Can you take two pictures and post them here. One should be from the curb looking at the lawn and the other should be from 3 inches away from the grass at the edge of where the grass seems to be trying to come back. I suspect you got a fungal disease from the flooding last year, and that killed the top growth. The freeze did not help. If you think there is grass there that might come back, then I would suggest applying ordinary corn meal. Cost should be around $5 for a 50-pound bag at your local feed store. If it is more like $15 for a 30-pound bag, then keep looking. That might be cornmeal, but they are tagging extra costs on it that you don't need. Apply the cornmeal at 20 pounds per 1,000 square feet, moisten it, and wait 3 full weeks to see the grass coming in green and remaining green without spots. It should be obvious that it worked. If it is obvious that it worked in some places and not others, then reapply to the entire yard. Cornmeal is a biological cure for certain fungal diseases and works especially well in St Augustine. I've used it successfully since 2002. You could use a chemical fungicide. I cannot recommend any, because I've never used one that worked. If you use a chemical first, then the corn meal will not work later on. The chemicals will kill off the biology that you need to make the cornmeal work.

Fertilizing a dead lawn never works. In the spring wait until May to fertilize.

So we did fertilize early March, should have waited on that. Can we apply again in May?

So get corn meal and spread over entire lawn or only dead areas? I have some spots that look like the runners are green but no grass and some spots that look pretty dead. I will send the photos

Yes, you should have waited to fertilize. When grass awakens from the winter it will have plenty of nutrition to last until May. Since you applied now, it will probably need it again by May. It's a little complicated but chemical fertilizers used early will exhaust the stores of nutrients in the grass faster than if you don't fertilize early. You'll have to fertilize again in May to make it through the summer.

Apply corn meal over the entire lawn.

Good that you have not lost the entire lawn. You're going to get a bunch of weeds in the bare/thin spots. Hold off on spraying anything in there until the grass returns - at least 3 weeks from applying the corn meal. If you cannot find corn meal at the feed store (call around), then any grocery store catering to the Hispanic community has 25-pound bags of corn meal. The cost is higher, but it's the same stuff. Get help if you need it, because the cornmeal bags look identical to the masa premix bags for making corn tortillas. It's like the difference between Bisquick and flour. You don't want the Bisquick one.

Great info! I really appreciate it. So i ust one application and if I don’t see results go over it again in 3 weeks?

yes

Any possibility it’s chinch bugs this time of year?

So I’m starting over with St. Augustine sod in those bare spots because I can’t bear it any longer. With the new sod should I fertilize in May too or not? Am I fertilizing on top of adding corn meal? What does corn meal do for the grass? And what make up of fertilizer do you suggest I use?

If there is active disease in the soil, the new grass will die in 2 weeks. Ask me how I know about that. You have to use the corn meal or cracked corn to get out of this situation.

As I mentioned cornmeal is a biological control for certain fungal diseases in certain grasses. It seems to work in St Augustine all the time but other grass owners do not get the same success. Corn meal decomposes by a fungal action. Whatever the fungus is attracts a beneficial, predatory fungus to decompose the initial decomposer. That secondary fungus is called Trichoderma (try koh DER mah or trick oh DER mah). The population of the Trichoderma fungus increases on the corn meal. Once it devours the corn meal fungi, all that population of Trichoderma finds other pathogenic fungi in the soil and on the plants. It continues to work until the bad fungus is gone. After the disease is gone, the population of Trichoderma declines but never disappears in the soil. Since this biological control requires at least a minimal population of beneficial fungi in the soil, if you apply a chemical fungicide first, that kills off the beneficial fungi rendering corn meal ineffective as an anti fungal agent.

However, corn meal also is a medium grade organic fertilizer. If you apply it at 20 pounds per 1,000 square feet, it will supply all the fertilizer you need for many weeks. If you apply corn meal, and you should so as to not waste money on the new sod, then you should not need more fertilizer until the 4th of July. With the 4th of July being the hottest part of the year, you might want to use an organic fertilizer again at that time to take you through to Labor Day. Then you could restart chemical fertilizer if you want to do that. Organic fertilizers take 3 full weeks to show the improvement. This, too, is due to the biological process that have to happen before the grass gets the plant food. I can reconfirm that because I fertilized with alfalfa pellets just 3 weeks ago and "all of a sudden" my lawn looks dark green. It's always interesting to me how sudden the effect appears - just don't expect it to be sudden over night.

So I have applied microlife Humates plus soil amendment and I also applied leaf mold compost to the affected areas. I haven’t done the corn meal yet. If I am to lay new sod how long would I need to wait before I lay it after applying the corn meal?

If you have a choice, then I would wait 3 weeks after corn meal to lay sod.