Alexi:
Yes, that was a mamey that was along side of my shadehouse that collapsed under the weight of the portable bleecher sections that blew over from the school. The mamey was actually a seedling that had green sapote grafted on a portion of it. The entire tree died shortly after this video was taken as the result of being partially uprooted. As far as the ficus trees, mine are not the standard South Florida ficus with the very dense canopies that are extremely top heavy and blow over every storm. I had one of those, but it blew over in Hurricane Andrew, years before. These two that I have left in the front yard have very open habits as far as canopies go. The winds mostly blew through them and just took off some major limbs and branches without uprooting the tree.
Murahilin:
Yes, under those bleechers was a mangosteen tree that I had grown from seed. It was planted in around 1995 and was about 8 feet tall (counting the pot). The trunk had grown to about an inch in diameter. It had never flowered but I lament the fact that it might have within a year or two. I kick myself to this day for not bringing it into the house or garage prior to the storm. I do have some videos of my yard that were taken over the years, but most of these were taken when my trees were very young and I was documenting every new leaf . I don't think I have any of the yard just before the storm hit.
JF:
There were some trees that just lost leaves and no branches. They were few and far between. Most of my mango trees just fell over one on top of the other. My large Brewster lychee was pretty well intact other than leaf loss. It was the largest of my trees that fared well in the winds.
Thanks to everyone else for the consoling comments. It was a very difficult time. It took over a month to hat rack every tree that was down, pull it with a car back into upright or as near to upright position that I could. There was virtually no fruit for two years thereafter. I totally got away from the hobby during that time....taking up chess to fill my time. Then in the thrid year....fruit started returning and in 2009, the hobby was back in full swing. I posted for the first time on garden Web in fall of 2009.
Harry