Snow, sleet and frozen rain damaged a year’s worth of South Carolina timber harvest last month, making it the most damaging storm in the region since 1989, officials reported.
About 11% of the forestland was significantly affected by the pre-Valentine’s Day storm, which left an inch of ice across half of the state. Though most of the $360 million in damage was considered “light” by the South Carolina Forestry Commission because some of it could be salvaged, the agency declared a disaster and called on timber companies Wednesday to save as much as they could.
The rest of the South also felt the wrath of the storm, which shut down schools and businesses and snarled traffic from Feb. 10-13.
The storm claimed about $65 million worth of timber in Georgia, the state’s Forestry Commission said last week. Among casualties there was the famous Eisenhower Tree, a pine on the Augusta National golf course that was said to have repeatedly caught the former president’s tee shots.
Other states have yet to report forestry damage figures. In South Carolina, the storm was the worst since 1989’s Hurricane Hugo, which wrecked 2.5 years worth of timber in a night. Foresters ended up salvaging 15% of the timber and recovering about 10% of its value, South Carolina State Forester Gene Kodama said.
From the Los Angeles Times: https://www.latimes.com/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-ice-storm-south-carolina-timber-damage-20140305,0,4891837.story#axzz2vHv2tuU5