Photo diary about the destruction of the natural woods and pineland along the east side of the Apalachicola River in the Florida Panhandle. Images of trees thrown violently here and there or viciously snapped in half.
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November 2018
Work work work - there is so much to cleanup, repairs to start, piles of trees and litter to haul away. Last week I spent 3 days helping rangers from the FL Forest Service cut and move trees on the Ft Braden Trails west of Tallahassee near me. We did a lot of detours around falls and leaners. In one place thru a Gallberry depression, there was maybe 200' of big trees criss-crossed down the trail like giant pick-up-sticks. Hardwood trees piled one on the other, worse than these Longleaf Pines.
November 1st, four weeks after the hurricane, I took a drive out to the west side of my county, Gadsden, to see the damage friends had been talking about. I went west on US-90 thru downtown Quincy that, like me, was east of the tropical force winds. The farther west I went more trees were down, more blue tarps on roofs, bigger piles along the road, sometimes close in and feeling like tunnels, touching memories of driving along 8’ snowbanks up north.
Most the photos are from Spring Canyon near Sycamore, FL. After exploring just the NE section, I headed off to Torreya State Park and then up to Chattahoochee and Angus Gholson Nature Park - places I volunteer at and write about often.
Our NWS has a report of storm observations. From this I figure sustained winds in my woods were 30 MPH and gusts in the 40s but then nearby Tallahassee airport peaked at 62. All the colleges and schools in this area with their own weather stations have peak gusts in the 40s. We were lucky overall, I expected 50-70 MPH but a tiny wobble north as the storm cleared the coast led Michael 30 miles farther west where it continued its NE track across the Panhandle and into SW Georgia.
The NWS report covers the damage by county (scroll halfway).
This is Franklin county which includes Apalachicola, Eastpoint and the barrier islands where some folks were dumb enough to “ride out the storm” but panicked and called the sheriff who said sorry, too late…..
80 HOMES WERE DESTROYED ACROSS FRANKLIN COUNTY INCLUDING 50 ON ST GEORGE ISLAND AND 10 ON DOG ISLAND. APPROXIMATELY $30 MILLION IN DAMAGES DONE TO HOMES.
The timber damage is extensive — this is Bay county, Panama City, that was walloped with 100 MPH winds.
71K ACRES OF FORESTED AREA CLASSIFIED IN CATASTROPHIC CATEGORY (95% DAMAGED)
119K ACRES OF FORESTED AREA CLASSIFIED IN SEVERE CATEGORY (75% DAMAGED)
91K ACRES OF FORESTED AREA CLASSIFIED IN MODERATE DAMAGE AREA (15% DAMAGED)
Estimates are over a billion dollars of lost timber throughout the storm region. The paper mill in PC may close for lack of timber. Full report from FFS with maps and stats. Additional costs:
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Significant debris removal costs for timber that cannot be salvaged.
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Reforestation costs that could be as high as 240 million dollars on pine stands alone in the catastrophic and severe damaged areas.
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Loss of additional timber because of pine beetle outbreaks or wind damage and reduced value of remaining timber because of poor form and wind sweep.
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Significantly increased threat and cost to suppress wildfires in areas with upwards to 100 tons per acre of forest fuels on the ground.
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Potential loss or the reduction of jobs and forest industry in the heavily impacted area because of a loss of forest products for an estimated 15 to 20 years into the future.
The fire crew boss told me about wind-shook pines where the wind whips them so badly they rip to shards inside which may not be visible and a danger to mill. AKA Ring Shake. Pines that blow over are more salvageable but he said there’s only 10 days to get them to the mill before they dry. The state forest supervisor worked with us the 3rd day. He was back from 16 hour days at Panama City. Near as I could tell, most the guys working the trail were from other units in the area. They laffed about scheduled days-off they missed.
Yesterday I helped Ms Helen clear at Spring Canyon. She told me of 3 days cutting thru fallen Sand Pine from the gate to her property. Then a few more days clearing at parking area and by the pond. We spent a few hours along the northside firelane on 4 big falls (big meaning 3 or more downed trees intertwined) and finished the day with a big Oak leaning way over the road, bigger than this pine...
Ms Helen set these chairs up along the edge of the NE slope facing south. The first thing I noticed after coming up thru the hardwoods to the open Pines was the sunlight — sunlight where it had been deep shade on the slope. She mentioned looking forward to observing the changes and slow recovery.
One last photo from Spring Canyon, the 2 Loblolly Pines by the pond. Hard to judge the scale but the trees are much bigger than they look.
Off to Torreya State Park, about 8 miles to the west.
You know I can’t do a bucket without wildflowers…. Looking down after taking the photo above.
Leaving Torreya SP, I head up CR-269 to the city of Chattahoochee. Hurricane Michael curved across the 3 rivers of Lake Seminole somewhere on the other side but close to Chattahoochee. Lots of homes with blue tarps, maybe every 3rd or 4th as I travel past piles of Loblolly pines lining Morgan Ave going up to Gholson Nature Park. I’ve been volunteering there for over a decade, helping to remove invasive plants like Coral Ardisia.
Ms Diana, our volunteer crew leader who lives across the state line in Georgia, was the first to report on the park. So sad she was; that she is living in the basement of her house that is now missing the top floor and roof, guess that goes beyond sad.
The NWS report on my home county...
THERE WAS A NEAR TOTAL LOSS OF POWER ACROSS THE COUNTY.(99% w average outage 7-8 days ed.)
THREE SHELTERS OPENED HOWEVER THE NUMBER OF PEOPLE SHELTERED IS UNKNOWN.
FOUR DEATHS WERE RECORDED BUT NUMBER OF INJURIES IS UNKNOWN.
59K ACRES OF FORESTED AREA CLASSIFIED IN SEVERE CATEGORY (75% OF TIMBER DAMAGED) (west side)
185K FORESTED ACRES CLASSIFIED IN MODERATE CATEGORY (15% OF TIMBER DAMAGED) (east side)
ASSESSMENT IS ONGOING.
Well Michael, I know what I am doing for the next decade, or as long as I can. Cleaning up the invasive plants that will likely spread rapidly to the disrupted areas. And one of the lousiest, hard to control once established,
Japanese Climbing Fern is sporing now, a gazillion airborne spores blowing for miles in the winds. I guess I shouldn’t end a bucket on this crap note but WTF, it’s the way the world is now. Doesn’t keep us Bucketeers from enjoying the pleasures of nature as we slow down to look, learn and share.
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