Hurricanes

Houstonian.jpg

Hurricane Rita begins to hit Houston, Texas backyard in 2005.

Credit: Flickr's Houstonian

Hurricanes are a very real threat to forests. In the fall of 2005, Hurricanes Katrina and Rita damaged more than 5.5 million acres of woodland in Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. In Mississippi alone, estimates put the number of trees damaged by Hurricane Katrina at 521 million and the number killed at 54 million, 45 percent of which were loblolly pines. It also damaged longleaf pines and hardwoods such as oaks and pecans.

In this section, you’ll learn how a hurricane impacts woodlands, what to do when a hurricane strikes and how to limit storm damage.