MIAMI HERALD September 11, 2004 CENTRAL FLORIDA
PIERSON - Antonio Ramos climbed over thick oak branches downed by Hurricane Frances in a field of ferns exposed to the sun's withering rays. He stooped down every step or so to cut the base of a fern stem with his orange-handled clippers. ''There's not too much left to save,'' said Ramos, a 49-year-old field worker. Frances, along with Hurricane Charley three weeks earlier, caused an estimated $450 million to $600 million damage to nursery and greenhouse products, which have become the state's largest cash crop worth about $1.5 billion annually. Nowhere has that loss been felt more than in Pierson, a tiny farming town of fewer than 3,000 people 50 miles north of Orlando. It bills itself as ``The Fern Capital of the World.'' A CRUSHING BLOW The town is surrounded by fields of ferns, many protected on all sides by tentlike nylon coverings. The hurricanes shredded the coverings, which now blow in breezes like ripped curtains, exposing the shade-loving plants to the sun's harsh rays. Open fields of ferns were littered with downed tree limbs that crushed the plants. Many of the area's hundreds of fern cutters, already battered by damaged homes and no electricity, now face the prospect of having no work for up to two months. Aid has been slow to arrive in this remote agricultural community, adding to the woes of the community where two-thirds of the population is Hispanic. ''We're a group that receives the least help, always,'' said fern cutter Catolino Frias, president of the Farmworker Association of Florida. With electricity out in this section of Volusia County, the nearest open grocery store is about 25 miles away. Many of the fern cutters don't have cars, and if they do, they don't have enough gasoline to make it to the store because almost every station in the area is closed. ''We need milk for the children, water, Pampers. We don't have any food,'' said Claudia Rivera, holding her 8-month-old son, Josael in her arms. ``It has been three days since he had milk.'' The first Salvation Army delivery was made Thursday, four days after Hurricane Frances passed through the area. But it was limited to baby food, diapers and bottles of fruit juice. WAITING FOR A HAND ''We're such a small city . . . that we really don't have much of a voice,'' said Ruth McBride, a volunteer for Pierson's emergency management operations who was helping distribute the Salvation Army supplies. ``We're in such dire need.'' Tirso Moreno, executive director of the Farmworker Association of Florida, said he had called officials in Tallahassee for help earlier in the week and was told, ``Help is on the way.'' But significant help had yet to arrive. ''Nobody is coming up here to check on people,'' Moreno said. ``I understand there is need everywhere. But they have priorities, and apparently we aren't one of them.'' As many as two-thirds of the Pierson area's $95 million fern industry may have been ruined, said David Griffis, director of University of Florida cooperative extension service in Volusia County. A DELAYED HARVEST Ferns that eventually would have found their way into bouquets of roses or on restaurant tables will now have to be mowed down so they can be replanted. It will take about 45 days after replanting for the ferns to be ready for harvest. Growers whose ferns can be picked this week are facing another problem: lack of refrigeration. The ferns must be placed in cool temperature, but the lack of electricity in the area has made that impossible. ''This may put a lot of people out of business,'' Griffis said. ``A lot of people may not have the financial resources to get back in the business.'' America Albarran, a 32-year-old fern cutter with five children, said that because of the hurricane damage, she only expected to be earning $25 a day in the next few weeks, instead of her usual pay of $100 a day. She clipped ferns under an expansive black-nylon tent and wrapped a dozen in rubber bands, wearing boots and a blue plastic smock over her pink shirt. She said food and patience were wearing thin. ''The kids are getting tired of eating tuna,'' she said. ``We're stretching the food as much as we can.''
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