No offense but it is not mud and sand. I am living over here in Jefferson County and what that picture shows is where the saltwater intrusion occured. The brown area is dead vegetation. I am not talking about the normal dormant brown seen in the winter. If you have a chance to drive Hwy 73 you will see what I mean. You go from green and normal around Englin Rd to dead, every bit of plant life, until you cross Taylors Bayou and get behind the levee. After the surge came in the weeds, then grass, then trees died and turned dark brown. All the grass then turned black. Everything is now decaying along with millions of tons of cane, and marsh grass pushed in by the storm. The cattle ranchers south of Hwy 73 are in bad shape. The cattle that were not killed in the storm have absolutely nothing for feed. There were about 20,000 head between Winnie and Pot Arthur south of 73 before the storm, about half survived. The ponds, canals and ditchs are filled with salt water. They are all having to sell out or find pasture land elsewhere, if they can afford it. I have been told it will be several years before the grass returns and rice can be grown in these areas. With the focus of the storm on Galveston/Houston these folks have been forgotten. Funny thing is one of these ranchers is a good friend. When I asked him what he was going to do he said, " We will just have to work harder and longer but we'll manage." He never said a word about asking for goverment assistance or griping that he wasn't going to get a FEMA check. This is a guy that had a 7' storm surge blow his house to pieces and wash his truck 150' into a ditch. Sorry, I just realized I had hopped up on the soapbox. I'm over it now.
