This morning my husband and I ventured out to The Crosby Arboretum to gather a damage report for our Director and Department Head. Ridge Road is flooded in many areas and just past the Visitor Entrance, the road was blocked by a downed tree so all vehicles were turning around and heading back toward Wal-Mart. Because the Service/Staff Entrance is half a mile-long dirt road that floods and can be difficult to exit after rain, we parked at the Visitor Entrance and walked in to the Arboretum.
The overall damage, which you can see in the images I took this morning, consists of downed limbs, downed trees, flooded trails, and flooded driveways. I expected to see snakes slithering along the water covered trails, but we didn’t see any. The only critter we saw at all was a dung beetle on what looked like coyote? scat on the service road.
The Pinecote Pavilion did not appear to have any damage from this storm.
The greenhouse also remains standing and apparently damage free. Good news!
If you would like to help, I am sure that we can use volunteers to assist with cleanup. We plan to open at 8am tomorrow (Friday). Stay tuned. Contact us (601-799-2311) next week about cleanup efforts as I am sure each of you that live near us has an equal amount of clean-up work at home, as do I at my home. I saw a lot of flooding in getting to the Arboretum and the two gas stations we passed still had no gas.
Have a safe and dry Labor Day Weekend,
Sr. Curator, R. Stafne
All Images and Text Copyright Mississippi State University, 2012
