DeborahLakeHelen's Blog

I'm not sure, but I think I may have "outrun"
a tornado Thursday. At 5:23pm, I was on Minnesota Ave, almost to Kepler Rd, and it started hailing like crazy. The wind felt like it was going to turn my truck OVER! I looked in my side-rear-view mirror, and the sky
was an ugly purplish black, with an odd yellow tinge. As I approached Kepler Rd, rain and hail started  hammering the ground and lightning was striking all around. I high-tailed it to Lake Helen, but I couldn't get away from it. When I pulled into my driveway, my massive oak trees were bending in every direction, and when I got out of my truck to run inside, I could hear a low, hissing whistle. It was an eerily familiar sound, from when the tornadoes struck Daytona Beach C.C. down the road back in January of '07. We had limbs down, but no other "evidence" around Lake Helen or DeLand of a tornado actually "touching down." THANK THE LORD!

My Uncle Ed, my cousin Ed Jr. and his wife Debbie, and their son, Blake all survived Ike. They live just 74 miles to the NW of Galveston, and 35 miles SW of Houston, in Rosenberg, TX. The damage we're seeing on T.V. doesn't even come close to showing "what it really is"! It will be WEEKS (possibly 2-3) before they get their power back. My cousin said everything has come to a screeching halt, and will probably remain that way for awhile. It's still raining, too! The economic impact will be devastating.

One good thing has come out of all this rain for me and it's truly a blessing! My 1.4 acre spring fed pond had all but dried up, except for where the spring "feeds" it. Thanks to Faye, it's back up to it's normal level. Unfortunately, that also means the once hidden, extremely aggressive Water Moccasins will be emerging, too. After the hurricanes, our pastures literally had HUNDREDS of them, everywhere you looked. As we did before the hhurricanes we moved our horses before Faye hit, to my Uncle's place, because he has  bigger, higher pastures than ours. I'm still thankful that I have my pond "back"! There is always a blessing, in every disaster, if you look closely enough! Thank You, GOD!

Will it smack our fannies, and call us,

"DARLIN' "?

When will we know where it will go? Just how close to our fannies will the storm come? I have my own little "spinning board" tacked to my kitchen wall. I can flick the arrow with my finger, and the "spinner" goes around, and hopefully, the section where it lands will tell me what to eapect, and how close the storms will come to my fanny. The categories of sections are as follows:

1. Slap in the middle of your fanny, it's really gonna sting!

2. Kinda near your fanny, it will only hurt a little!

3. Not close enough to sting your fanny that bad!

4. Far enough away, you'll only feel the breeze pass by your fanny!

5. Not close enough to your fanny, for you to even know that anything even happened at all!

Many of our Oak Trees were lost in the hurricanes of 'o4, (at  least 40-50) and since then many of the remaining 100-150 we have left have continued to die and show signs of stress or rot, due to drought or what they suffered during the hurricanes. According to the Florida Division Of Forestry, this situation is widespread. Is anyone else out there having problems with their Water Oaks or their Live Oak Trees?

 Some of the dying Oak trees on our property. The Woodpeckers love them!

 

Here is a picture of a Hawk looking out of a nest in one of our Oak's that is over 75 ft high

 

Common Causes of Oak Mortality  By: E. L. Barnard, Forest Pathologist
Florida Division of Forestry, FDACS



Tops of oaks killed by Ganoderma in a group of living oaks. Requests for assistance with dying oak trees often reach high levels in the hot summer months in Florida. So what’s the problem? Is this mortality evidence of a sinister disease? Are our oak trees threatened?

“No… not exactly.” While many oaks have died and more can be expected to die, we are not witnessing any particularly menacing or threatening disease. The causes of oak mortality are variable and often complex. Investigations over several years, however, have revealed some common causes in Florida.

In certain cases, root disease fungi such as Armillaria, Ganoderma, and Phytophthora are involved, singularly or in combination. And in most cases, environmental influences play a major role. Armillaria and Ganoderma are naturally occurring, mushroom-forming fungi that colonize and decay tree stumps and roots. They frequently enter roots of living trees when roots are cut or damaged during construction or site disturbance activities, when trees are subjected to natural environmental stresses (severe droughts, floods, defoliation by insects, etc.), or when the roots of living trees come in contact with decaying stumps or roots. Phytophthora species are microscopic soilborne fungi that feed on and destroy the roots of many plants and trees, especially in poorly drained or waterlogged soils. Over time (often years), infected root systems are progressively debilitated by these and sometimes other root-infecting fungi. Eventually, infected root systems are debilitated to a point beyond which they are incapable of supplying adequate moisture and nutrients to their trees’ crowns, and tree death occurs.

Tree death may occur slowly over months or years with dying trees exhibiting progressive dieback and crown thinning, etc. Or tree death may occur “suddenly”, or at least appear to do so. This latter mode of demise is commonly observed in the summer months of July and August because hot summer air temperatures and fully foliated tree crowns increase trees’ transpirational water loss to the atmosphere, and debilitated root systems simply cannot supply the water “demanded” by actively transpiring crowns.

Fruiting structures of Ganoderma (“hoof-like” structures at tree bases) and Hypoxylon (silver-gray “crusts” on lower stems) on dead/dying oaks.    

