Mixed Blessing

Texas has been suffering through a relentless drought this year. Here in the central part of the state it's been the driest Jan. - July period in 85 years.

The ferocious Texas drought is clobbering crops, thinning out cattle herds, decimating wildlife, and drying up streams and reservoirs, but it's also wreaking havoc deep underground, where the state's aquifers are dropping at a precipitous rate, experts say.

Bob Patterson, president of the Upper Trinity Groundwater Conservation District, which covers Parker, Montague, Wise and Hood counties, said the drought has caused aquifer levels to dip 20 feet in many areas and 50 feet or so in places.

The drop has been even deeper in parts of the Blanco-Pedernales Groundwater Conservation District in Central Texas, General Manager Ron Fieseler said.

It's so bad that the district's namesake rivers, the Blanco and Pedernales, are no longer flowing, he said.

"It's worse than the drought we had in the '50s. It's off the charts," Lange said. Stringent watering restrictions are in place at the Cow Creek Groundwater Conservation District in Kendall County, northwest of San Antonio, General Manager Micah Voulgaris said.

"When the cedar trees are dying, you know it's dry," he said. "We've only had 4.8 inches of rainfall this year. The average since 1893 is 16.7 inches."

"People are learning to adjust. Rainwater systems have caught on. {We have a rainwater system - one of the best investments we've ever made - more on that in a later post.} But you need rain for that to work," he said. "It's pretty bad when people are praying for a hurricane."

Well, maybe not a hurricane. But a lot of people are hoping that Tropical Storm Don pays us a visit.

Tropical Storm Don is expected to bring beneficial rain to parched southern Texas this weekend, forecasters said.

AccuWeather.com meteorologist Alex Sosnowski said the storm is just the prescription Texas needs for heat and drought relief, bringing much-needed rain to coastal Texas Friday, then will spread to central Texas Saturday.

Normally that would be cause for celebration. But I'm feeling conflicted.

Our 17-year-old son is currently in Guatemala on a medical mission. He's teaching oral hygiene to young children down there. This from a kid who we had to stand over to make sure he brushed his teeth when he was younger.

He's scheduled to fly back through Houston this Saturday - right about the time the tropical storm will be coming ashore. It looks like it'll hit south of Houston, so hopefully he'll make it okay AND we'll get some rain.

We're really sweating out his arrival, because we leave early the next day for our annual Wyoming vacation. If his flight gets delayed it could wreak havoc with our travel plans - plans that were made months ago, with, of course, non-refundable tickets.

The best of both worlds would be that he gets back without complications, we leave on our trip as scheduled, and TS Don dumps several inches of rain around here after we leave.

One can only hope...