Hi,
I am in Myrtle Beach, SC, and we got TS Hanna the next week after Gustav. Fortunately, it veered north and mostly missed our county and moved quickly. Like you, I have a lot of potted plants. My arm is still hurting from all the lifting I did getting stuff out of the yard (we thought we were going to be on the strong side of the eye).

Thankfully, you weren't hurt. The photo of the limb through the refrigerator is something else!

Good luck with the clean up, and let's hope we won't have any more this year. My heart truly goes out to Texas. It looks terrible.

Mike in SC

Mike, I feel for those in Texas and SW Louisiana too. The National Guard has rescued 590 stranded people in SW Louisiana yesterday who were in "shelter in place" areas but unexpectedly ended up with extremely heavy wind and flooding. SW Louisiana got the dirty side of the storm, and it seems that much of the water from the storm surge that didn't materialize in Galveston (they got 13 feet as opposed to the expected 20+ feet) ended up over SW Louisiana. The result is more catastrophic for them than Hurricane Rita was!

I have several friends in Houston who weathered the storm... Aileen is in Baytown, 2 blocks from the bay, and didn't get water. Ann is in Seabrook about 5 blocks from the Dairy Queen that they showed underwater on Fox, but she also didn't get any water in her house. Jason's family is in Spring, and they said they didn't experience much wind, but had plenty of rain. The power is already restored in parts of Clear Lake, so I think perhaps the damage is fairly manageable, especially considering worst case scenario! With all the media attention, I anticipate they will recover quickly. Galveston, however, is a different story. The island resembles the Mississippi Gulf Coast post-Katrina.

Hope you faired better than I did. I live in Broadmoor. We had lots of damage also and were without power for two weeks. My iris beds were displaced by a bulldozer that removed a 50 foot cherry oak from our backyard. The good news is they are coming back and I had a chance to make lots of new beds of roses and irises.

Brhgm, I live probably four blocks from you... just off Goodwood in Sherwood. We faired well compared to our neighbors. You know a storm was bad when you can have thousands of dollars in damage and call yourself "lucky"!!! With the hurricane deductible, we're all going to be hurting for a while after repairs I think. We lost our fence and quite a few plants in the back. The front came out alright... some snapped stems, trunks and branches, but all replaceable. We're not really in a position to buy a new fence right now, but with a pool, we need to get one up as soon as possible. We are very grateful that our huge oak survived; so many got trees in their homes. Our power was out about the same amount of time. Without a generator, it was miserable.

I'm glad your plants are making a return. We're working on new beds too. Do you grow bearded iris or Louisiana iris here? I would LOVE to know all your tricks for healthy beardeds, if that's what you're growing. I've had a hard time finding anyone else growing them here at all. I'm friends with people at Clegg's and Naylor's and they were very discouraging about the possibility for success, but I jumped in with both feet anyway!

I grow Louisianas, African Irises, Walking Iris and Pseudacorus. As far as I know there are a few varieties that people in Arkansas grow that will work here, but most of the bearded don't like our climate. I have a few rhizomes of a giant blue Louisiana for trade. The iris/daylily specialist at the BREC Botantical garden agrees with the people at Cleggs and Naylors. Good Luck. I would love to grow bearded irises myself.

Brhgm... yep, I know the BREC iris specialist agrees with Cleggs and Naylors... but if you are referring to the same woman I spoke with, you will find she hasn't tried to grow beardeds here herself. That's what I found with most of the people who offered an opinion. They all said "I've heard..." but had no actual experience with them. I grew Cliffs of Dover quite successfully for many years, so I am sure that some cultivars will be tough enough to thrive here. I just have to find which ones! Once they've been growing a while, come on down the street and see what's working for me. If things progress well, as I hope, then in a few years I'll have some bearded rhizomes to share with you, neighbor! Ev =)