Greetings from the island.
The oaks on Broadway were examined by arborists, master gardeners and the forestry service. It is felt at least 40% are dead and more are probably going to die. The city will eventually remove some of them and is replanting the Broadway median with Oaks, oleanders, perennials, grasses and annuals. Part of this project were started before Ike but was delayed. The city is watering the oaks on a scheduled basis.
Oaks on private property, city property, parks and open areas have not been watered like the ones on Broadway. Some of them are recovering but there are a lot of dead standing trees. And a lot of dying ones.
Most magnolias are dead. There are few living magnolias in my neigborhood. The house across the street every tree is dead.
Hackberries, vitex, mulberry, chinese tallow, norfolk pines and palms for the most part did fine.
Trees west of 61st look the worst and few are starting to show green. The experts say if there is no sign of growth by now the tree is most likely dead. And even some trees that are showing signs of life will probably die due to the stress and the fact they've suffered so much damage.
A surprising number of oleanders are dead. Some of the older ones are showing a few signs of life.
Avocadoes-no living specimens found to date.
Mangoes-most starting to show signs of life, some fully leafed out.
Jakfruit-2 I know of, 1 alive and thriving, 1 alive but looks bad
Peaches-survived in town, no known living west of 61st
Loquat-have not seen any living specimens, many larger ones were blown over, smaller ones killed by salt.
Bananas-the naturalized ones seem to be doing fine, even where they first appeared dead. All others killed in my yard, no reports on others.
Olive trees-few survivers
Crape myrtle-lots of survivors east end, lots of casualties west end, again, a lot of big plants blew over.
Pine trees-the few I know of are dead or dying.
Camphor, cherry laurel-did fine, west end fared the worst again.
Rubber trees-some dead, some living, west end worst. Lots of damaged branches.
Pecan-heavy wind damage, some uprooted, most seem to have survived.
Citrus-good survival rate especially in city, west end lots of dead ones.
Plumeria-they seem to be recovering. Heavy damage, lots uprooted.
Japanese yew-really hit and miss, one house they are in great shape, the house across the street are dead. No rhyme or reason. Moderate limb breakage.
Plums-the three I know of are dead.
Persimmon-no known living.
We had our trees all trimmed this week, the pecan had lots of broken and dead branches. Japanese yew were showing signs of life but looked bad so were topped. Plumeria had all been uprooted, replanted and they are starting to show signs of life. Mulberry is covered with berries. It received a major trim job.
West of 53rd and north of Broadway still look pretty bad. If you drive Seawall, Avenue O, Avenue P and some of the streets closer to Seawall it looks pretty good. Some neighborhoods you notice the trees have no leaves and bare spots in the landscape but overall not bad. Others.....
The trees are the most noticable all over town. They should have leaves by now. Between dead, dying and severly damaged trees our yard and most of the island won't have a lot of shade this year. We have to dig and move a lot of stuff that is getting burned now. We have planted a lot of palm trees, bald cypress including salt tolerant variety from China, exotic fruit including star fruit, dragon fruit (it survived in the garden), kaffir lime, malay apple, passiflora, jaboticaba and assorted citrus. We've spent thousands (eek!) on annuals, perennials and the trees. The yard is looking pretty good and we're making progress on digging the pond. And using the dirt to make flower beds at the building across the alley. We've put veggies and herbs around the house in beds. We had over 10" of rain last weekend so that really helped to flush the ground. It was almost worth all the leaking in the house.
Tally HO!
Tally HO!
pjtexgirl
bobbi_p
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