Charley hit Florida landscape hard

Houses damaged by Hurricane Charley are seen in this aerial view over Punta Gorda in Charlotte County, Fla. Photo: Charles Dharapak/AP.

Hurricane Charley has taken a toll on Florida's landscape industry, and workers will be busy for months cleaning the mess up, early media reports suggest.

Estimates of total damage are already topping $11 billion for insured homes alone, the state's worst storm toll since hurricane Andrew's $20 billion hit in 1992.

Florida's $1.6 billion nursery and ornamental plant industry was ?EUR??,,????'??heavily damaged by Charley because of damage to greenhouses,?EUR??,,????'?? the Orlando Sentinel reports. The extent of damage was hard to gauge because ?EUR??,,????'??communication is down,?EUR??,,????'?? Florida Department of Agriculture spokeswoman Liz Compton told the paper.

Initial estimates from The Florida Nursery, Growers & Landscape Association put damage at close to $100 million. That number was expected to rise, however. Nursery plant and related losses range ?EUR??,,????'??from partial to complete?EUR??,,????'?? in Charlotte, DeSoto, hardee, Lee, Polk, Osceola, Orange and Volusia counties, the association reports.

The state's citrus industry also suffered damage, and juice prices are already rising as a result.

Federal officials are including 25 counties in the disaster area, although the hardest-hit areas are the retirement communities of Punta Gorda and Port Charlotte in Charlotte County.

The property management firm American Land Lease reported ?EUR??,,????'??extensive?EUR??,,????'?? landscape damage to its Punta Gorda Blue Heron Pines community, including the loss of more than one-half of the golf course's maintenance equipment.

Landscape workers are scrambling to replant downed trees and prevent further damage. Maintenance workers and property owners should cut jagged tree limbs and seal the exposed ends to prevent fungus and infection, Travis Waters of Westcoast Landscaping and Garden Center told the Naples News. Waters offered to answer emailed landscaping questions at his web site, westcoastlawnofnaples.com.