This excerpt by Professor John Ball from an International Society of Arboriculture publication describes the damage that hurricane cutting causes.  Quoted by permission from the ISA.

PALMS: NOT JUST FOR THE TROPICS.
Arborist News. February 2005: p15.  © ISA.  

Removing dead foliage is not as controversial as the argument regarding how much live foliage to prune from a palm.  The "hurricane cut" on palms is as controversial as the practice of topping is for many other trees.  Just as communities have become designated as "no-topping zones", some communities also have ordinances prohibiting the practice of hurricane cuts.

The hurricane cut removes all the fronds, dead and alive, up to a 45-degree angle.  The loss of live foliage, whether on a palm or a pine, can have dire consequences and should not be undertaken without a clear understanding of the potential risks and benefits.  Removing live foliage can starve a tree, reducing its photosynthetic capacity to support critical functions such as growth, storage, and defense.  Excessive pruning can become a contributing factor in the decline and eventual death of any tree -- palm, pine or plane tree.  While this fact alone is reason to avoid unnecessary pruning of live foliage, there is another reason why not to heavily prune palms.

Palm foliage is concentrated in a small area adjacent to the single apical meristem.  Few palm species have foliage extending farther down the trunk for any appreciable distance.  As mentioned previously, palm trunks expand only for a brief time period, after which further diameter growth is essentially nonexistent.  Removing too much live foliage during a season can significantly reduce trunk expansion during that same time period.  Hurricane cuts can remove so much foliage that the trunk becomes constricted and a potential weak point.  Trees that have been severely pruned for a time and then left to grow have an hourglass figure; this constriction can snap off in high winds.

ISA website:  http://www.isa-arbor.com/home.aspx

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