Maryl - So when you saw Midnight Castle and When Royals Dream almost together, which did you like best. I've always thought When Royals Dream looked like a fabulous purple too. When the heat index is 100, SC Francis Busby fades a bit. It is very bright in the "red bed." With scape blast and one of the Julie Newmar seedlings taking over the seedling bed and robbing the others of shade, I can't get accurate stats on Valentine Sweetheart. At this point, VS has better increase and reliable rebloom but a bud count of only 8-9. The sib has developed rebloom and has a bud count of 14. Since they do have differences - one with the gold edge and the other with the white, I might end up introducing both of them as some point. VS had one fabulous scape developing before the blast, and I thought it was going to develop the lateral branching. Because of the rain wave followed by the heat wave, I could not risk moving VS to the new evaluation bed I made. If I ever get than one in good soil and enough sunlight, we will see what she can do. Both are shorter than I would like - 24 inches tall.

If the tree is sprouting from the base only, it most likely froze to the ground. The top part is probably dead. You can select a new trunk from the sprouts at the base and grow a new tree. The trees roots and root flare at the base of the trunk are supposed to be at the surface, not buried a foot below ground.

Call a roofer. You have a roof leak. It actually has an appearance of having gotten wet once or more before, until this time, the plaster fell out.

The premise and title of the linked article relate to "evacuation being impossible". I haven't heard of any such reports but do you know, were any of the fatalities people who died while complying in a timely manner with evacuation orders? "Government culpability", to the extent there is any, isn't responsible for weather phenomena. It would be a challenge to name many, if any, states or local governmental entities to hold up as examples of high-level performance and achievement. In the end, the effectiveness of laws and policies depend on the actions of competence of elected officials, to enact needed laws, and the work of governmental employees to carry out their needed functions. Not enough of them are as capable as their jobs require. I think everywhere has examples of government dysfunctionality leaving people without infrastructure and services they expect and need. It's certainly true where I live. At other times, the forces of natural phenomena create problems beyond what may have been expected. (Remember the Loma Prieta Earthquake in 1989? A whole section of the top level of the two decker Bay Bridge broke off at one spot, sending moving vehicles to the deck below and causing a few fatalities as I recall. Nearby, an entire raised freeway collapsed, killing over 40 people. Were these avoidable?) At times like this, it needlessly makes people vulnerable in ways that could have been avoided. It's too bad but it is reality.