1.25 inches. The first this month. The big dead trees are going to be firewood; it's too late for many of our oaks. But other parts of our vallies got none. The museum of appalachia got less than a tenth. And they need it and they aren't that far away. Same with Dollywood. Our beautiful mountains deflect the clouds, dang it. And I've just finished sending "the guest rooms are ready" notes to my friends in NOLA. Does anybody know how high the Mississippi is right now? What saved the city river-ward in Katrina was that the river was so low that the storm surge didn't breach the river levees.

Sorry about Earl and I hope other NE N.American gardeners didn't suffer much damage. I had a plant blow down and break below ground level in heavy wind/rain one year and the tubers were just fine left under mulch until I dug those and the rest in October/November. I'm still growing the offspring from the plant today. It may send up sprigs of growth, but by now, you should have mature enough tubers underground to survive storage and regrow next year. I can't remember if I cut off the sprigs or let them grow a few weeks. Someone else can advise you there. I'm thinking keep the energy in the tuber and cut off any new growth.

Jan, in what area in Melbourne are you located? We are just north of Melbourne, in an unincorporated area at the Pineda Causeway and Wickham Road. We are fine, but the intersection was flooded this afternoon, so no one could get in our out of the subdivision. My siblings in Malabar and Palm Bay are fine, except the one in Palm Bay has a saturated septic system, can't flush the toilets. One friend in the Eau Gallie area of Melbourne has water in their house. Haven't heard from them since this morning. So far I haven't had too many problems with my 4 pooches and potty breaks. I go outside and check for snakes and other critters. Then I go inside and run them through the length of the house. Well, actually they run and I walk. We make a big game of it and by that time they don't care that it's raining outside. This is a relief (pun intended), because I had problems with them during the 2005 hurricane. If there had been any advance notice that we were going to have such prolonged rain, I would have bought some sod at HD. Then I could have put it on some plastic in the garage & we all wouldn't have gotten sopping wet for 2 days now. Patrick AFB is near here and as of 1am Thurday, it's had 21 inches of rain. A subdivision south of here (Wickham and Post Rds has had around 25 or 28 inches. They expect that we may get up to another 8 inches on Thursday. It's ironic about not knowing about the lingering rain. Next door neighbor on one side of me is a meteorologist; on the other side is one of the heads of the Cape, and they didn't know. The meteorologist is fascinated on how the storm is not fitting the computer models. I'm not interested, just hope it goes away so people get relief from all of the flooding. Good luck to all who are in Fay's path, or have been.

I agree with you on the rain part...that is what I am hoping for also, that it will just bring some "steady" rain. I live in highlands county just north of Lake Placid, even though L.Placid has been getting more than their share of rain, it has been missing us almost comepletely! Since the beginning of Aug. my backyard has seen less than 1" of rain. It was the same for June and July, we have been shy of our normal rainfall, we are still in a deficit especially in my yard, LOL..If the strong winds would stay away and just give us a "few" inches of rain that would be ideal. I have small young fruit trees that I am worried about blowing down, :o( Hope everyone stays SAFE and hope this turns out only to be a rainmaker...not Flood...just good old soaking rain!!