In the south, we are suffering from the 100 year drought. This is a drought that is supposed to happen only once every 100 years. There have been reports about Atlanta running out of water in less than 3 months if there is no relief from the Corps of Engineers. There are reports that instead of loosening up on the water to take care of people and farmers’ needs water is still being released to protect mussels in Florida. There are efforts to conserve. There are plans for more reservoirs but it takes 15 years from proposal to completion of those reservoirs because of so many federal mandates and red tape. There is talk that we may not be allowed to fill swimming pools this summer if the drought does not let up.
I took photos recently of a local lake but then my hard drive crashed and I have not yet been able to retrieve them or able to take more photos. Instead of my own photos, you can click to see this slideshow from the Atlanta Journal and Constitution. The slideshow is specifically of some local Boy Scouts cleaning up debris from the dried land that used to be the lake. You will see boat docks that are simply standing on mud rather than floating in water. You can even see a boat that is stuck in the middle of the dried up mud.
The good news is that eventually it will rain again and the lakes and reservoirs will fill back up. There are decisions to be made to determine what to do until the lakes fill back up. Hopefully, the citizens and the elected officials will learn from this experience so that when a future generation has a 100 year drought they are more prepared than we are today.
This post is part of Laura Gallagher’s Talk About Tuesday. It is like show and tell, bloggy style. Check it out and leave your own post.
0 responses so far ↓
1 Christine // Jan 15, 2008 at 10:38 am
How awful! I hadn’t heard anything about this yet. I see what you mean about using the precious water to protect muscles in Florida, seems like they are missing the point! Thank you for sharing your story with us!
2 Amber // Jan 15, 2008 at 12:38 pm
wow.. i had no idea about this. I hope there is some relief soon.
3 Jennifer // Jan 15, 2008 at 1:20 pm
Crazy. We have lived in the Northern Nevada desert since we got married, and now we live in Utah and people tell me its a drought here too, although I’m not sure what that means since it’s fairly dry here no matter what.
Hope you get some relief soon!
4 Beth_C // Jan 15, 2008 at 2:50 pm
I live in NC. We are in a drought as well but not nearly as bad as GA. I hope your officials get it all figured out soon!
5 Courtney // Jan 15, 2008 at 10:08 pm
I haven’t heard anything about this here in MD. You would think a drought that big would be in the national news. I hope the relief need comes through.
6 Stacie // Jan 16, 2008 at 1:30 am
Makes me thirsty just thinking about it, having lived through those before too. Nothing makes farmers feud more with each other than a drought.
7 Thea @ I'm a Drama Mama // Jan 16, 2008 at 11:44 am
Those pictures are unbelievable!
8 gwen // Jan 17, 2008 at 3:29 pm
It’s crazy how big this drought is and nobody outside of the Southeast really knows about it. I hope the drought ends soon, but hoping just isn’t enough at times like this – we all have to do our best to save water and act responsibly. That means taking shorter showers, not watering our lawns, and conserving as much as possible in our kitchens and bathrooms.
There are a lot of great water-saving tips at this site:
http://www.h2oconserve.org. The site also has a water footprint calculator, which is fun and I really like.
Praying for rain… -Gwen
9 jenuinejen // Jan 23, 2008 at 8:23 pm
Thanks to all for your comments. The drought has not been fun but we are surviving in the cities. I think it is much worse for the farmers in central and south Georgia.
Gwen, Thanks for the conservation information.
As additional information, the county where Six Flags Over Georgia is located announced yesterday that Six Flags cannot operate its 3 water rides when it opens in march. The county is open to revisiting the restrictions as the summer moves on.
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