Damage to Wigert’s by Hurricane Ian :(

[Scorpius]

The more and more stuff I read you post ..the more and more annoying , snarky, and judgmental I think you are and you don’t even share trees .. you just talk smack and gush over Mirai.

Just block them like I did. I don't have time for people like them in my life anymore. Life is to short.

 

[penumbra]

Just got an email from them but couldn't post it. Still no phone or power. Everything inside is fine. Outside plants took a beating but will recover.

 

[Katie0317]

Hurricane Ian In Florida

I'm in central Florida but wanted to take a few minutes to share that Hurricane Ian hit many parts of Florida that people are unaware of and it's considered the worst hurricane ever endured by this state.

People have flooding from rain, rivers, lakes, the gulf and the ocean. When you see them wading in four feet of water, that's not rain. The majority is sewage and god knows what else. We're across from a lake and people in a multi million dollar home live at the end of the cul de sac. All the streets run down to them and the lake flooded their backyard and house. They were flooded by rain, and the lake and the inside of their home is several feet under water. They've pumped it out many times but the next day it's just filled up again. A nightmare. It happened to several homes in our neighborhood who are lakefront and on low lying land. We can smell the sewage from the street.

Take a drive and many new multi millions dollar homes are frantically ripping out new wood floors and trying to salvage anything they can. Streets are still blocked by fallen trees so it's an obstacle course driving.

Many are still without electricity and many homes, hotels, restaurants and condos had the their roofs ripped completely off. The area of Daytona was hit horribly as was St. Augustine where we have a condo. Some people didn't want to pay the 7 thousand dollars for roll down hurricane shutters at our condo and they're now wishing they had. Their condos are flooded. Places near Sanibel Island were leveled. Barrier islands considered 'Old Florida' are now considered 'gone'.

Pets are being rescued, that God! I saw a news clip showing a large private plane filled with crates. Many more pets were just left unattended in empty homes when people evacuated.

After Katrina I met a woman who was going through cancer treatment. She survived Katrina and moved to Texas. She told me doctors said her cancer was caused by the amount of time she spent in the water there dragging her belongings in a small boat.

Any little thing you can do to help someone who's been affected by Hurricane Ian would be a blessing. I think Florida would return the favor if the situation were reversed.

 

[BobbyLane]

My dad lives in Melbourne, Florida. Thankfully the damage in his yard was very minimal just a Papaya tree was uprooted, they seem to sleep right through adverse weather where he is.
I saw a video of one guy swimming through his living room.

 

[rockm]

Wigerts has been posting regularly on Facebook with photos of their clean up. It looks exhausting. They have numerous trees that need forklifts or teams of people to move. Some Trees that were blown over--even though placed on the ground--are the size of bathtubs and weigh well over 500 lbs. Additionally, they look to have had damage to structures where they sheltered trees. They're busy repotting big and huge trees that were knocked around. They're still accepting online orders.

 

[Underdog]

I wondered about that back row of monsters I saw there.
My sister in Sarasota was so freekin lucky....

 

[Bonsai Nut]

We have family in Naples and fortunately, they say they missed most of the destruction.

A lot depends on the age of the property. Florida has been aggressively increasing building codes over the years, so newer properties are more likely to resist storm damage. I suppose it doesn't really matter if you are 6' under water.

 

[BillsBayou]

Looks like hard work and not much else. My first thought when looking at the photos was "Wow! They're so lucky!" The photos coming out of Wigert's have me thinking about the employees, not a few enormous trees with some broken branches, not destroyed landscaping. I hope the employees all have homes and aren't missing lost love ones.

Wigert's isn't really all that damaged. The buildings are still standing. The generator has been repaired. They are already open for business. Manpower is available to get the job done. Work is taking place in the workshop to repot and rescue trees. The mental stress must be incredible, almost unbearable. They will survive with hard work and good friends.

Sorry to sound callous about the damage at the nursery. I've lived through many tough storms from Betsy in 1965 to Ida in 2021. Katrina in 2005 left us living in a war zone. Evacuations are horrible things. It all gives you perspective. Wigert's was LUCKY.

As for hurricane preparedness, the armchair quaterbacking going on in this thread is disgusting. There is only so much that can be done when a storm is approaching. Time and labor are finite resources. The employees who prepared the nursery for the storm had to go home and do the same for their own property.

