Florida High

摘要

Last August, when Hurricane Charley swept across Florida, one place it struck was the Lake Wales Ridge, an elevated region that runs like a spine down the center of the peninsula. About a hundred miles long and ranging between four and ten miles wide, the ridge reaches its highest point—about 310 feet above sea level—near its northern end. According to Hilary Swain, executive director of the Archbold Biological Station, near the south end of the ridge, many seventy- or eighty-year-old sand pines were snapped in half, and some bay trees were blown over, exposing their root balls. Further pummeled in September 2004 by hurricanes Frances and Jeanne, the area was extensively flooded, and in open areas the wind piled up sand into small dunes. But as devastating as the storms were to Florida's residents, nature survived her own onslaughts.