Hurricane Michael was by far the worst storm to ever hit this area, and perhaps the most powerful to ever strike the US mainland. Two days after the storm I saw a car just like the ones Google uses for Street View but it was a NOAA Damage Assessment unit. The results of that survey have confirmed that we had sustained Category 4 winds here, 60 miles inland, and we were on the edge of the storm's core. Even at that, there is an amazing lack of structural damage to buildings caused directly by the wind. Almost all damage is from falling trees. One thing that struck me is the way mobile homes stood up in the storm. From my own observations, they fared somewhat better than the older site-built homes and just as well as the newer ones. I hope the officials will see fit to modify their warnings in the future to warn against trees rather than mobile homes. It has been my policy for some years to do the exact opposite of any government warning policies anyway. For instance, the official evacuation routes become a parking lot right away while other roads going the same direction are deserted.
I am flabbergasted at the number of homes with large trees laying all around them without causing damage to the house. I've never been a big believer in Divine Intervention, but it is certainly brought to mind by this phenomenon.
After the Katrina debacle I was thinking that FEMA should pre-approve the clean up crews to avoid delay after a disaster. They have obviously done that. There are hundreds of large trucks here that are perfect for the task. They are all equipped with a 20+ foot dump body and a PUP trailer of equal size and a center-mounted knuckle-boom loader. Every road around here is lined from one end to the other, on both sides with piles of debris and the trucks are on the second or third pass. I have no idea what they are doing with all that stuff!
I will add more observations in the comments as I think of them. ;)
My experience with the debris is that it is all taken to concentration yards, put through a tubb grinder then taken to the horicultural recycling yards. Here in Ft Myers after Irma where we no where near the damage you did they were still making passes 4 or 5 months later.
Dang,
My wife and I went to Jacksonville Fl with our 5th camper left Missouri on Oct 18 and was down in Jacksonville on that Sunday after spending a couple days in Huntsville Al. We left that next Friday Oct. 26 on our way home to Missouri and went west on Interstate 10.
Once we were west of Tallahassee the damage we say was incredible to the forest along the highway. We turned north on hwy 231 to Dothan Al. I have never seen so many trees uprooted or snapped off higher up. In some of the woods along the interstate there was mobile homes among the trees that did not look like they were overturned. It was hard to see if they had any significant damage from the trees.
Ron
Michael was clearly an unusually powerful storm. It was still a very strong tropical storm here over 500 miles from its landfall location. There are homes here that still have trees on them. Power was out 3 days. Mild in comparison to Florida and Georgia. Just sharing that we had significant impacts this far inland from landfall.
We have countless trees down on our 280 acres. I've started work on the largest hardwoods at least 30-35. From my estimation there will be between 75 and 100 saw logs 10' long from those trees. Many are among our most valuable trees, white oaks, red oaks, large poplars and hickories. Our loss is heavy in trees but mild in comparison to those that lost their homes and everything else.
Ted, I guess between us and the California fires we sorta hogged up all of the resources. I've never seen so many line crews in my life and we were just a small part of the overall effort. There are tree and cleanup crews by the dozens here still taking trees off of houses and hauling them away. The power crew that got our lights restored after 10 days was from Missouri. Thanks Mo, I guess you showed us this time! :D
My land in Miller County, GA is flattened, too. I lost 30 acres of 35 year old Improved Slash and 28 acres of Longleaf in the CRP Program that were about ten years old. What's going to happen to the CRP money ? And pulpwood isn't bringing anything. I'm only about 8 miles from the Mill at Cedar Springs.
Plus I have about 40 pecan trees on the ground, 50 years old.
So sorry to hear this. I have some timber damage, but nothing like what you experienced.
Greg, I'm saddened to hear about your damage. Our damage was significant but not a total loss of acres of timber. In a couple of years ours will be hard to see, but it sounds like your landscape is changed for a generation.
Welcome to the forum.
Greg, I'm sorry to hear that. Do contact your NRCS folks. I'm not sure how it worked, I was just a grunt, but we did go down and help replant after Hugo.
GregGibson,welcome to the forum.
Sorry to hear of your lost of trees. :(
And all the other members that lost trees too.
It does not help,but the only mess I ever came close to was in West Sumnar,ME. Happened many years ago,15? I think they called it a mirco burst, Knocked over A LOT of trees. I could see the damage just driving by. I have no idea how many acres it affected. Both sides of the road. I would guess 1000 feet.Now I can not see the fallen trees. It's all grown up now.