I've been watering my trees. I've never had to water trees before. I have live oaks and cedar elms; and they are showing stress. The trees in the yards of the foreclosed homes look horrible.
The paper had something on the cows drinking too much. I think that the ranchers are trucking in water because all the tanks are dry, the cows drink to much, and then die. I don't know if it is bloat or something else. Maybe they are dehydrated enough that they can't handle the amount of water they are drinking.
Texas has very strange water laws, especially for ground water. Basically it is perfectly legal to suck someone else's well dry, because no one can say where under ground water comes from...and idea from the early 1800s. They also haven't done mandatory watering restrictions in many places. It will be along time until it is over. The recent population growth in Texas has come in a high rainfall period. The longest historic drought in Texas is about 9 years; if this happens again, life as we know it in Texas will change dramatically.