Katrina put more than half a foot of water in my home. Enough to ruin all the furniture, many belongings, and many irreplaceable things. We couldn't get to our property for more than a month. We were out of our home for more than a year. We did most of the work ourselves; drywall, plumbing, ceramic floor tile, gas, electric, carpentry and more. The hard work broke me mentally. I broke down crying more than once. And my wife and I were thinking "WE GOT LUCKY" the entire time.

 

[Cajunrider]

I have family in Naples that were pretty casual about the whole thing... until the hurricane hit them dead center. Everyone has different risk tolerances. I would have been in Knoxville by Monday

I've lived through many and have suffered large losses with hurricanes. When a hurricane comes, I empty my freezers into large heavy duty coolers and travel away from the storm. Wherever I wind up, there will be hurricane parties to eat up the food! There will be time enuff' for cleanin' and rebuildin' when storm is done.
When it comes to bonsai, there is no preparation that's good enough if you are hit directly by a hurricane. Lots will depend on luck. If I have trees that I treasure, I will take them with me.
Two days are not much time to execute hurricane preparation even when you have a disaster plan at the ready. I know that all too well. Remember that any worker you have also have their own house to prepare and their own family to evacuate.
I am sure the folks at Wigert had done all they could with what they have both in material, space, and time. Now if I can help them by putting in orders I will. The only concern I have is that I know shipping out of FL now will be difficult.
Recovery work will be exhausting! Lack of infrastructure means after exhausting days of work, you sleep with the heat and mosquitoes, you eat MRE's or junk... on and on..

 

[Cajunrider]

Looks like hard work and not much else. My first thought when looking at the photos was "Wow! They're so lucky!" The photos coming out of Wigert's have me thinking about the employees, not a few enormous trees with some broken branches, not destroyed landscaping. I hope the employees all have homes and aren't missing lost love ones.

Wigert's isn't really all that damaged. The buildings are still standing. The generator has been repaired. They are already open for business. Manpower is available to get the job done. Work is taking place in the workshop to repot and rescue trees. The mental stress must be incredible, almost unbearable. They will survive with hard work and good friends.

Sorry to sound callous about the damage at the nursery. I've lived through many tough storms from Betsy in 1965 to Ida in 2021. Katrina in 2005 left us living in a war zone. Evacuations are horrible things. It all gives you perspective. Wigert's was LUCKY.

As for hurricane preparedness, the armchair quaterbacking going on in this thread is disgusting. There is only so much that can be done when a storm is approaching. Time and labor are finite resources. The employees who prepared the nursery for the storm had to go home and do the same for their own property.

Katrina put more than half a foot of water in my home. Enough to ruin all the furniture, many belongings, and many irreplaceable things. We couldn't get to our property for more than a month. We were out of our home for more than a year. We did most of the work ourselves; drywall, plumbing, ceramic floor tile, gas, electric, carpentry and more. The hard work broke me mentally. I broke down crying more than once. And my wife and I were thinking "WE GOT LUCKY" the entire time.

Agree. I think Wigert prepared well and got lucky. The damage while extensive is not catastrophic.

 

[rockm]

Looks like hard work and not much else. My first thought when looking at the photos was "Wow! They're so lucky!" The photos coming out of Wigert's have me thinking about the employees, not a few enormous trees with some broken branches, not destroyed landscaping. I hope the employees all have homes and aren't missing lost love ones.

Wigert's isn't really all that damaged. The buildings are still standing. The generator has been repaired. They are already open for business. Manpower is available to get the job done. Work is taking place in the workshop to repot and rescue trees. The mental stress must be incredible, almost unbearable. They will survive with hard work and good friends.

Sorry to sound callous about the damage at the nursery. I've lived through many tough storms from Betsy in 1965 to Ida in 2021. Katrina in 2005 left us living in a war zone. Evacuations are horrible things. It all gives you perspective. Wigert's was LUCKY.

As for hurricane preparedness, the armchair quaterbacking going on in this thread is disgusting. There is only so much that can be done when a storm is approaching. Time and labor are finite resources. The employees who prepared the nursery for the storm had to go home and do the same for their own property.

