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American Morning
Record Cold Hitting Citrus Industry
Aired January 24, 2003 - 08:14 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JONATHAN KARL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The record cold is hitting the citrus industry especially hard down in Florida, where growers are scrambling to get that fruit off the trees to save it before it gets frozen.
And John Zarrella has been down there talking to the citrus growth rates.
He joins us live from a citrus grove in Immokalee -- is that the correct way to pronounce Immokalee?
JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You get it right on the head. That's right, Jonathan, Immokalee. And I know the folks up in the North will probably look at me and say boy, it's not all that cold down there. We've been watching the thermometer for the last couple of hours and it's actually gone up above freezing again to about 34 degrees. It was down as low as 30. It bottomed out at 30 about 6:30 this morning, you know, the coldest time of the day, just before sunup.
But actually that's good news for the farmers because, and the growers here, because in order to have real citrus damage, damage to the crop, damage to the trees, you've got to get below 28 degrees sustained for four hours. Here in southwest Florida in the Immokalee area, it did not happen. We talked to one of the vice presidents of the Immokalee groves here and he was telling us we really dodged a bullet last night.
Now, 25 percent of the citrus industry, the state's citrus industry, is in this part of Florida, moved here after the devastating freezes of the early 1980s and mid-1980s that really wiped out much of the citrus industry up around the Orlando area and the Tampa area.
Now, what they've done is, if you take a real quick look down here, you can see what we've got. There are icicles on the ground and that's part of what they do to protect the citrus trees. What they've done is turn on the irrigation systems and that actually warms up the water a little bit, the earth and the environment around the trees, and throws a little warmth around it to hopefully prevent any kind of root damage, as well.
So, again, good news here in the Florida area. It looks like the citrus industry is OK.
This is John Zarrella reporting live from Immokalee, Florida.
KARL: And that is good news. Thanks a lot, John.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired January 24, 2003 - 08:14 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JONATHAN KARL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The record cold is hitting the citrus industry especially hard down in Florida, where growers are scrambling to get that fruit off the trees to save it before it gets frozen.
And John Zarrella has been down there talking to the citrus growth rates.
He joins us live from a citrus grove in Immokalee -- is that the correct way to pronounce Immokalee?
JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You get it right on the head. That's right, Jonathan, Immokalee. And I know the folks up in the North will probably look at me and say boy, it's not all that cold down there. We've been watching the thermometer for the last couple of hours and it's actually gone up above freezing again to about 34 degrees. It was down as low as 30. It bottomed out at 30 about 6:30 this morning, you know, the coldest time of the day, just before sunup.
But actually that's good news for the farmers because, and the growers here, because in order to have real citrus damage, damage to the crop, damage to the trees, you've got to get below 28 degrees sustained for four hours. Here in southwest Florida in the Immokalee area, it did not happen. We talked to one of the vice presidents of the Immokalee groves here and he was telling us we really dodged a bullet last night.
Now, 25 percent of the citrus industry, the state's citrus industry, is in this part of Florida, moved here after the devastating freezes of the early 1980s and mid-1980s that really wiped out much of the citrus industry up around the Orlando area and the Tampa area.
Now, what they've done is, if you take a real quick look down here, you can see what we've got. There are icicles on the ground and that's part of what they do to protect the citrus trees. What they've done is turn on the irrigation systems and that actually warms up the water a little bit, the earth and the environment around the trees, and throws a little warmth around it to hopefully prevent any kind of root damage, as well.
So, again, good news here in the Florida area. It looks like the citrus industry is OK.
This is John Zarrella reporting live from Immokalee, Florida.
KARL: And that is good news. Thanks a lot, John.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
