Hurricane aid in South Texas ready to help the Valley

Nearly 13 months ago, the Rio Grande Valley watched as Hurricane Dean crawled up the eastern coast of Mexico threatening people living on both sides of the international river. Dean - which at one time reached the category 4 level with winds blowing at 150 mph - eventually made its way back to sea and died before ever reaching U.S. soil.

The Valley was prepared then, as it is now facing a category 1 hurricane with wind projections hovering around 75 mph, but this time it doesn't seem like the Valley can slide out from underneath this hurricane's bull's eye.

Texas Governor Rick Perry had only days - not a week this year - to deploy state resources to South Texas.

Here's a quick look at what hurricane aid we have today - compared to what we had 13 months ago:

Hurricane Dolly:

Texas Forest Service: Three teams stationed in Weslaco to help with mass care.

Texas Military Forces: 1,200 national guardsmen, an incident management team and six UH-60s

Texas Engineering and Extension Service: 160 people including water rescue and helicopter rescue

Deaf Link: Informational alerts, fuel and emergency supply kits given to the deaf, hard of hearing, deaf-blind or blind residents

Texas Department of Transportation: 14 patrol vehicles

Public Works Response Team: Teams in McAllen have been placed on alert

American Red Cross: Operations Headquarters and warehousing facility established in San Antonio, seven emergency response vehicles on standby, six shelter trailers.

The Salvation Army : 4 canteens have been deployed to Weslaco HEB Distribution Center. One canteen will support 300 individuals for 3 - 4 days; an additional 5-6 teams will report following the storm.

Department of Information Services: Working with 2-1-1 to prepare the system for increased call volume and creating specific notices for Dolly.

Department of Aging and Disability Services: The 69 facilities in the four-county area have evacuation plans available and will implement based on local instructions. Home health agencies were notified to assist individuals that require assistance with evacuation or other needs. No providers are contemplating relocation of residents at this time.

Texas Railroad Commission: Natural gas utilities are must notify the commission if they project outages. As of Monday, they are not projecting any loss of service at this time due to the storm.

Department of Insurance: Three teams to help residents fill out insurance claims.

Texas Animal Health Commission: Two small emergency management trailers, inspectors and animal teams are stationed in Weslaco.

Texas Education Agency: Most schools in the four counties of the Rio Grande Valley - schools that are conducting summer sessions - will be closed on Wednesday. The agency is ensuring that records will be safe during flooding. Continuity of service (student records, etc.) could be a major issue.

Texas Department of Public Safety - Commercial Vehicle Enforcement: 25 bus inspectors and 16 troopers for mass care stationed in Weslaco.

General Land Office: One airboat, one 17' and one 21' boat, one truck, one relocation wildlife refuge trailer and one Jon Boat going to a warehouse in Port Lavaca.

Texas Commission on Environmental Quality: A standby team to handle hazardous materials, public water supply and wastewater in San Antonio with a command trailer. TCEQ is monitoring impacts to dam and levee structures.

Health and Human Service Commission: Three property damage teams on standby and deploying loads of ice and water.

Texas Agrilife Extension Services: 52 personnel across 17 coastal counties to help with recovery efforts.  

Fuel Teams: The fuel industry is reporting a significant increase in retail fuel sales along the entire Texas Coast. An emergency fuel contract is ready to provide fuel in case of shortages and evacuations.

Texas Department of Public Safety: 50 troopers on standby and highway patrol will conduct bus inspections; aircraft and dive teams on standby.

Texas Parks and Wildlife Department: 53 game wardens are stationed from Corpus to Brownsville, 57 boats and 6 airboats. 112 game wardens, outfitted with 70 boats and 9 air boats are on standby.

3 shelters have been opened in San Antonio.

Hurricane Dean

•       250 Texas Military Forces command personnel, deployment of up to 10,000 TMF soldiers, if necessary

•       540 personnel in task forces

•       250 Texas Parks and Wildlife Department crews with boats

•       The Texas fuel industry surged fuel loads to all coastal counties to ensure adequate fuel supply