Flash flooding in central and southern Florida this week led to a state of emergency being declared by Gov. Ron DeSantis. It also led to concerns for the region’s citrus producers, who are in harvest season.
DeSantis issued a state of emergency for multiple counties, including Brevard, DeSoto, Hardee, Highlands, Indian River, Martin and St. Lucie.
Steven Callaham, executive vice president and chief executive officer of the Dundee Citrus Growers Association, talked about the flooding’s impact on trees in the region.
“From grove to grove, it really varies,” Callaham said. “In Polk County in Central Florida, we’re 6 to 10 inches over 36 hours, depending on which grove you’re in. But as you go a little bit farther south into Hardee County and even into Highlands County, we’ve got some numbers that are creeping up above 10 inches, and farther into South Florida, there’s some that are in the mid to upper teens. It’s a tremendous amount of rain in a short period of time.
“I think in Central Florida, we’re going to be fine. Our soils are well-drained. They’ll be fine in another day or so. But I think in South Florida and on the east coast of Florida, they’re really going to have to continue working over the next few days to try to get the water pumped off the groves. There’s a lot of standing water.”
Peter Spyke, a consultant with Arapaho Citrus Management in Fort Pierce, Florida, posted a video on social media of his home grove block in standing water. It received 18 inches of rain in about 30 hours. “The entire western St. Lucie and Indian River counties look just like this,” he said.
Matt Joyner, executive vice president and chief executive officer of Florida Citrus Mutual, said he’s hearing similar reports from growers. “We are hearing of extensive flooding on the east coast,” Joyner said. “Growers are pumping water off, but it is moving slowly because there is so much and everything is saturated. I saw some photos of flooding in southeast Hardee County and talked to a few growers in Highlands County that experienced flooding as well, but most of that seems to have moved off fairly quickly versus the standing water on the Indian River area.”
Share this Post