Airmen ready for Dolly's aftermath

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SAN ANTONIO (AFPN) --  As Hurricane Dolly continues to pound the Texas-Mexico border with heavy rains and strong winds, Airmen remain on standby to help when needed. 

The hurricane made landfall July 23 as a Category 2 storm, with 85-mile-an-hour winds. Weather forecasters expect the storm to deposit 15 inches of rain across the southern part of the state. 

On July 22, Texas Gov. Rick Perry ordered state resources pre-deployed to areas throughout south Texas to help communities prepare for Dolly's arrival. That included sending 1,200 national guardsmen, an incident management team and six UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters to various locations throughout the state. 

Texas Air and Army National Guard units set up a Joint Standing Interagency Task Force at the Army National Guard Weslaco Armory.  Residents of the city, which is in the storm's path, hunkered down to ride out the storm. So did the guardsmen. 

"The wind is starting to pick up and it's blowing debris around. We can feel the storm coming," said Tech. Sgt. Phyllis Hanson on the afternoon of July 23. 

"We hope to help people, and everybody is on standby," said the sergeant, a member of the Air Force News Agency at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas.  Agency officials sent a four-person team to the storm area to report on the storm's aftermath. 

"There's a feeling of anticipation in the air," she said. "We can see the storm getting worse further south. The electricity flickering off and on heightens our sense of awareness. Most people here are anticipating helping and are hoping people aren't going to get hurt or are in danger." 

At Tyndall AFB, Fla., U.S. Northern Command officials said they are on standby in case they receive calls for Air Force assistance. 

"But we haven't received any requests yet," said Capt. Laura Ropelis of the command's Air Forces Northern. 

The storm is not a threat to Laughlin AFB, Texas, outside Del Rio, so it is pretty much business as usual, said Ron Scharven, a 47th Flying Training Wing spokesman. 

He said base officials aren't doing anything specific, and don't expect to bed down any aircraft or people as the hurricane continues its course. But the rain Dolly will produce has caused a change in the base's undergraduate pilot training schedule. 

"We're sending some of our cross-country students on flights early, so they can avoid the rain and get their training in," Mr. Scharven said. 

At San Antonio's Randolph AFB, 12th Flying Training Wing spokesman Gabe Myers said the storm has not affected the training schedule. 

"We have not curtailed flying at this time," Mr. Myers said. "We still have training sorties planned for tomorrow (July 24), but will adjust that if the weather changes." 

At Goodfellow AFB, outside San Angelo, the 17th Training Wing Airmen bedded down 23 Navy T-34 Turbo Mentor aircraft July 22. The aircraft are from Corpus Christi Naval Air Station.

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