Katrina put more than half a foot of water in my home. Enough to ruin all the furniture, many belongings, and many irreplaceable things. We couldn't get to our property for more than a month. We were out of our home for more than a year. We did most of the work ourselves; drywall, plumbing, ceramic floor tile, gas, electric, carpentry and more. The hard work broke me mentally. I broke down crying more than once. And my wife and I were thinking "WE GOT LUCKY" the entire time.

Anyone who has lived more than a decade in the S.E. states, up into New England, as well as the entire Gulf Coast that HASN'T been in at least one hurricane, or a bad Nor'Easter (which are just cold hurricanes) is rare. I've been though storms like Isabel and Camille --which was a horror story for the Va. Blue Ridge--32 inches of rain in 8 hours in the Nelson County, the Rockfish Valley and surrounding mountains. It rained so hard people underneath the rain had trouble breathing. Camille flooded out and killed over a hundred in that area as the sides of mountains, mud, rocks, trees all slid into the valley below. The real death toll was higher than the official one and bodies were still turning up ten years later. The scars from the huge mudslides remain to this day on the mountains there. The toll these kinds of storms take is measured in years, not just day-to-day. Camille, which happened in '69, blew out the local economies of towns and counties in Va. for decades. There were still people living in FEMA trailers into the early 1980's in several affected Va. counties.

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

Not trying to be a jerk, but I had opportunities to work and live in Florida, and in earthquake and drought prone western states. I declined, because I did not want to have to deal with hurricanes, and or drought and earthquakes in the west.

Yes, in 1980 I turned down a middling good job offer in California because I figured they'd be running out of water before I retired. I was off by a few years in my prediction, l was retired a 5 years before it got bad, but none the less, the current drought was predicted 50 years ago.

I accept the potential hazards of my Midwest location, my big catastrophic risk is tornado. Extreme cold is possible (-25.F has happened historically). When power fails during a cold snap, things get bad quickly. We have a low but real threat of earthquake from the New Madrid fault system, which little known fact, extends under the Wabash River, bringing it within a hundred or so miles of Chicago.

Most know and accept the risks of the natural hazards associated with living where they happen to live. If they don't find the risks acceptable, they can usually move. (I realize economically the move option is not available to everyone, but most BNut readers could move). I declined west coast job offers in my youth. When the Cascadia fault finally let's rip with a 9.5 earthquake near Seattle, I'll be smug in my choice to avoid living there. But I might go to my grave having missed the chance to live in one of the more beautiful regions of the country, and best tree growing region of the country.

So most Floridians accept the risks of hurricanes. Climate change has made them worse than normal, and that may be where the issue lies.

 

[BobbyLane]

Hurricane Ian In Florida

I'm in central Florida but wanted to take a few minutes to share that Hurricane Ian hit many parts of Florida that people are unaware of and it's considered the worst hurricane ever endured by this state.

People have flooding from rain, rivers, lakes, the gulf and the ocean. When you see them wading in four feet of water, that's not rain. The majority is sewage and god knows what else. We're across from a lake and people in a multi million dollar home live at the end of the cul de sac. All the streets run down to them and the lake flooded their backyard and house. They were flooded by rain, and the lake and the inside of their home is several feet under water. They've pumped it out many times but the next day it's just filled up again. A nightmare. It happened to several homes in our neighborhood who are lakefront and on low lying land. We can smell the sewage from the street.

Take a drive and many new multi millions dollar homes are frantically ripping out new wood floors and trying to salvage anything they can. Streets are still blocked by fallen trees so it's an obstacle course driving.

Many are still without electricity and many homes, hotels, restaurants and condos had the their roofs ripped completely off. The area of Daytona was hit horribly as was St. Augustine where we have a condo. Some people didn't want to pay the 7 thousand dollars for roll down hurricane shutters at our condo and they're now wishing they had. Their condos are flooded. Places near Sanibel Island were leveled. Barrier islands considered 'Old Florida' are now considered 'gone'.

Pets are being rescued, that God! I saw a news clip showing a large private plane filled with crates. Many more pets were just left unattended in empty homes when people evacuated.

After Katrina I met a woman who was going through cancer treatment. She survived Katrina and moved to Texas. She told me doctors said her cancer was caused by the amount of time she spent in the water there dragging her belongings in a small boat.

