Greg, this is a follow-up for what Tommy related to you last night.
Photography is on l:/Center_Data/Wellsc/Rita. The photos are not
organized and I have no idea how they look. We\'ll get on that issue
when we finish flying.

We flew from Southwest Pass of Marsh Island to MacFadden NWR HQ along
the shoreline with few inland deviations, always returning to the point
of deviation. This should allow the GIS gurus to plot the shoreline and
discriminate any gross changes.

> The shoreline was visible from Southwest Pass to MacFadden. There was
> considerable unconsolidated, fine-textured depositional material
> exposed between the vegetation line and the water, even at normal
> tide. I think this maybe a new feature, but Abby should be able to
> give definitive descriptions of that.
>
> The water was still 0.5m or so above the marsh vegetation. The
> Spartina patens was barely visible above the water. This water was
> draining rapidly into the Gulf, eroding rivulets through the
> unvegetated, near-shore exposed soil. The run-off water was usually
> clear and often dark\--in other words, not apparently sediment-laden.
>
> Many miles of the inshore vegetated portion of the shoreline had a
> strip of shells washed atop the vegetation perhaps 10m wide and 20 -
> 30 cm deep. This acted as a dike, holding marsh water in the marsh.
> This is effectively holding water in the marsh and allowing run-off
> directly into the Gulf only at the previously described rivulets. In
> other words, the area is not dewatering by sheetwater flow into the
> Gulf. Holding the water in the marsh may eventually impact recovery of
> the marsh vegetation as oxygen is depleted from the retained water.
>
> We saw no fish kills. This indicates that the flood water is still
> oxygenated. With the massive amount of flooding and the slow receding,
> we wont be surprised if massive fish kills aren\'t observed in the
> next few days or a week.
>
> Surprisingly, large of areas of forests are still standing. In most
> cases there was canopy damage of some sort (extensive defoliation and
> loss of small limbs) but major limb loss and stem snaps or tip-ups or
> uprooting was not common. Our conjecture is that perhaps the massive
> storm surge actually protected the trees from the strong winds,
> resulting in damage due to waves and currents and debris impact rather
> than ripping and tearing by winds. Salt damage to freshwater
> vegetation was evident for many miles inland.
>
> The amount, distribution, and constitution of the wrack defies
> generalization. It was piled into sinuous heaps for miles in length,
> often hundreds of meters in width and usually over a meter in depth.
> Then there\'s the anthropogenic wrack\--household debris, boards,
> pilings, oilfield clutter, shipping containers, stainless hazardous
> waste vessels, etc. Incredible.

Observations of NWR\'s

> Lacassine Refuge HQ looked good. The trees around the HQ looked
> largely unaffected by the storm. The Lacassine pool was deep and
> possibly the levees were overtopped. At the southwestern corner of the
> impoundment I couldn\'t see the levee. The pool maybe continuous with
> the ICWW or perhaps It was hidden in the shadows of the trees lining
> the ICWW. The small stands of cypress within the pool all displayed
> signs of salt damage.
>
> Cameron Prairie HQ was the rally/debarkation point for search and
> rescue. There were many vehicles, boats, airboats and emergency
> vehicles parked all over the road and maintenance area and of course,
> the parking lot. All structures appeared intact. The road beyond the
> HQ was under water. The entire NWR was under perhaps a meter of water,
> with only an occasional tall culm waving in the breeze. The
> floodwaters were clear, so with a favorable sun angle we could clearly
> see green vegetation under the water.
>
> Sabine NWR HQ looked severely damaged, but still standing. The large
> liveoaks were badly damaged. Calcasieu Lake was continuous with the
> floodwater over the marsh, effectively connecting Calcasieu Lake with
> Sabine Lake. There was a wrack accumulation along the major east-west
> canal that separates Units 3 and 4 that completely masked the canal.
> The wrack extends the entire length of unit 3 and varies in width from
> 100 meters to probably 300 meters. It looked like a matrix of
> Schoenoplectus and Phragmites stems with punctations of anthropogenic
> debris. The spoil area study sites of Travis/Proffit were still
> well-marked, as was the study site in Unit 1 and Unit 1a of
> Howard/Michot.
>
> MacFadden NWR (TX) looked largely unaffected by the storm, except for
> a large-area of oil sheen in the immediate vicinity of the HQ, The
> refuge was flooded. It also looked like the old abandoned road along
> the NWR\'s shoreline had eroded even more.