The time my plant was damaged by frost, one whole big branch was just dead. It was black, wilted and just hanging there. It wasn't like when a branch gets ripped off and you can still smoke it or make hash. The rest of the plant was fine.
Here's a couple of things I've heard but never tried to help with the cold. The first is to take a garbage bag or some sort of plastic and cover the plant at night(keeps frost off plant). The second idea was like podunk's, only harder to do, they recommended heating up big rocks in a fire and then moving them around your plant at night.
I sure hope Hic is ok. You are right, if arrested, Hic would be out by now. Unless he was into more than we all knew. If he got caught up for some real shit, he may not have bailed himself out and figures he's going to do some time, so start now while waiting for his trial. If he did get arrested for pot and is out on bail, it is possible his lawyer told him not to post in this thread to somehow confirm his identity, but if that were the case, I would think he would have called someone to let them know he's alright. Another scenario, although not very likely, someone else(wife, growing partner, close friend) find out what he was posting here and talked him into stop coming on here. Another possibility, probably the scariest one would be that Hic had a confrontation with someone and wouldn't back down. He has never been the type to back down, and I just worry that someone challenged him in some way, that forced a fight that Hic was on the losing end of. The final thing I can think of is something went wrong with his health and he's in the hospital getting better. I hope whatever he is dealing with, he will be ok soon.