AccuWeather.com

By Erica Brecher, AccuWeather.com Staff Writer

Nov 22, 2011; 4:15 AM ET

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Dozens of dead trees were cut down and removed in Houston's Memorial Park. (Photo by Amanda Assali)

It's a helpless feeling to watch nature die.

Amanda Assali, of Houston, feels that way. She said it's devastating. First, she read an article about how the drought was killing a huge number of trees in the city.

A week later, she went for a run in Memorial Park, a large inner-city park in Houston.

"That day as I was jogging, I saw city crews cutting down trees. Tons of trees. They had to cut them because as they died, they would become brittle and break," she said. "It was one of the saddest things I felt as a result of the drought."

ALSO: Texas Drought Exposing Graves, Pieces of History

That's exactly what's going on all over Texas, which is experiencing an unprecedented amount of wildfires and a lengthy drought.

Andrea Morrow, Spokesperson for the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) said the top priority right now is public drinking water supplies. Surface water, she said, refers to water that comes from lakes and rivers. And sometimes, depending on the location of a community, a big lake may be residents' only source of water.

So what do you do when when that lake dries up?

"We're just praying for rain," Brown County Emergency Management Coordinator, Brent Bush, said.

Lake Brownwood, the main water source for Brown County, tops a list of 18 water systems throughout the state that could run out of water within six months. The list also accounts for systems that do not know how much water remains.

"Our main source is this one lake. There are other lakes in the area, but they're in just as bad a shape," Bush said. "There's no backup lake. It's Lake Brownwood or nothing."

He said the county has been on water restrictions for "quite some time" and that the municipality increased restrictions again just last week. Now, residents can only use water outside their homes one day a week.

Brown County has a population of 2,214. Second on the list is the main water supply for Limestone County, which has a population of more than 4,000.

However, Morrow said the list changes every week as new measurements are reported. Water systems identified as in danger of running out of water in 180 days or less are put on a high priority list.

"If the situation is mitigated, they come off the high priority list and put on the watch list," she explained. "If they come off the watch list, they go on the success list."

This graphic by the U.S. drought Monitor illustrates just how few reservoirs must be on the "success" list right now:

The problems don't stop there.

"Any time you have drought, you have line breakage due to shifting soil," Morrow said.

She said this is typical in the summer months, but there's a bigger risk now. And when a water main breaks, TCEQ must send out a "boil water" alert.

"We started really reaching out to water systems where surface water is the soul source in March," Morrow said.

"Of course, there's no substitute for rain."

Receding lakes across Texas have also been revealing unexpected and unusual findings.

Halfway Across the World: When Drought Becomes Famine

At the other end of the world, Somalia is in an even more dire situation. A developing country, Somalia does not have the capacity or resources to deal with the emergency the way that the United States does.

Extreme, long-term drought has killed thousands, and according to the Associated Press, La Niña is making it worse.

Thousands continue to flee the drought-stricken country, which, until just weeks ago, had not received rain in about two years.

By July 2011 almost 400 thousand Somalians sought refuge in Kenya. More than 50 people each day were dying in refugee camps.

Somalis fleeing hunger in their drought-stricken nation walk along the main road leading from the Somalian border to the refugee camps around Dadaab, Kenya, Wednesday, July 13, 2011. More than 11 million people in the Horn of Africa are confronting the worst drought in decades. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

It is the worst drought to hit that area of Africa in 60 years. Lack of rain surely played a part in developing the drought into famine, but civil war and politics exacerbate the crisis.

According to the BBC, the famine and conditions are worse under areas controlled by the Islamist group, al-Shabab.

The group is suspicious of aid agencies, sometimes demanding money, so relief has trouble reaching the areas under the group's territory. Al-Shabab is affiliated with Al Qaeda.

The recent rain has eased the problem, but the humanitarian emergency is far from over.

National Security Correspondent for WTOP Radio, J.J. Green, says al-Shabab is "indeed responsible for holding up food aid and killing aid workers."

On the other hand, the drought and famine are also causing the group to lose some control over the region.

AccuWeather.com Senior Meteorologist Jim Andrews said that, even without drought, Somalia is considered semi-desert. On average, 16 inches of rain fall there annually.

Taking A Toll: The Human Impact in Texas

Back West, the worst of of the Texas drought appears to be in the Southeast surrounding Waco and Austin, and in the Northwest region around Lubbock. In general, however, almost the entire state is an alarmingly deep red on the U.S. Drought Monitor.

Western Texas currently has the worst vegetation conditions, according to TCEQ. But in addition to the trees and plants, animals' lives are at risk.

AccuWeather Facebook Fan Jan Brown wrote that one of her horses suffered from heat exhaustion and foundered when temperatures reached 115 degrees. She said that horse is finally off of medication. Regarding her other horses, though...

"Had to cool down the horses three times a day per [veterinarian's] orders, even though we're under water restrictions," she said. "It has been a horrible year to be a livestock owner."

More AccuFans described their personal experiences, too. Here's what some of them wrote:

-Ryan Thompson, of Plano, Texas, said, "I moved down to Texas in June, and I think I've actually seen rain twice, maybe three times total. It was especially tough in the summer months with the wildfires, but it's still on the news on a consistent basis...I've seen so many stories on TV and online about people who either don't have enough, or simply don't have access to the amount of water they need."

-Christel Danning, of Joshua, Texas, said, "Our water system is on watering restrictions, still in extreme drought conditions. Burn ban still here, too, through January. Fears exist that the aquifer will have issues down the road due to the lack of rain this year. Trees dead [or] dying, crops withered, wildlife searching for water sources...I personally live on a creek, and it was dry for the most part of the year. Scary."

-Stormie Barrett, of DeRidder, La., said, "Our pond is almost dried up. We lost all the grass in the yard. Lost three trees. Had to have hay for the summer to feed the horses...Corn field burnt smooth up, lost all."

-Ferna Lary Mills, of Tyler, Texas, said, "Foundation cracks, walls splitting, baseboards cracked, trees, grass and shrubs dying. That pretty well sums it up."

-Laura Shaheen, a student at Baylor University, said, "The summer heat was pretty brutal, but it really only meant that our sprinklers were regulated and some parts were under water restrictions. The wildfires, however, were pretty terrible. A lot of heavily populated areas had to be evacuated."

-Kay Balentine Knight said, "My foundation cracked. One side of my house is four inches lower than the other."

Last week's rain in Texas was helpful, but in the big picture, it doesn't make up for much. Houston alone needs about 26 inches to break even for the year, and Austin needs about 18 inches of rain.