Hi,
We're home too. Returned from Panama City Beach on Thursday night 9/15 after staying away for 18 days. The first time in my life that I evacuated. We live on the West Bank in Marrero. It's still kinda wierd around here. I hope we don't really have to worry about Rita.
Phillis
in Marrero

Last I heard Rita was more likely headed to Texas, maybe to Galveston/Houston area. That would be really something if it hit Houston when so much of New Orleans is over there. Aaackk!!!

We are mostly OK I lost my shed and it knocked over some of my roses but they maybe alright the wind was real bad all the way up here trees down everywhere on homes.But not as bad as down there I'm praying for you all.Good luck Jim

At this point, Rita's almost certainly hitting the Texas coast. In San Antonio, they just started closing some of the shelters for Katrina victims...many still open. Now they're planning to open those again for Rita victims. Another cat 4...will it never end?

And the latest I've heard is that it's coming more towards Louisiana, maybe the La/Tex border. Here in Lafayette they were predicting 60-90 mph winds and lots of rain just because it's such a huge storm, and of course 'cause we're on the wrong side of it. We need rain, but could probably manage without 10-20 inches! The yard will look much better I think afterwards, unless we have a lot of branches and stuff. I probably will get out there and pick up smaller pots and stuff. When Lili came through I left my hanging baskets in the trees and they were just fine, tho' swinging wildly for awhile. This is unheard of, I understand, to have so many storms, such big storms--two Cat 5 in the Gulf in one month! And more than a month to go in hurricane season. Maybe this one will mix up the waters enough they won't be so warm, and some of the pollution from Katrina will be spread out and mixed up and aerated. Gotta be something good out of it, hmm?

I'm in the northeast part of Mississippi. Arbor holding my George Ots Clematis fell over breaking the stalk a few inches above the ground. Flooded both watergarden ponds but all fish still accounted for. Wish everyone faired the storms as well as I.

Plumcrazy

rita hit lake charles and really killed trees. haven't been home yet but heard my house is intact. A tree is down, car is messed up and plants gone. i do think we have a hex on this poor state.

Lake Charles was hit pretty hard lots of tree damage! I drove through last Thursday. It is hard to get in you can to find a way in through the south. As far as I know there are no check points on Gulf Hwy. I live in Grand Lake in Cameron Parish. There are several check points but residents can get in through Hackets corner. Its really a mess! Most houses I have seen have plywood showing on the roofs and some not even that. I looks like all the tralers exploded in a tralier park behind my Brother in laws house on 384 and several areas are still under water (as of Thursday). My house had some wind damage but no water in the house. All my plants look freeze dried. Why? Will they come back? It seems a strange thing to think about I cant even stay there now. For now Im staying in CA I hope I can return soon.
I hope everyone is ok and safe. My love and thoughts to all affected by Katrina and Rita.

Hello from Lafayette, LA. We were the fortunate ones in the middle of South Louisiana, or at least so far, as Hurricane Season is not over yet. Lili nailed us a few year ago, this time it was Katrina to our east and Rita to our west. We got 50 knot winds, but really suffered minimal damage here as compared to less fortunate areas. My greenhouse was scattered across 4 neighboring yards. I still have a 4 wheeler chained to our Parkinsonia (very special to us) after pulling it back into a vertical position. Not a lot of fun by the way since they have thorns. We lost a few small shrubs that were less than 2 years old, literally blown out of the ground, and quite a few need to be straightened and staked. No total losses of significance except maybe my beutiful 12 foot tall Hardy Orchid Tree whose trunk split at the 3 foot high leve. It has a sucker coming from the roots which may eventually replace the tree. Right now, I am watching closely for it to tell me what to do.

I had been working in New Orleans helping my professional counterpart there rebuild the IT portion of the city. Other than extensive tree loss I think most of the gardens might be OK in areas that did not get and keep water for a week or more and where the plants have a little salt tolerance. Areas where the water stayed for a while look totally dead. The trees, shrubs, and the grass are all brown both from the being under salty water and other things. Well, you have heard about the water. Let me just say nothing on TV can do justice to the reality of the situation. The smell is something I will not soon forget. Things with a lack of salt tolerance may die eventually too, even though they look OK right now. Hard to say.