Root disease scenarios are often compounded in Florida by the state’s variable and unpredictable rainfall. Droughts clearly add to tree stress, especially if root systems are debilitated by root diseases. Additionally, however, excessive rainfall resulting in water impoundment and/or saturated soils is often the “straw that breaks the camel’s back”. Water-saturated soil conditions result in reduced soil oxygen levels and the buildup of carbon dioxide and an array of chemicals not found or scarce in well aerated soils. Such anaerobic conditions are directly toxic to tree roots and cause physiological damage to roots in direct proportion to the severity and duration of the conditions. When trees with pre-existing root diseases are subjected to anaerobic soil conditions the deleterious effects are additive, and tree death is often unavoidable and rapid.

Dead turkey oaks – brown dead foliage indicates “rapid” death – typical of turkey oaks killed by Armillaria and/or Phytophthora in rain saturated soils. Another compounding and often poorly understood factor in the death of oaks in Florida is the presence of one or more species of Hypoxylon on dying trees. Hypoxylon species are opportunistic, secondary fungal pathogens that are common on a variety of hardwood species, especially on oaks. Research has demonstrated that certain species of Hypoxylon actually reside in the bark of healthy oaks. Only after severe physiological stress, when a tree’s water content drops below a certain threshold, do these fungi penetrate into the xylem (wood) of host trees; “finishing them off”, so to speak. Stresses sufficient to initiate lethal infections are typically related to drought, but may include mechanical injury, flooding, and even root diseases. For all intents and purposes, Hypoxylon species are indicators more than they are causes of death. Hypoxylon species are usually recognized as small to large, irregularly shaped sheets or patches of black or silver-gray crust-like fruiting structures appearing on infected stems or branches as the bark sloughs off the ailing tree(s). At certain stages of fungus development, Hypoxylon species often appear as irregular sheets of brownish powder (asexual spores) prior to the occurrence of the crust-like sexual fruiting structures.

 

In part, these processes are natural, occurring in undisturbed and healthy forest ecosystems. Sadly, however, they are often initiated and exacerbated by the activities of man. “Development”-related site disturbances which result in root injuries, soil grade changes, water impoundments, or changes in soil water levels or movement are frequent villains.

The above having been said, evaluations of periodic oak mortality in Florida continue. Recently, a novel "bleeding" basal canker, apparently caused by Phytophthora cinnamomi (see above), has been confirmed on laurel oaks (Quercus hemisphaerica) in several north-central Florida counties. The role of this disease in flare-ups of oak mortality is unknown, but is likely not major. An information circular describing this disease is due out soon through the Division of Plant Industry (FDACS). Xylella fastidiosa, a bacterial pathogen known to occur in the vascular systems of oaks in Florida, but the role of this organism in oak mortality is not well understood and is likely to be limited. Oak wilt, caused by Ceratocystis fagacearum and "Sudden Oak Death" (SOD), caused by Phytophthora ramorum are of concern, but to date neither of these diseases has been detected in Florida.

 

© 2004-2008 Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services

I don't know what it was like elsewhere in the state, but it was BLUSTERY, and it reminded me of a pre hurricane here in little Lake Helen today! Huge limbs were snapping off our oak trees all day, and one of our smaller, although fairly tall, (around 40 feet) snapped in two, midway up the tree. It shook the whole house when it landed! What was it like elsewhere?

Here in Lake Helen we had our little country fannies smacked hard, around 6:30pm last night. We had a tree fall on the main line running through our property, which leads to a transformer. It not only started a fire on the surrounding trees in the rain, but it knocked out all of our neighbor's power, too. I was on the phone with 911 telling them about the trees in our front yard being on fire, when the lines gave their final zap, and the phone went dead. The rain put out the fire by the time Volusia Co. Fire and Rescue arrived, and then they had to haul butt to another similar incident down the road. The majority of Lake Helen was without power until Progress Energy restored all the busted lines sometime after 10:30pm. That was some storm!

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Hawthorne Hills in DeLand is absolutely heartbreaking to look at. I was only allowed entrance into the trailer park because I was with the Southern Baptist Convention Disaster Relief Team from my church, Blake Memorial Baptist, in Lake Helen.
Deland Police Department has been on 24/7 posts inside and outside the park due to lowlife looters attempting to take what little these poor people have left. Their lives will never, ever be the same again. I talked to one couple, who upon hearing of the approaching storm, attempted to escape in their car. That's just when the storm hit, and trapped them in their car when a huge tree fell on it. The majority of the homes in this development were completely destroyed, or so badly damaged the property appraiser condemned them. Our jobs were to help those who still had habitable homes by cleaning the debris up from their yards, and believe me, there was plenty of it! Every single person I talked to was PRAISING the LORD that not ONE SINGLE person suffered more than a few scratches or bruises in this whole entire place! That is truly amazing, and a real blessing!

My family and I have spent the last two days helping friends of ours, Mike, and Rosey clean up after their home and property received a direct hit from the tornado that went through DeLand.
They have 150-200 large Long Leaf Pine, Water Oak, Loblolly, and Live Oak Trees that have been toppled, twisted, snapped and bent in two on their property. Most of the windows of their house were blown out. Two vechiles on their property were damaged when trees fell on them, one was totalled. Their barn was nearly flattened. Miraculously, their 30,000.00 Harley, which was inside the barn was unscathed. A bench-press Mike used to work out had one bar that held the entire roof up in the area that the Harley was in! He was able to wheel it out safely. Mike, Rosey, their two sons, one of which is home from leave in the Marines, and Rosey's mother and the family's two dogs were unhurt. The family thanks the LORD for that miracle! In their back pasture, a huge trailer was slung from a fernery over 200 yards away, it landed upside down, crushed. Take a look a the picture I took of it!
No fortune tellers, psychics, mediums, or soothsayers saw this one coming, did they?
FOX 35 warned us ahead of time to be prepared for severe weather, and Buddy, they were right!