I have not made contact with Jim Bonner since the hurricane arrived however I would note that he has always been very helpful (and knowledgeable) when I have dealt with him. I plan to continue future dealings with him once he recovers from the present situation. Hopefully his plants (and facilities) escaped the worst (preferably no damage at all).

I called both his tel numbers in his email signature today, and the telcos said lines busy or not available.

Brookhaven was right on the eastern half, the worse half, of the Katrina path, and less the 150 miles from the coast.

The DNSs authoritative for his domain are not reachable, so therefore neither is is website.

sorry, Brookhaven is not north and slightly east of NO, but north and slightly west.

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=brookhaven,+ms&spn=0.106003,0.187214&hl=en

I was at Jim's 2 weeks ago & he gave me a nice tour. His house is surrounded by pine forest but don't know if that offers enough protection. I sure hope for the best.

Mike, did you get any bamboo when you were at Jim's , and if so, what kinds?

Ya, actually I bought a Fargesia rufa, Sasa bitc*huensis, and a banana. Now I wish I had gotten more but didn't have room in the car. Here's a photo from his nursery:
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He has a couple of hoophouses for shade and his tropicals. Whether these could take hurricane winds, who knows.
I guess he doesn't have gigantic groves as I'd imagined but instead runs a container-grown operation.

While we were there, I spotted a lizard and mentioned that my 5-yr old son was really crazy to get one as a pet. So Jim roamed around and caught 2 lizards: a chameleon, and a 4-lined skink for my son. That kind of shows you what a nice guy he is.

It appears that the Bamboo Plantation website is working now. I do not yet have any information on the situation about Mr. Bonner or the facilities of Bamboo Plantation (regarding the effects of the hurricane and by-products).

I just got off the phone with Jim Bonner and all is well. No major damage in his area, mainly just problems caused by power outages. He is back up with water, power, phones, website, and is back in business.

The conversation quickly drifted into Arundinaria Gigantea, so all is back to normal, more or less, for him...

Great news! His lizard is glad to hear it.
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