I have been watching the news and I've spoken to a few close friends who've already deployed with the urban search and rescue teams to Texas and Louisiana in anticipation of hurricane Gustav. It will be interesting to see the difference in response levels from Katrina three years ago to Gustav today. If the amount of resources being pre-deployed is any indication and the amount of evacuation already accomplished as effective as it appears then this is going to be a starkly different response.

It's good to see that the fire service unlike several other agencies seems to learn well from its experiences. I've spoken to several friends who have deployed with their urban search and rescue teams to the area. They say it's not unlike the first deployment so far in as much as they haven't done any serious work yet and they are hoping that they will not have to. Right now the hurricane is a level IV and the weather forecast shows the hurricane now moving slightly west.

Evacuations in Houston also seem to be well underway. If any of you are being deployed please feel free to continue along in this blog. We would like to hear where you are, what you are doing and how things are gone. There's a ton of good news coverage so we won't bother to link you to all that you can see online and on TV. Let's hope this one is nothing like Katrina. All indications at this point are that FEMA and the local governments are working well together seem to be well prepared and doing all the right things.