Palm trees in Fort Myers removed due to storm

Humans weren’t the only ones impacted by Hurricane Milton. Vegetation, such as palm trees, felt it, too. Workers on McGregor Boulevard were seen on Friday removing some of the famous trees lining the road.

We found some workers on McGregor with a crane pulling a palm tree right out of the ground. We asked if this was just another result of Milton, and they told us yes.

“There was an evaluation done right after the hurricane. We determined that there were 14 or 15 trees that needed to be removed due to age, size, the degree of tilt on ’em,” said Bryan San Souci, City of Fort Myers park and recreation worker.

He said their endgame is replacements.

While these palm trees are now dead or too dangerous to stay, Debby Hughes from the estates told us it’s normal.

“It’s always sad to lose a tree or a palm, either one, and they’re gonna, as they get older, they do fall; they’ve had a program to replace them all the time anyway,” Debby Hughes, senior horticulturist at the Edison and Ford Winter Estates.

The last ones that need to go stand temporarily marked with orange string. And the ones that were chopped up are in a lot at the City of Palms Park.

The City of Fort Myers workers told us they are coming back Monday to finish removing the rest of the marked palm trees. We have not gotten word on when the replacements will take root just yet.