Thanks, Susie! A week of rain might be asking for a bit much however! With La Nina still around, I can't really hope for that!

We're still getting tons of rain and high winds ... 48 mph gusts here, and the county south of us near the Kennedy Space Center they clocked gusts of 70 mph! Check out the radar, looks like the eastern part of Texas is getting a little of the rain, hopefully it will continue a westward track:

http://www.accuweather.com/us/...

I think that what east Texas is getting is the west-to-east system that hit us earlier. Our forecast has no chances of rain left. But maybe something else will come along later (hoping). A small number of people in S.A. are being put up at motels or hotels because their homes were damaged. But it was a small F0 tornado and very little damage as tornados go. I'm thankful for that!

Hope you also got some rain, Dave. It did look like "our rain" moved to the east. Our LBJ lake neighbors said we had over 5" up there.

I hope y'all finally got some rain! We've had more than our share here. Our power went out at 1:00 a.m. this morning and the cable lines were out because a tree fell on some main relay box down the road. Luckily power wasn't out for very long and they finally got the cable back up this evening ... it sure was hard being off- line all day!! This area looked like a tropical storm came through and weather folks said they couldn't believe the National Weather service didn't label the system as a tropical storm with the winds as high as they were ... trees were down everywhere, just about every yard in town has a 3' to 4' pile of branches/limbs etc. to be picked up!

We had many palm fronds down all over the yard, a very large branch from a cherry laurel tree ... and my white Oleander tree blew over and was uprooted. My husband pulled the tree back upright with his truck and staked it so hopefully it will survive.

Oleanders can take a licking & keep on ticking Lin. I'm betting it will survive. might want to prune it some though to help it. Looks like you guys got beat up some. I can believe it as when the system reached here it was quite windy still & DH & I both said it acted far more like a tropical depression than anything else. Rain blowing sideways this way then that way & all 4 points of the compass. Thankfully we didn't lose power but my computer has been snagging off & on all day. I have an aircard & when bad weather systems move in I've noticed it can hang the internet connection. We're due for more yet.

Ann, he pruned it heavily after righting it. That was the problem, it was so top heavy the winds just took it right over. There's a dark pink blooming Nerium oleander in the front yard too but it was protected by a large Hickory and Maple so it didn't budge and I have a large light pink variety in a corner of the backyard that has protection from other trees.

The way the winds were blowing and the loudness reminded me of the three hurricanes that came through here in a 5 week period back in 2004 and driving to my friends house this morning and then around town running errands, it sure looked a lot like the aftermath of Canes' Charley, Frances & Jeanne.

We lost our shingles & most of the tarpaper in Frances. The eye of both Frances & Jeanne passed dead on right over Hobe Sound. We had water damage inside because of the roof & were still totally vulnerable when the Hurricane center announced we would be getting Jeanne early the next day. The phone rang just seconds after the announcement & it was FEMA saying the guys were on their way to put our blue roof on. It's either laugh or slit your wrists at that point. So we laughed. I think we were pretty punchy by that time. The blue tarp roofs are known to only withstand about 30 m.p.h. winds before they fly off. 3 guys from La. put it on. They did a bang up job. Can you believe that thing held all the way through Jeanne & for 5 months after until we got a new metal roof put on?????!!!!! Course we didn't KNOW it was going to hold. Went out in the eye to see it still intact & only hoped it would stand up to the second half of Jeanne.

That's such a shame. I sure hope your tree survives, Lin. We lived a block from the beach when Camille went thru Biloxi. We lost trees and I had a limb fly thru my sailboat. My dad wouldn't tell me because i was leaving for college. He waited until I had been gone a bit, then had it repaired for me. Scary storms those hurricanes.