Here is a link that might be useful: Gardens and Life of Keith Thibodeaux

Well, where do I begin, Katrina was really rough on us here in Covington LA. I have 77 pine/oak trees down in the yard and countless camillas, azealas. I have the new skylight look in the house, covered by the famous blue tarp. Two huge oaks on the detached garage and greenhouse. Gardens are covered in debris. NOT PRETTY. My family is all well, and very tired. Then came along Rita. Didnt think it could get worse. Fishing camp on Grand Isle is ok too.

Just got back from a seven week adventure resulting from two hurricanes chasing my company's emergency headquarters all over extreme southeast TX and all of south LA. Much luckier than others as my neighborhood in Covington didn't get too much damage (lots of tall pines down in the woods; darned sweetgum still standing in the yard -- darn it!).

Plants survived 10 days in the shed . . . turns out flooding rose into the shed and watered the plants! Laura made it back after 10 days and was a trooper at taking care of everything for me.

Dave

I'm in Covington too. Lost 19 big trees, stil have 2 left. I feel like I moved to another state. My part shade yard is now full sun everywhere. When I first saw it I said I'll never garden again, then my roses started blooming a few weeks later and I guess I'm hooked again. So I'll start over.

lalady, we only lost branches from Katrina, but opted to cut down 6 big pines yesterday. Two, maybe three, were recently struck by lightning. The others were in the way for construction of a new garden shed.

Same thing here .... partly shaded yard is now almost full sun, but I'm looking at that as a good thing. I can replant with native trees that are more urban-friendly. Pines belong in forests, not around houses. And my veggie and flower beds can now grow bigger with the increased sun exposure.

Good to hear your roses are blooming. There's always a silver lining if you look for it!

Down South, I am glad to hear Grand Isle is alright. Do not hear much about it.
In Metairie our house had a foot of water and we have no walls or floors at the moment. Overall, I think our live oak and plants did well. In the New Orleans Parks of City Park and Audubon, the live oaks did extremely well considering they sat in water for weeks. A funny and sad story--a family of swans that I had been photographing since the cygnets were born in April, disappeared from City Park after Katrina. I found them six weeks later in a lagoon in Audubon Park minus the Papa Swan and two of the five cygnets. I believe they swam down Carrolton Avenue from City Park to Audubon in the flood waters. Hopefully, one day we can bring them back to City Park where they were born.
My daughter and one son in Metairie both had water damage and my daughter had a huge water oak from her neighbor in her roof. Most of her trees were blown down, too. The winds hit very crazily and skipped some gardens and demolished others.

I too am from the Metairie area however, we were on the lucky side where there was no water damage, only wind damage. I own a landscape company which lost 60% of our clientel in the Lakeview area of New Orleans. I returned to the area under a business permit and had the credentials to enter Lakeview long before many others. What I saw there gave me goose bumps. 85% of that area had taken weeks of 3-12 feet of water. I have only a couple clients interested in rebuilding and relandscaping in these areas. To me the primary concern in refurbishing these landscapes is just how toxic is the soil in these areas. The LA cooperative extention assures me the soil is satisfactory for replanting despite weeks of stagnant brackish water. Me personally, I will taking my own soil samples and send them to independant labs for analyisis.

I live in Long Beach, in the area that is now known as "South of the Tracks". We stayed, watched the water come up to the front door and then recede. Not a lot has changed here nor will it for quite some time. People are still struggling getting adjusters out so see their property, or what's left of their property. Although you've not heard a lot about us on the national news, I can tell you that the Mississippi Gulf Coast is a pile of splinters.

The mulberries trees that survived but are blown over are now full of fruit. All kind of crazy stuff. Seeds have come up everywhere. One of my neighbors who was an avid gardner had her seed shed scattered and her seeds are coming up two streets over. You wouldn't believe the assorment; sunflowers, millions of mustard, spotted exotic watermelon, cantaloupes, cucmbers and now dill. Images of her garden coming up in demolished houses, cars, and various types of debris will stick with me forever. Got some great pics of it.
I am very concerned about the live oaks on hwy. 90-the end of my street. The oaks on the street are leafing out but those on 90 sat in so much salt water and then we didn't have rain for over two months, does anyone know about the old oaks? They are putting on some leaves but few. On my many walks I've checked out the one at Gulf Park and it looks ok also. But, those on 90 look rough.

