Hurricanes
Hurricanes pose grave threats to citrus growers for a variety of reasons. High winds can damage trees and rip fruit from branches before it ripens, destroying entire crops. The flooding of groves which are oftentimes located on the edges of lakes and rivers can drown foliage and, combined with wind, uproot trees. When three major hurricanes made landfall on Florida in 2004, crop production decreased by nearly 50% from the previous year, from 291 to 169 million boxes of citrus. The following year, production remained at a twenty-year historic low after Hurricane Wilma made landfall in Naples and swept through the orange-growing regions of the state.
