Hurricane Charley, Hurricane Donna. Perhaps there is something to this forty-year cycle?
Guest Column/Dorothy L. Harris, Park Services Specialist
Highlands Hammock State Park/ September 2004

Highlands Hammock State Park was not spared the ripping winds of the recent double-punch hurricanes.

Nearly two weeks of debris removal followed Hurricane Charley. Park staff was supplemented by twenty men and four women from St. Mark’s in Tallahassee, Hillsborough River in Thonotosassa, St. George Island, St. Joe Peninsula and Grayton Beach in the Panhandle, Lake Jackson Mounds, Maclay Gardens, Torreya, Florida Caverns, Ponce deLeon Springs and Henderson Beach.

These Florida State Park employees traveled to Sebring and worked diligently to help uncover the hammock’s facilities and nature trails. Our heartfelt thanks go out for their dedicated efforts following Charley’s passage. Without them, we would never have been able to reopen as quickly as we did.
Unfortunately, it seemed we no sooner hung out the welcome sign and here came Frances.

Thankfully her passage was not as severe, and current park staff was able to handle the debris cleanup.
To describe the hurricane’s effects on the park is a difficult task. It often ran through my mind during the few days I assisted in raking ankle-deep leaf debris, reclaiming what used to be a nature trail. How would I describe the dramatic, yet easily overlooked changes in this forest? Would anyone else notice that a huge number of cavity trees-think cozy animal homes-were now gone? Or nature trails rerouted due to massive trunks, immovable and unreachable to heavy equipment? What about the multitudes of endangered airplants that now littered the ground? How about dens, nests, and such that were either blown apart, flooded, or simply abandoned?
Yet the deer were out nearly every day, and birds returned in mass within a week’s time. The park’s facilities also fared extremely well through both hurricanes. Very little structural damage occurred, and the only facility that was severely damaged was a CCC-era picnic pavilion. This historic structure has survived many hurricanes in the last 70 years, but gave up the ghost when Hurricane Charley remodeled it via a large pine tree.

Here in the park, those falling trees proved to be the main consequence of these powerful back-to-back storms. With nearly fifty percent of the Hammock’s canopy gone from the extreme winds, the park has definitely changed. While trails are now reopened, many still have sections that are flooded. Crushed portions of boardwalk were repaired after Charley, only to be flooded over by Frances. The Cypress catwalk is now reopen as the water level has receded off the walkway. You’ll immediately notice the pungent, earthy odor of decaying vegetation and see dark pools of water reflecting the gaping holes in the hammock’s canopy throughout much of the park. Mosquitoes seem determined to overtake any adventurous hiker, so be sure to wear bug spray.

I’d suggest a rubbernecking ride on the park’s guided Tram Tour. Plan to spend an hour gawking over the extensive tree damage and viewing the displaced wildlife. Tours are scheduled daily, provided roadway conditions remain stable. More rain threatens that stability, as the park is simply swollen with rainfall, so please call for current conditions.
Comparisons have been made between Hurricane Charley and 1960’s Hurricane Donna, and here at the park we see the resemblance. Carol Beck, who was the Chief Naturalist for the Florida Board of Parks, noted that Hurricane Donna’s passage “tore the hammock to pieces.” She described over half the trees completely torn down and those left standing so badly torn that little shade could be found. Apparently the cycle stretches back yet another forty years, as Old Uncle Tom Page, a ranger at Highlands Hammock from 1927 to 1962, told Ms. Beck, “the same thing had happened in the 1928 hurricane.”

Perhaps there is something to this forty-year cycle? I certainly can’t vouch for that, but you can bet I’ll be watching this winter’s weather. Beck recorded that the winter following Donna’s devastation brought several hard freezes, compounding the die off of much of the understory plants. The following spring the hammock filled up with weeds and young oaks began to grow. It was then that she noted; “now we knew why there were only two sizes of oaks in the hammock. They need sunlight in their youth and can only get it after a bad hurricane.”

While we certainly agree that Charley was one bad hurricane, and that Frances was a miserable experience, we can only wait to see if this prophecy is fulfilled. For now, when you visit the Hammock, please forgive its tattered appearance. Over time, the woods will reclaim the ravaged, fallen trees and perhaps forty years from now this year’s destructive storms will be only a distant memory. Let’s remain mindful of the results though, lest our forgetfulness leaves us unprepared, whether it be forty more years or even just one.
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