Dogpooponshoes, glad to hear you're ok. Only area of US 90 I've been able to get to so far is by the Bay St Louis/Pass Christian bridge. Of course the bridge is gone. And looks like pretty much every thing for 3 blocks in from the bay is gone or nearly.

I'm up in Diamondhead. Fortunately above the storm surge. Am making a futile attempt to protect what's left of the garden from the roofers, fence people, tree cutters. They survived the storm but many are not expected to survive the recovery. (I have a small prince sago, the tree cutter ran over it with a large bucket truck. Survived that. And I'm not sure what the fence people did to it. But it looks a lot worse now. (And I'm not sure where to find another one. Will wait to see if it sends up new growth next spring. Guess I was lucky enough and far enough alone to begin thinking of what to do with the garde. (Replace the magnolia with a few mature palms perhaps. And spend some time going through the Pensacola nurseries this weekend.

I did drive down Beatline. The Beatline nursery. The building looked ok. But everything was dead.
The oaks weren't the only ones to take a hit. The pines along I-10 look about dead. As you pointed out. There was pretty much of a drought after Katrina. So there wasn't anyting to wash the salt out. Judging from the high water mark on the Kiln/Waveland interchange. The area was covered by about 15 feet of gulf water.

Here is a link that might be useful: Mississippi coast

Does anyone know how to propogate what the old folks called the "sand pear"? There's one around here that looks in pretty bad shape and it will probably be taken out by the owner. Loved those as a kid with their grainy,sugary taste. Would like to espalier it on my new post-Katrina fence that is now in full sun.

Hi everyone,
I haven't been on this forum in a long while.
Just to check in and let everyone know I am ok, Just to let everyone know that although I am only about 200 feet from the gulf, we are ok. we stayed for the storm, and like so many others watched the water come right up to our door, 6 feet waves coming down the street, and then, it just went down as quickly as it came in. No water here for 4 weeks just about wiped most everything else out that the salt water didn't. My queen palms are ok, gingers, mostly gone, bromeliads,blew away, hibiscus are ok, alot of my ee's are gone. But, I'm still here and that's all that matters!!
Janet

Hey Eveyone

I lived in Chalmette. The storm covered our house with 13 feet of the nastiest, salty, slop you can possibly imagine. The water stayed for 14 days or so and left behind 2 feet of horrible slop in our house. I cannot find one plant that survived. We had hundreds of beautiful plants. Everything gone!

We've since had the house gutted and are waiting for government officials to decide if we will be allowed to rebuild our lives in the same location.

We are now living in Metairie and just found out that if the 17th street canal levee had broken on the other side that, where I live right now would've had 12 feet of water right here.

It looks as though events are conspiring to make me a South Carolina gardener now. I miss the tropicals already.

I moved from Covington to Slidell one month before the storm. House (not quite finished construction when Katrina hit) got 2 feet. I'm still not in it. All our belongings washed away. All my plants survived because they were all in pots at my brother's house in Abita Springs while we moved. At least I have that!!!! I have to wait one more month before I get my plants in the ground and I cannot wait. I miss gardening terribly. I think I look most forward to that.

Sorry for everyone's loss.
Bigoledude from Chalmette, I'm so sorry for your loss. I lived on Gallo after I got married and LOVED Chalmette.

I hadn't been around gardenweb for almost a year. Good to be around and even started trading again.

Anyone notice that the palm trees, azaleas and iris still look beautiful after being flooded? Even palm trees in Chalmette look absolutely gorgeous. Hmmm, I know what to plant now!

Yes,

Time to heal. If we look at the positive, things will get better. Losing many trees will open the understory to sunlight and new growth. My peach trees are looking fantastic eventhough they got leaned over by the winds.

I now realize that I didn't need half the junk I owned before the storm. I have a new truck and all the clothes in my closet fit now.

The travel trailer I bought to live in will one day become part of my vacation travels.

We spend more time at the farm so the garden looks better and the dog gets to run more.

I appreciate the inherent goodness of people now more than ever.

Just my two cents.

I lost contact with "patris_gw" in 2005. Never heard from her again after Katrina. :(

I was going thru my recipes and found one I got from her about oven-DRYING Tomatoes, a wonderful recipe I have used whenever I get a bumper crop of small tomatoes.

I pray she is okay.