I'm sorry to hear that. I heard near Charlotte they had tennis-ball-sized hail and downeast they had GRAPEFRUIT-SIZED hail!!!!! I would just die if something decimated my garden 2 years in a row. Glad yours is doing well!

Seedmama, See there, I really can read your mind. Now, I hope you're taking care of yourself and not wearing yourself out too much helping everyone else. You have to save some energy in case one of the next weather monsters hits y'all too. By the way, I saw your thread on 'alerts' and agreed with every word. I like it when the severe weather threads stay high on the page long enough for everyone to see them, but there are times we need follow-up info from folks who are seeing new alerts or new developments and want to share them. It seems like a fine line to walk, doesn't it? Today, I am going to keep posting new alerts as new threads for as long as I can. It might not be all that long if the storms develop here first and move north/northeast. I have watched huge amounts of moisture stream overhead from Texas, across the Red River, above and beyond us and towards all of y'all. I don't like that. I am afraid all the Gulf moisture in the air could contribute to significant storms. It is so nice that your shelter is open to your friends and neighbors. Ours is too, but it is just one of those little in-ground ones that is about 6' x 8' so it doesn't hold huge numbers of people. I've already touched base with some of the neighbors to make sure they know they're welcome to climb into the shelter. I urged them to just come over, open the door and climb in, even if we aren't at home. I've been in the kitchen baking cookies and muffins so I'll have something to feed hungry firefighters if they go out on search/rescue/recovery missions during this round of storms, in addition to their usual fire and accident calls. Hopefully, we won't need the cookies and muffins and I can just freeze them and save them for another bad day. The earthquakes here surprised me a tiny bit when we moved here, but not a lot. We even have occasional earthquakes in parts of north central Texas, although they are less frequent than the ones in central OK. The large number of quakes the last 18 months or so in central OK does seem a tiny bit excessive. We moved here in mid-April 1999 and didn't have a tornado shelter. Then the May 3, 1999, tornado outbreak occurred and we didn't even know it. Because internet and cell service were almost nonexistent here then (later on, the addition of new cell towers fixed the cell phone issue but internet access was much slower) and local TV reception was very poor (DirectTV saved us), we didn't even know tornadoes were occurring in the OKC area until our phone starting ringing with folks from Texas calling to see if we'd been hit by tornadoes. That year, you couldn't get a tornado shelter here because of the huge demand in the OKC area, but we had a shelter put in early in 2000. Prior to this year, we probably hadn't been in that tornado shelter but maybe once or twice a year and some years not at all. We've already been in it at least 3 times this year because of storms. It does make a great root cellar too. I'm hoping none of us have to flee to the shelters today or tonight, but know it is likely some of us will. I think I am almost more afraid of the hail which they keep describing as potentially larger than baseballs than the possibility of a tornado. Neither one is a pleasant option though. I won't blame you for the earthquakes because you redeemed yourself by creating a whole new method for lasagna vegetable composing/bed building and strawberry gardening. : ) I think the genius of what you did there gives you redemption for causing the earthquakes in Oklahoma. C'mon, on a day like today, we have to find something to laugh about..... Dawn

Yes, we do grow them here, but not near as beautifully as they are grown there. I just loved the Cape, and Nantucket and the other Island. Yes, we traveled a lot, but traveling up there is a cinch. Everything is so close. It's nothing to drive up into Vermont and New Hampshire for the day. I loved Beantown. I loved Quincy Market, the Italian District on Sunday when all the vendors were out in the street marketing their wares, the swan boats in the park, just a beautiful, beautiful city. So much history. Went to Salem, drove the North Shore, and the South Shore, gorgeous in the fall and winter, it's just that winter never seems to end..... North Grafton is only 40 miles west of Boston - not that far. I used to drive to the South Shore every day to work until they moved our office to Westborough. I loved the way the roads were taken care of in the winter. Here, no one dares to drive when it snows. Nobody knows how to drive in it, and they certainly don't plow them like they do in Mass. I loved riding the subway. We just had a ball while we were there. Loved the people. I was prepared for everyone to be nasty and unkind. Not at all! Very friendly, and helpful. Much nicer than a lot of Oklahomans I've met. I was so impressed with the fact that there weren't any commercial road signs, and that they don't just mow down trees to build houses. I just can't tell you how much I loved it up there! We have the 4 seasons here, too, but winter is much shorter and the heat of summer is verrrrry long. Susan

If you removed all the hail ice and they're hardy species, they have a chance. If they are freeze resistant like some montane cacti, they may be completely fine. If the hail hit their stems or rested on the actual plant body for any period of time, there will be damage due to cell lysis from ice crystal formation. The extent of the damage is determined by how long the ice was on them. If it melted into their soil, their roots might go into shock as a result of the near-freezing water, and they may lose their roots. I'm sorry that happened to you :-(