After the Storm: Recovering a Lawn and Landscape

After a tropical system the visible damage is debris and broken limbs. The damage that actually matters to a lawn is usually the water.

Standing water first

Turf can survive being submerged briefly. Extended submersion suffocates roots — the soil goes anaerobic, the roots cannot respire, and the lawn dies from below while looking green from above for a few days.

• Get water moving off as soon as it is safe. Clear blocked drains, cut a channel where one is needed, and note where it pooled — that is a drainage problem to address properly later.
• Stay off saturated turf. Walking and especially driving on waterlogged soil compacts it severely, and that compaction outlasts the flood by years.
• Do not fertilize immediately. A stressed, oxygen-starved root system cannot use it, and nutrients on saturated ground run straight off into the watershed.

Debris

Get leaf litter and debris off the turf reasonably quickly. A thick mat of wet organic material excludes light and holds moisture against the grass, and in Florida heat that becomes a fungal problem within days.

Take care with heavy equipment on soft ground for the compaction reason above.

Salt, on the coast

Storm surge puts salt into soil, and salt in soil interferes with water uptake — the lawn is drought-stressed while standing in moisture. Where there is drainage, prolonged flushing with fresh water can leach it down below the root zone. Where drainage is poor, it is a much harder problem.

Trees

Damaged trees are the actual hazard. Hanging limbs, split unions and root plates that have lifted are all things to deal with before cosmetic work. A root plate that has moved can go the rest of the way with no further wind.

Leaning trees that were not leaning before are a specific warning. So is soil heaved or cracked on one side of a trunk.

What recovers on its own

A surprising amount. Turf that was briefly submerged, wind-flattened but rooted grass, and stripped foliage on established shrubs frequently come back with time and without intervention.

Resist the urge to replant immediately. Give it a few weeks and see what comes back — replacing plants that would have recovered is a common and avoidable expense.