City workers are clearing more than 1,000 trees that Hurricane Jeanne dropped on city property and streets.
That does not include the thousands more that fell on private property.
about 150 trees are down at the Cleveland Heights Golf Course.
Nine holes are expected to open today and 18 by Thursday.
The final nine holes will take two or three weeks.
| Soured by the Storms |
| The Recent Hurricanes Did a Number on Florida's Grapefruit Crop |
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LAKE WALES -- To see the effect of this year's hurricanes on Florida's grapefruit growers, head south on U.S. 27 from Lake Wales and turn left at Hunt Bros. Road. In a typical early October, clumps of golden grapefruit stand out against the green trees, waiting for harvest during the coming weeks. These days, however, the trees show almost nothing but green. The harvesters came early this year bearing the names Charley, Frances and Jeanne. But instead of delivering the grapefruit to a packinghouse or processing plant, the hurricanes stripped the fruit to the ground, where it lay rotting. G. Ellis Hunt Jr., the vice president of the Hunt Bros. Cooperative, one of Polk County's largest citrus growers... acknowledged there's little to look at now. He estimated the loss of grapefruit to Charley and Frances at 77 percent. Hunt Bros. has not completed its damage assessment from Jeanne, but one could see no more than 10 percent of its grapefruit in Lake Wales still on the tree. Indian River growers estimate the grapefruit crop remaining after Jeanne ranges from less than 5 percent to about 20 percent. Hunt said his company's grapefruit losses are typical for Polk, the largest grapefruit producer outside Indian River. The estimated losses in Indian River alone amounts to 20 percent of the world's grapefruit supply, said Spreen, the UF economist. No other U.S. state or foreign country has the production to fill that shortfall. |
