Hi - this is Lisa P. from Pass Christian, writing from my Camille-Katrina-Gustav-tested home complete with electricity, restored by our fantastic power company last night. (MS Power rocks!) Mike - so sorry to hear about the 20 hour trip. What a nightmare. But I hope your home is okay. Let me know when you get back home. We had only 60 mph gusts here, but they went on for about 6-8 hours. Small trees and large limbs are down and some minor issues, but overall we are fine. I have family that lives in Slidell and St. Bernard - all evacuated so are safe, and I'm hoping that none flooded, but we don't know yet for sure. We may have a house full of people later today as they drive here and wait to get back home. General update from the local news: Some of the worst storm surge hit Hancock County in Miss, which unfortunately was also the worse surge area in Katrina, so there are a lot of folks who got hit again. The emotional toll is going to be heavy. The just rebuilt harbor area here is a wreck. I don't know about the city services (which are still in trailers) yet but we are going to drive to town in a little while to check on a friend's place. Pass Christian, Waveland, Bay St. Louis, and Pearlington all got hit pretty bad. Pearlington had a report of a 19 ft. storm surge, but I think that may be exagerated. It was more likely 14-16 ft. but that is bad enough to wipe them out. A friend from the Bay reported a nearly 11 ft. surge at his place about 1/2 mile from the Bay. He is a scientist and probably has that pretty accurate. Power is coming back pretty quickly to places that didn't flood. I don't know what is going to happen here when so many people who have barely recovered have now flooded again. We are lucky - I joked with my husband that after only about a day of yard clean-up, we could get back to our normal Katrina repairs. But the truth is it isn't really a joke. We still aren't back to normal yet, but that isn't unusual if you flooded in Katrina. Slidell, New Orleans, and St. Bernard - reports are that there is still flooding in low lying areas of Slidell (Palm Harbor), but it is isolated. Several friends on the east side of Slidell - Cross Gates, Quail Ridge, have power and did not flood. The surge may have been as high as 9-10 ft. on the most southwestern part of Slidell, where one friend has a ft. of water in her yard. The storm moved fast enough that water didn't pile up in Lake Pontchartrain as it could have. They are saying the sewerage system in Slidell is out. Reports are the the levees in New Orleans and St. Bernard held although water was at the top of the Industrial Canal levee at the 9th ward. A couple of levee leaks in St. Bernard (one right near my sister's house) were plugged and prevented flooding. One report said that near Paris Road and St. Bernard highway did not have water. Terrebone Parish (Houma area, Brian lives there I think he might have flooded) flooded pretty bad, but I am hearing very little details about the damage. They had 10-12 ft. storm surge. Gustav was a high cat 4 storm with a bad surge predicted for LA and MS we were expecting a lot of damage. It went down to a 3 and even a 2 at landfall, but still had a solid 3 storm surge. It could have been much much worse that it is, but it is still bad enough, especially for the folks who got whacked by Katrina. This was nothing like Katrina, but it's harder than it would be if Katrina hadn't happened. Regarding the question of 'Why don't ya'll just move if you live in a flood-prone area?' I can say that personally, my husband and I moved from LA to MS where there is some high ground, and we did choose someplace that was never expected to flood at 23-25 ft. elevation. Well, it flooded in Katrina anyway, and nobody ever thought that could happen. Now if we want to move, we can't afford to. Insurance is so expensive here that nobody will buy your house. Some places can't get insurance. Also, our town isn't the most attractive place to live right now and probably won't be for decades. So unless we want to take a huge financial loss and sell our house for practically nothing, we are stuck. That is true for many people in the towns that got wiped out by Katrina. Who wants to move to a town with no grocery or pharmacy, trailers for city buildings, beat-up trees, perpetual road construction, and unaffordable insurance? Actually the people here are great and we have some beautiful areas so it has its good points, but outsiders won't necessarily know that and want to come here. I think more people who flooded are going to move away now, and that is going to make things even worse. The other reason, and perhaps the main reason people don't up and move away is that nearly all of New Orleans, St. Bernard, and Slidell are in flood-prone areas, at least for a bad hurricane, so unless you leave town, you can't get away. And people don't want to leave their hometowns where they work and have family and friends. I live within a hour of my 2 sisters, and I won't move away from them, so unless we all decide to move together, and we all get new jobs somewhere else, we can't leave without breaking up the family. It's unfortunate that cities got built in flood-prone areas, but way back when, people didn't have the knowledge they have now about oceanography and weather to help choose places to settle. Also, the terrible destruction of our wetlands and barrier islands due to decades of oil canals being dug, and the levees built along the Miss River stopping sediment flow have contributed to the flooding problem. As Mike said, New Orleans is sinking due to the Miss levees, but it is still an important city. Sorry to ramble, but I want to try to explain that it isn't as simple as it seems from the outside. New Orleans, St. Bernard, and St. Tammany are telling people not to come back home - that you will be prevented from going home even if you have electric and your home is fine. That is creating a lot of problems. Also, schools in all those areas are going to be closed until Monday, or at least that is the latest I've heard. Hope this is useful to somebody. Thank you all my friends for your concern for me and everyone down here. It means a great deal to me. I'm fine, my family is safe, and more importantly, my roses are mostly okay. Let's hope to hear from Brian, and Mike again soon. Lisa

