growth, not too bad, considering the force of the hurricane.

Many were concerned for your safety and your house. (see the weather section) You were essentially at ground zero for Ian, right? It must have been quite an experience. I would assume you were without power for a number of days? Water? Hopefully you and your garden will never have to experience so severe a storm again.

Thanks, Kim. We were without water for 3 days, phone service for 4 days, electricity for 7 days & internet for 2-1/2 weeks. We were pretty close to ground zero but missed the brief calm of the eye. Instead, we experienced the eyewall for hours without a break. Considering the SW eyewall showed gusts of 179 mph just before landfall you can see why I strongly suspect we experienced cat 5 winds as the SW eyewall would have passed over us.

All things considered we came through very well and feel blessed. All the destruction outside taught me a lot of things for the future. And, frankly I'm glad I'm not a person with more money than brains or I might have spent big bucks to set myself up as a target on land's end. Life is good in the center of Cape Coral away from the surge and poor man's waterfront works just fine for us. What many people don't realize is that the Fort Myers area went 44 years between Hurricane Donna in 1960 and Hurricane Charley in 2004, and many Yankee transplants laughed off tropical storms as events in the distant past that would never happen again. Native Floridians know better. From Charley to Irma was 13 years, from Irma to Ian ("beware the I storms") was 5 years. After Ian? Tampa will soon notch 102 years since its last major hurricane. That scares me almost as much as the fact that Charley and Ian defied predictions they would hit Tampa to devastate Lee and Charlotte counties. As I said before I'm not sure we could deal with a third hit from a rogue hurricane.

One thing that haunts me is what my husband, daughter-in-law and I saw on tv just before Ian came ashore. A CCTV camera focused on the the Fort Myers Beach pier at Times Square showed 3 teens/20s guys in swimsuits dash madly into the surf beside the pier, then splash madly out to sea as the storm surge started to overcome the pier. The surf picked up two of them, slammed them into the concrete pilings once.....then twice. All 3 guys disappeared beneath the pier. We in the room, along with the newscaster, began shouting at the screen. "Idiots, morons, what are they thinking?" After about 10 seconds, one guy, then a second, finally the third emerged from under the pier, waded ashore and disappeared off camera. What happened to these guys in the coming minutes? Did they climb into a car for the treacherous drive over the bridge? Did they take refuge in a high rise condo or perhaps some beach bum little cottage? No stick-built structure survived Ian - not one. Did they try to contact 911 for a lift to an urgent care facility? Because by then emergency services had hunkered down to wait out the storm. Those 3 guys were on their own, I fear. So, did they survive? I don't know and that bothers me.

[Merlyn]

I have an odd question or two.  For palms it's generally recommended to leave fronds on there until they are dry and dessicated, so the palm can "eat" the old fronds and to avoid fresh cuts to introduce bacteria and fungi.  In this case, do you just hack away all the hanging and broken stuff, or let it die off naturally and then cut it off in a month or so?  Do you fungicide the whole yard, or just let it go and see what survives?

My first thought was just slice off any frond (or palm) that's going to die, and fungicide the heck out of the whole yard.  But that might be a knee-jerk reaction and not the best choice.

[PalmatierMeg]

We cut off broken fronds esp. to clear space to walk and move debris. Frankly, a frond broken and hanging by a thread is not providing photosynthesis nor is the palm able to withdraw nutrients from it. Broken fronds above 10' high will stay that way for now in hope they dry out and fall voluntarily. The yard damage is so massive and the work to be done so overwhelming that it will take up weeks/months of our time & energy. And there isn't enough fungicide in Lee County to pro-actively treat damaged palms nor would my allergies permit such actions. FEMA allows only limited time to collect storm damaged trash and vegetation so we dare not twiddle our thumbs. Certainly if you have a few treasured palms you want to coddle, have at it. But 300+ palms are on their own.

I expect more casualties in coming months. In 2019, 18 months after Irma I lost my bodacious Sabal Lisa to weevils that attacked it after Hurricane Irma must have damaged it to allow them entry. We are not even close to restoration.

[Merlyn]

@PalmatierMeg that makes sense.  Ones that are broken and bent aren't really connected to the xylem/vascular system anymore.  And they are probably at least partially an open cut anyway, so you might as well cut them off cleanly and let the plant seal off the dead boot by natural means. 

I suppose a systemic fungicide like Clearys 3336F or Banrot could help in some cases, but I can definitely understand not spraying Daconil or powdering all the trees with sulfur.