PIERSON, Fla. – Large amounts of hail were recorded in Sunday night’s severe weather causing damage to structures, cars, and some farms.
One fernery in Volusia County said it wiped out nearly 50 acres of their plants just weeks before their busiest day of the year.
“It just crushed everything completely down,” said owner Stacy Jones.
Jones, the owner of Ronald Jones Ferneries, said his family walked out to what looked like a snowstorm that went through Pierson on Sunday night. In reality, though, he said it was layers and layers of hail sitting on top of their ferns.
“This fernery is usually 10 to 11 feet tall in height and now it is two feet off the ground,” he said.
Jones said they were just gearing up for their busiest time of year with florists needing ferns for Valentine’s and Mother’s Day arrangements.
Now, a large part of the ferneries is not usable or reachable.
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Jones said the inch and a half rebar bent in half like a horseshoe in the storm and that’s something they haven’t seen in the 66 years they’ve been growing.
“We’ve never ever experienced anything like this — hurricanes, the storm of the century of ‘93 nothing has ever done what this did,” he said.
Making matters worse, Jones said to fix or rebuild will all have to come out of pocket. With the business also being the family’s livelihood, the next steps are something they said they still have to figure out.
“We had insurance on the structures like this for years and years and they canceled it last May actually,” Jones said. “We’re in uncharted territory. We’ve never ever seen anything like this.”
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