Any little thing you can do to help someone who's been affected by Hurricane Ian would be a blessing. I think Florida would return the favor if the situation were reversed.

Sharks were spotted in the streets according to this report

 

[rockm]

Not trying to be a jerk, but I had opportunities to work and live in Florida, and in earthquake and drought prone western states. I declined, because I did not want to have to deal with hurricanes, and or drought and earthquakes in the west.

Yes, in 1980 I turned down a middling good job offer in California because I figured they'd be running out of water before I retired. I was off by a few years in my prediction, l was retired a 5 years before it got bad, but none the less, the current drought was predicted 50 years ago.

I accept the potential hazards of my Midwest location, my big catastrophic risk is tornado. Extreme cold is possible (-25.F has happened historically). When power fails during a cold snap, things get bad quickly. We have a low but real threat of earthquake from the New Madrid fault system, which little known fact, extends under the Wabash River, bringing it within a hundred or so miles of Chicago.

Most know and accept the risks of the natural hazards associated with living where they happen to live. If they don't find the risks acceptable, they can usually move. (I realize economically the move option is not available to everyone, but most BNut readers could move). I declined west coast job offers in my youth. When the Cascadia fault finally let's rip with a 9.5 earthquake near Seattle, I'll be smug in my choice to avoid living there. But I might go to my grave having missed the chance to live in one of the more beautiful regions of the country, and best tree growing region of the country.

So most Floridians accept the risks of hurricanes. Climate change has made them worse than normal, and that may be where the issue lies.

I am not retiring to anywhere near a coastline (and I think Fla. is great to visit, but wouldn't live there if you gave me Mar a Lago), BUT shit happens.

I didn't know I lived in a fault zone until 11 years ago I got a wake up call-- a 5.8 magnitude earthquake centered 80 miles south of here. It broke stuff in D.C. (the Washington Monument and National Cathedral haven't been the same since). I was lucky not to lose my townhouse's deck. Not strong by Ca. standards (I was out in San Fran for the 7.1 Loma Prieta quake in '89), but strong is relative. Buildings here (some 300 years old) haven't been built with earthquakes in mind. was felt by more people than any other earthquake in N. American history, all the way up to NYC. We're still getting earthquakes in Va. to this day.

 

[Kodama]

From an Observer: The devastation and loss is truly saddening and shocking! But I should not be surprised. They have been warning us for years that hurricanes, droughts, wildfires, extreme rain events, storm intensity and duration will increase due to climate changes. While we might have been contributing to some degree there are other signs of much bigger cycles in motion that are beyond our short lived experiences. Not the first and won't be the last. More is coming. Expect it.

Research has shown that our star...the SUN has caused previous earth disasters through solar flares, micro-novas, space weather, etc. It's all related....and on a cycle. Some say we are heading into one of those bigger cycles now. Magnetic field weaking, magnetic poles are wandering. They have detected changes in other planets. Higher UV index in some places that is out of season. I have noticed the sun seems more white than the yellow/orange I remember as a kid. Extreme weather in places that are unexpected. Migratory beached whales and dolphins, mass flocking bird deaths, new viruses, unexplained fish kills, etc. Social unrest, political divides, fast changes...we seem to be affected as well.

I wonder if that's why the rush to get to Mars...hmmmm.

Is it truly happening more or is it we are just hearing more about it. I don't know. But if we haven't noticed then we are not paying attention.

While I ponder if we are heading into the next disaster cycle I will leave with this.

A palm tree can face the fiercest hurricane by being flexible.
Stay flexible my friends!

 

[HorseloverFat]

Hurricanes are/can be terrible.

So are/can be people.

A passive-aggressive attack of Retrospective, non-grounded hindsight bravado?... For an event that doesn't even concern that person?!?

... I've seen that a few times before, but always stops me dead each time to consider...

...

This WAS a bad hurricane... Which ended up hitting off-course. My parents have land near Tampa... And that's (NEAR) where it was EXPECTED to first land...

...but it did not... Their property (and mobile home) is, reasonably, fine....

The problem was the non-predictability towards those last few HOURS before landfall.

I'm sure a LOT of folks wish they'd prepared differently....

What HELP/GOOD can come of berating people for decisions.... ESPECIALLY decisions that don't effect that person AT ALL....

It's ASTOUNDING the lengths people go to, just to sound momentarily Interesting.


