News-Press from Fort Myers, Florida • Page 8

A8 THE NEWS-PRESS, NATION WORLD, SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 2005 HURRICANE WILMA: THE COSTLIEST STORM? "iiBHwriMrTnMBriiriMM wi'iTiriwi7iiiiiifinTrTni ANDREW WESTTHE NEWS-PRESS i Wendy Lynn Raffield, 5, plays on a debris pile of stone crab traps and a washed-up dock in Chokoloskee. Wendy's home was flooded by Hurricane Wilma. Storm season takes big toll on farm industry cane sugar and one of its largest producers or oranges and orange juice. I We sustained a lot of Sanchez," noting it is expected to be worse than Charley, which destroyed about 25 percent of the company's crops. "It is widespread and pretty substantial," she said.

"They are still going field by field." Wilma blew as much as half the fruit from trees. Salvage operations are under way to see how much of the fruit on the ground can be saved. And areas such as Clewiston, Immokalee, and Belle Glade, where many farm workers live, were hit particularly hard by the storm and have yet to report comprehensive damage estimates. Officials from none of those villages returned calls late this week about damage estimates. U.S.

Sugar has patched the roof of its plant in Clewiston and started harvesting crops. But most of its warehouse space blew down leaving a big question about what to do with the crop after it comes out of the field and awaits processing, which can take months. "We're kind of limping into it rather than running full-speed ahead," she said. "We're going to have to draw upon all our ingenuity to store that sugar with all our warehouses in twisted heaps." BY JOEL M0R0NEY State officials will plead with Washington this week for farm aid, after a tally of this year's storm damage, released Friday, put the price tag at $2.2 billion. Florida Department of Agriculture spokesman Terence McElroy said department delegates will head to Washington on Monday.

"It's hard to distinguish where the damage from one (hurricane) begins and the other ends," McElroy said. Regardless of whether its name was Dennis, Katrina, Rita or Wilma, this year's storm season has wreaked havoc in the fields, including: $1.1 billion in damage to nurseries. $370 million to sugar industry $180 million to citrus $44 million to tropical fruit $311 million to vegetables $51 million to beef cattle $107 million to shell fishing Judy Sanchez, spokeswoman for U.S. Sugar in Clewiston, said it will be at least another week before damage estimates come in from all of the company's 200,000 acres of sugar cane and citrus. U.S.

Sugar is the country's largest producer of THE DAMAGE LEE COUNTY Lee County Property Appraiser Ken Wilkinson said computer models suggest as many as 85,802 of the county's 585,000 properties could be affected by the storm, including 20,777 mobile homes. But the damage was not as extensive as that wrought by Charley on Aug. 13, 2004. "This year it's going to be a lot easier than jt "was last year because we have not found any significant structural damage," Wilkinson said. "Obviously, if you are one of the few individuals who had structural damage, it is significant to you.

But for our purposes, this was more of a blip compared to Charley." Gerald Campbell, head of Lee County emergency planning, said 2,986 structures have.been reported as damaged. Of those, 153 homes had major damage, with 14 of those potentially destroyed. Also, 110 businesses were damaged, with five potentially destroyed, Campbell said, although he did not have specific business names Friday. The storm caused about $4 million in damage to county property, including buildings, road signs and traffic signals, according to Wayne Fiyalko, county risk manager. FORT MYERS The city completed its first circuit through the community to collect storm debris Friday, spokeswoman Jennifer Hobbic said.

Two more trips are planned to collect downed debris, at a cost of about $3 million. Removing the debris also will clear most of the signs that the storm was ever here, she said. "We had minimal damage," Hobbic said. "It's mostly trees down." COLLIER COUNTYNAPLES Preliminary estimates in Collier County put damage to homes and businesses at $1.2 billioa About 5,000 Collier buildings with damage to 20 percent or more of the structure have been reported 615 mobile homes were destroyed and 276 had major damage. Marco Island suffered $200 million in damage, mostly to pool cages and roofs.

About 25 percent of homes in Naples had some kind of damage, according to city police. forward, as will establishing a faith-based volunteer response team. "So we have more volunteers who are readily available for people who need assistance," he said. i A generator for City Hall and several portable generators for other city-run facilities are now on order. City Hall was without power for two days as officials tried, to go about the business of herding Bonita Springs through the crisis.

"It's pretty tough to try to run this without power," the mayor said. "If we're going to have 12 more years of this (intense storm seasons), there is a lot we're going to want to do." CAPE CORAL The city estimates 511 structures damaged at a cost of $9.2 million. 490 structures have minor damage; 20 with major damage; and one house trailer destroyed. An individual listing of houses and businesses details 78 businesses with moderate to severe damage, including The Frame Gallery, 1830 Del Prado which lost its roof and is listed as destroyed. The city also reported individual damage to 164 houses, many of which suffered significant roof damage.

An estimated $436,100 in damage was done to city facilities. Repair of 20 miles of landscaping in the median has thus far included restaking about 17 miles of trees. FORT MYERS BEACH Twenty-four structures sustained damage enough to "actually note," according to Jack Green, community development planner. In other words, the Beach, hard hit last year, is feeling lucky. "We might have listed one (property) as almost major," said Green, about the Estero Boulevard BP gas station, where the canopy blew down, damaging the pumps.

The town will start Monday to go back through the island to collect storm debris. Green said damage was mostly limited to carports and pool cages. "Many of the carports that took a whack during Charley, the ones that had been rebuilt to withstand higher winds, all fared very well," Green said. "So we did fairly well." 1 SANIBEL ISLAND The island has reported 128 homes with some damage out of more than 6,000 structures on the island, according Judie Zimomra, town manager. Twelve homes reported major damage.

"We only have one mobile home development and we're not aware of any mobile home damage," she said. Wilma is expected to cost the city just over $1 million, Zimomra said. That includes as much as $200,000 to the fishing pier; $30,000 damage to city parks; $20,000 in utility damage and $12,000 in street signs. She said many of the thousands of trees planted after Hurricane Charley had blown down and needed attentioa "When we came back on the island after the storm, one of the things that greeted us was hundreds of new trees knocked over," she said. "Almost all of those have been stood back up." se 1 C5 B0NITA SPRINGS The community reported 972 residents with minor to major damage.

"Mostly what were hit hardest were mobile and manufactured homes," Mayor Jay Arend said. Wilma's damage focused more inland compared with Charley, he said. And there's more of it. "There's definitely more damage than there was with Charley," he said. "(But) I'd say a month from now things should be pretty much back together." The city and residents are working to clear yards and canals of debris pickups will start Friday and will run a week apart for at least two, and possibly three, weeks.

Arend said the city's future plans include replacing traffic signals suspended on cable with steel arms that will hold up better during significant storms. Other lessons have been learned as well: Generator education will be a priority moving Citrus blown from trees lay in a gro(e in Hendry County recently. Hurricane Wilma destroyed as much as 80 percent of the early season citrus crops in South Florida. "It is idespread and pretty substantial. They are still going field by field." Judy Sanchez, spokeswoman for U.S.

Sugar in Clewiston.