Texas DUers are you ready for more rain

[malaise]

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/refresh/graphics_at5+shtml/083536.shtml?3day#contents

We're preparing for Hurricane Dean which should also affect mainland USA next week

[Justyce]

1. I just read that Rick Perry dispatched

National Guard to South Texas for the other tropical depression forming... they never used to send the Nat'l Guard out for just a tropical storm or depression...

[malaise]

2. Wow men are scared these days

With two systems in the Atlantic/Caribbean/Gulf, expect oil price increases

[Subdivisions]

9. Oil is already up approaching $2 per CNBC...n/t

[rurallib]

3. Why does Texas have a National Guard left and no one else does?

Do they have any equipment?

[Justyce]

4. I don't really know how that works, but

I think they pull them from everywhere, not just that particular state, because during Rita we talked to one who said he was from some other state (haven't had enough coffee this morning to remember). But, there aren't many left here in the U.S. because so many are in Iraq, and of course they are short on equipment too. I remember during Katrina, that was one of the big things -- that we didn't even have enough of our equipment to get in there to rescue them because so much was overseas...

It still doesn't make sense to me why our "National Guard" is in another country in the first place.

[malaise]

5. System now Tropical Storm Erin

http://www.wunderground.com/tropical/tracking/at200705.html

[Subdivisions]

8. I thought this was a curious action too. And it got me to thinking.

What National Guard? I thought they were sent to Iraq or Afghanistan. Then that got me to wondering how red states' NG deployments stack up against blue states' NG deployments.

I've had finding this out on my agenda for a couple of hours now but haven't gotten around to digging into it. Hell, I don't even know where to start.

Anyone have any info on this or know where I can start to find it myself? Might be worth a post later depending on how it shakes out.

[malaise]

10. That's a great question

I'll wait for the info from you and other experts.

[NeedleCast]

6. Good, They Need the Rain

According to my dad, who lives in Austin, they've been pretty dry since the early summer flooding.

[Javaman]

11. really depends on what part of town you live in. I live north...

and our last rain was about 2 weeks ago and it rained like hell.

[Gruenemann]

7. I could use some rain here in San Antonio...

That massive rains from earlier this summer are long gone. All kinds of stuff in my yard is dying, and the soil is full of big cracks.

BTW, we'll be getting a storm that just blew up in the Gulf before Dean might arrive.

[Justyce]

12. Looks like Dean could be a category 3 when it makes landfall -- are

you planning to ride it out? Hopefully it'll fizzle out between now and then... So scary -- hunker down & stay safe!

[Catherine Vincent]

13. Dean is way out there.

Do they know for sure it will hit Texas?

[kwyjibo]

14. yeah, I had gotten used to not having to water my plants.

Now they're getting a bit dry/dead.