My thoughts and energies are with ALL those reached by this storm.

 

[penumbra]

Anyone who has lived more than a decade in the S.E. states, up into New England, as well as the entire Gulf Coast that HASN'T been in at least one hurricane, or a bad Nor'Easter (which are just cold hurricanes) is rare. I've been though storms like Isabel and Camille --which was a horror story for the Va. Blue Ridge--32 inches of rain in 8 hours in the Nelson County, the Rockfish Valley and surrounding mountains. It rained so hard people underneath the rain had trouble breathing. Camille flooded out and killed over a hundred in that area as the sides of mountains, mud, rocks, trees all slid into the valley below. The real death toll was higher than the official one and bodies were still turning up ten years later. The scars from the huge mudslides remain to this day on the mountains there. The toll these kinds of storms take is measured in years, not just day-to-day. Camille, which happened in '69, blew out the local economies of towns and counties in Va. for decades. There were still people living in FEMA trailers into the early 1980's in several affected Va. counties.

The name Camille is whispered lightly in these parts even today.

 

[rockm]

The name Camille is whispered lightly in these parts even today.

Yeah, it scarred more than the land. My seventh grade teacher helped with rescue and body recovery in the days after the storm hit. He teared up and couldn't talk about what he saw over in Nelson County.

 

[penumbra]

I am not retiring to anywhere near a coastline (and I think Fla. is great to visit, but wouldn't live there if you gave me Mar a Lago), BUT shit happens.

I didn't know I lived in a fault zone until 11 years ago I got a wake up call-- a 5.8 magnitude earthquake centered 80 miles south of here. It broke stuff in D.C. (the Washington Monument and National Cathedral haven't been the same since). I was lucky not to lose my townhouse's deck. Not strong by Ca. standards (I was out in San Fran for the 7.1 Loma Prieta quake in '89), but strong is relative. Buildings here (some 300 years old) haven't been built with earthquakes in mind. was felt by more people than any other earthquake in N. American history, all the way up to NYC. We're still getting earthquakes in Va. to this day.

Man oh man, do I remember that day. It was a beautiful partly sunny day and I was at a school in Fairfax County doing repairs on kilns, wheels and a slab roller. I was there with my friend and boss Mike, owner of the kiln doctor. We were in this large ceramic studio in an empty school. I think Mike was working on a wheel and I was just carrying supplies in the door of the studio. Out of the blue, all the windows were rattled (large wall to wall windows) things were falling from shelves and I looked up to Mike and said WTF. I thought a semi had slamed into the school. Mike yells "Earthquake.... get out". I made a beeline for the door and down the hall to school entrance, still not believing it and expecting to see that indeed a truck must have slammed into the building. It didn't last long and was over with before we got out of the building. It was beautiful, sunny ..... and incredibly quiet. I stood on the turf in front of some large trees and not even a bird made any noise. It was surreal.

 

[Katie0317]

The news footage shown above sums it up pretty well. People don't realize it but sharks are simply big fish. Nothing more...Just fish.

I've lived in Florida my whole life and wouldn't want to live anywhere else. Hurricane Ian wasn't about bonsai. People died, and thousands of pets left behind will die.

Homes that were uninsured will be unlivable, abandoned and many will have to be demolished and rebuilt. Many older buildings are much better built than newer buildings by the way. In the 80's they used solid concrete block to build homes and condos. Now they use plywood so thinking that newer homes are more durable is simply not true. Often it's the solid concrete structures still standing after a storm like this.

It's pure luck when someone escapes serious damage during this kind of storm. It can happen to anyone no matter how well you prepare.

This is bonsai forum so naturally the sympathy goes to Wigert's but the above thread is true. They're really not that badly hurt. The point about their families is very relevant. They're working to save plants when they have homes and families. I wish them all well. Also, I hope they have insurance. Anyone in this state without insurance is just asking for trouble. It's expensive but when you need it, it's there. Many of the insurance companies (the news is reporting) will go out of business as a result of Ian. So I go with State Farm. I feel the small cheap companies can't manage the influx of claims during this level of damage. They tempt people with their offers but can't always make the payout.

If anyone is looking for a pet, there is going to be a surplus in your state. They've come from all over to help rescue and take animals to states all over the country. It's one way to help.