Sandi: I remember the aftermath of category 5 Hurricane Camille that came up through the Gulf in August 1969. When my husband got out of basic training in February 1970 we drove cross country to California for a two month school he had to attend for the Navy before meeting his squadron in Europe. We left Florida in February 1970 taking Interstate 10 across the SW coast. We were both so stunned at what we viewed that we couldn't even speak. I will have those images in my brain for the rest of my life and that storm is what gave me a very healthy respect for hurricanes. I will never take a major storm for granted! I hear so many folks laughing when hurricane season arrives and passes and they talk about all the media hype saying the weather people are trying to scare us and then they really moan and complain when a season passes and the U.S. has no major storms. If a category 3 or higher storm is ever predicted for this area I will be somewhere north or west, I will not stay put that's for sure. I know people don't want to leave their homes and possessions but to me, life is so much more important than possessions. I will always remember our trip across Interstate 10 from Florida, through Alabama and Mississippi that year. We'd be driving along and all of a sudden see detour signs and we'd reach a spot where the interstate was just big chunks of cement/pavement and we'd detour off to side roads for awhile. I think it was in Mississippi where we had to take a road right along the coast and we saw huge ships and ocean liners (think BIG cruise ships) tossed out of the Gulf of Mexico and across the road laying on their sides like toys ... it was almost like we were dreaming, total disbelief in what we were seeing. We saw so many cement slabs where homes and businesses were totally gone. One vivid memory I have is of a former gas station where only one pump was sitting in the middle of a cement slab ... building gone, everything around it gone, just this weird image of a gas pump sitting in the middle of a vast wasteland because there were no buildings, trees, plants anything for blocks and blocks. We saw many wooden pegs with makeshift signs sticking out of the ground where people had written the address of what used to be there. I also remember the aftermath of category 5 Hurricane Andrew which tore through South Florida in 1992. I've seen the damage a category 1 hurricane can do, the cat 4 & 5 storms are just total devastation.

Geesh ... here I go getting off track again!

Lin, you should be writing articles. Your description of the Coast was so vivid. I didn't even remember some of that after all these years. Your words brought it back to memory. Thanks.
The highway along the beach in MS would have been Hwy 90.

Sandi: Yes Hwy 90 is the detour road we took back then! LOL, I'm not a writer ... I just tend to talk a lot and get off topic I even forgot that I was on the Texas Gardening Forum!

Ok, I'm off to the dentist ... hope all y'all Texans are getting some much needed rain. Have a great day!

Lin, you are welcome to stop by anytime!

Sorry about the storm damage, Lin! Now we're moving back to warmer temps (80's again, but shouldn't complain!) and more sunny day, the humidity is hitting us BAD. Ah, there's always a downside to it, isn't there? Was out doing stuff in the garden and had to come in, sweat dripping and all that. Besides, I shouldn't be in the sun much with my history of skin cancer. There's actually been flowering plants blooming out in the wild places lately. I think there's even somewhat less wildlife coming to be fed/watered. The birds, however, are here in force...God forbid I should be late getting their birdseed out there. And took the hummer feeder in to rinse out and refill and then when I went back out for something from the garden to add to my tea, there it was...that hummer flew up to where the feeder should be and hovered there...and of course, I realized I'd gotten distracted and hadn't taken care of that feeder yet! Shame on me! Heh-heh! Sometimes I feel like I'm feeding too much wildlife, but then, too, the precious little hummers should be treasured...they'll soon be gone, and I'll miss them SO much!

My hummers are gone, I think. I haven't seen them in over a week.

Pssst...it's sprinkling here! No rain, but a gentle drizzle. I'm going out to dig up my plumerias and store them in the garage. I just know the weather will change quickly and I'll be mad at myself for not getting things ready for the cold.

Nothing here but barely a hint of mist earlier. But happy for you!

Whispering lest the fates hear. Yay Bubbles!

Two hours later, and I'm still digging up plumerias and cutting roots. So glad I did it today, tho. Sky is gray and rain is all around us, but not here yet. My yard is a mess!

it's raining, a nice slow rain with thunder off in the distance. I got up before dawn to fuss over what plants I didn't want out in the windy storm. As soon as it was light enough, I started moving a few pots in to the patio enclosure. We left one end open so we could get the large pots in when it starts to get chilly. I'd rather let those get some rain today. There's been no wind to speak of, just beautiful, blessed rain! What a nice day.