The decades-old green buttonwood at Town Hall was among trees in Gulf Stream damaged during Hurricane Ian. Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star
By Steve Plunkett
How strong was the wind that toppled Town Hall’s large green buttonwood tree as Hurricane Ian battered Florida’s Gulf Coast on Sept. 28?
“We did have what we suspect — and the weather service is looking into it because we’ve given them all the pictorial evidence of it — but we did have a tornado that came off the beach. And that’s why our big tree over here was knocked over,” Town Manager Greg Dunham said.
Dunham told town commissioners at their Oct. 14 meeting that the suspected Ian-related twister blew roof tiles off Town Hall and from buildings across the street.
“It was moving in a northwesterly direction. It actually went over the building and there was a straight debris trail that went out over the [Little Club] golf course. And it’s my understanding it blew over a big tree close to the clubhouse,” he said.
Town Hall’s tree, which Dunham said was not covered by insurance, “was in very bad shape.”
“It had been infested by carpenter ants,” he said, with a hole at the base and tunnels throughout the root system, “and so, you know, the first big blow was going to make that tree fall over like that.”
Replacing it may be difficult, said Anthony Beltran, the town’s public works director.
“In order for us to really be able to find a specimen that’s going to be remotely anywhere near the size of what was there, it’s not going to happen because they have to be able to transport it. And the corridor to get it here is very narrow,” Beltran said.
The largest tree that could be trailered in would have only about a 12-foot canopy, he estimated. Commissioners told him to investigate what was available for a maximum $12,000 and report back in November.
In a special meeting on Oct. 28, commissioners:
• Set Nov. 1 to Nov. 15 as the dates to qualify as a candidate for the March election. Challengers could target all five commission seats.
• Raised the maximum height of sea walls in town by 2 feet, to a total 8 feet NGVD, for property owners building new or replacement sea walls.
Comments