Protecting Your Landscape From A Hurricane

After Hurricane Katrina pummeled Louisiana, people are now taking every precaution when it comes to making sure they are safe and have enough food but what about your landscape? There is a tremendous amount of rainwater runoff that can devastate lawns, plants, trees and shrubs.  Are there steps a homeowner can take to utilize this water or divert it from covering your yard?

Can your landscape survive the flood?

Protecting Delicate Foliage & What To Harvest

What can you really do when it comes to hundred mile an hour winds that can easily tear apart delicate foliage? Is there anything that can be done to protect valuable trees, shrubs and other plants from the damage inflicted from debris? Can you salvage vegetables and fruit that are close to being ripe?

After the storm, how do you create a plan to restore the damage and begin anew? What steps do you take to deal with top soil erosion?

Paul Kopecky wipes his hands off after clearing tree limbs brought down by Hurricane Ike from a residence in Garden Oaks. Photo: CHRONICLE, KAREN WARREN / HC

What You Need To Do

In this segment of The Organic View Radio Show, host, June Stoyer will speak to Horticultural expert, John Peter Thompson, who is President of the National Agricultural Research Alliance (http://www.NARA-B.org ). Learn from horticultural expert, John Peter Thompson about what you can do to protect your landscape before it costs you thousands of dollars in restoration. Click here for the interview!

Here are some additional helpful resources:

1. University of Florida Extension Hurricane Preparedness For The Landscape
2. FEMA- Visit www.ready.gov for the latest hurricane news and preparedness tips from FEMA.
3. The Weather Channel has fully customizable weather maps, animated radar maps, detailed weather conditions and forecasts, severe weather alerts, and a notification bar with the current temperature and severe weather alert indicator.
4. Hurricane HD lets you track storms (for a fee), with moving radar and satellite imagery from the National Hurricane center. It provides tropical bulletins, forecasts, and advisories for the Atlantic and Pacific Basins.

Apps for your phone to keep track of the latest updates:

Smartphones apps are the new way to go for updates!

While the electricity may be out, your smartphone could very well be your most valuable tool during or after a hurricane. There are dozens of apps available to provide crucial information.

1. FEMA’s mobile Web site provides answers to the agency’s most-often asked questions, and includes a graphic showing the flood risk in the specific area where you live.
2. The Global Alert Network delivers hands-free national traffic and weather alerts. The Global Alert Network is a location-aware network platform that automatically broadcasts audible hands-free alerts to mobile devices. You choose to subscribe to weather or traffic alerts, which are geo-targeted to your location. See iTunes for Apple devices, or go to BlackBerry for a download.