diff --git a/CHANGES.txt b/CHANGES.txt
index 710747b38f0..690901af85d 100644
--- a/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/CHANGES.txt
@@ -515,6 +515,8 @@ Release 0.90.5 - Unreleased
   IMPROVEMENT
    HBASE-4205  Enhance HTable javadoc (Eric Charles)
    HBASE-4222  Make HLog more resilient to write pipeline failures
+   HBASE-4293  More verbose logging in ServerShutdownHandler for meta/root
+               cases (todd)
 
 Release 0.90.4 - August 10, 2011
 
diff --git a/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/master/handler/ServerShutdownHandler.java b/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/master/handler/ServerShutdownHandler.java
index 4754ff08150..34067afeec4 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/master/handler/ServerShutdownHandler.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/master/handler/ServerShutdownHandler.java
@@ -177,11 +177,15 @@ public class ServerShutdownHandler extends EventHandler {
 
     // Assign root and meta if we were carrying them.
     if (isCarryingRoot()) { // -ROOT-
+      LOG.info("Server " + serverName + " was carrying ROOT. Trying to assign.");
       verifyAndAssignRootWithRetries();
     }
 
     // Carrying meta?
-    if (isCarryingMeta()) this.services.getAssignmentManager().assignMeta();
+    if (isCarryingMeta()) {
+      LOG.info("Server " + serverName + " was carrying META. Trying to assign.");
+      this.services.getAssignmentManager().assignMeta();
+    }
 
     // Wait on meta to come online; we need it to progress.
     // TODO: Best way to hold strictly here?  We should build this retry logic