Here is an edited version of an email I received from Dr Chris Landsea at the Hurricane Research Division.
----- Original Message -----
Date: Tuesday, June 29, 2004 10:19 pm
Subject: Rain and Wind prior to Landfall

> I'm curious as to whether
> the amount
> of rainfall, prior to a tropical cyclone's landfall, effects the
> type and
> amount of trees that succumb to the wind field.

Yes, if the hurricane is preceeded by wet conditions in the days
or weeks before the storm's landfall, the impact and trees lost
is much worse. This happened last year in Virginia and Maryland,
as it was quite wet during the summer, then hurricane Isabel's
landfall leveled thousands of trees. It is certain that the amount
lost were much more because of the preconditioned wet soil.

best regards,
chris
***********************************************************************
Chris Landsea
NOAA AOML/Hurricane Research Division