Just a quick climate check tells me that even coastal Virginia can go down into the twenties. Better pick a hardy variety, and hope for the best if planted in-ground. Are containerized fig trees an option? Store them in an unheated garage, in the colder months, then roll them out to grow in the warmer weather. Easy, if the containers are on dollies. I'm sure fig growers who live in the "Old Dominion" will be posting some information about your fig-growing endeavors. Hope this may help. Frank, from The Bronx, NYC PS...Call up some local nurseries in the area in which you think you might relocate, and ask what varieties grow well in that specific area. I'm sure you will have plenty of choices. I grow "ATREANO", and I am almost certain that this fig will do well in Virginia too.

So far, found Cosmos where they make a Chicken Roulade, described as "twin bacon wrapped chicken breasts stuffed with asparagus & gruyere cheese, lightly sauteed and finished in the oven. Served with our house risotto and a sage & leak cream sauce" in case mom doesn't want seafood. Yea right. And Cobalt where they have a seafood pizza topped with "layers of bay shrimp, scallops, sweet blue crab, bells peppers, onions & asparagus on a saffron crust with three chesse alfredo sauce and fresh grated Parmesan." Yum. Can't wait. As you can see, I'm only through the Cs! And if I wasn't in the mood to eat, I could head a few miles down the road and toss a mullet. "And Perdido Key is the last island in the long chain.. the best beach bar in the Gulf with its myriad activities both inside and out. Jimmy Buffet has been here as have many other big names. The seafood is good and cheap, and the booze couldn't flow faster from a fire hose. While I was sitting on the deck, three people skydived down beside me, and the bartender had their favorite beer waiting for them. Now that's service! Another interesting and rather unusual activity is the annual mullet tossing competition; locals talk about how much fun it is to see how far you can throw a dead fish." Here is a link that might be useful: Mullet tossing

Your gulf coast is similar to my subtropical Florida - u wanna purchase tubers mail order. Check out the Georgia dahlia society ! they have a page u will be directed to that lists all heat tolerant varieties- also, investing in a shade cloth will help too or some afternoon shade. I've been gardening a while but this yr I went crazy & bought & planted 42 tubers from personal sellers on eBay- Amazon & Etsy & also from swan island dahlias & a few other reputable dahlia nurseries. This is my first yr of "seriously" growing dahlias. So far kelvin floodlight, Steve meggos- kids climax - zorro & a few others are growing faster than the other heat tolerant ines but plz stick to heat tolerant varieties- it'll give u a better chance of success. My friend lives in Houston & planted a bunch of tubers last yr & had some over winter & grow well into the summer but they're finally taking a beating from heat & insects. If u don't hurry it not going to have much time for fall blooms bc they take 3 mo to flower from planting the tuber. Also, online there's a couple websites that list other heat tolerant varieties that aren't on the GA dahlia list. Good luck ! :)