South suffers from drought

As Californians struggle with fire it is water that preoccupies much of the south, water that has become precious by its absence.

A prolonged dry spell is dragging our region deeper into drought. Parched and paralyzed by a lack of rain, the thirst for water has intensified in portions of the southeast.

NC Forest Service representative Curtiss Jessen said, “It’d take days to make up for what we’ve not had this year.”

Orme, Tenn. is the first city to actually run dry.

Tennessee resident Gwynn Smith said, “It’s hard, it’s really inconvenient not having any water.”

Every other day, water has to be hauled in to town because the mountain spring that they once depended on dried up.

So at six p.m., Mayor Tony Reames turns the water on — only three hours each night.

Reames said, “This is a disaster. Without water things die.”

The drought is so severe that it’s even drying up the goodwill between the governors of neighboring Alabama and Georgia, who share some of the same water sources. In addition to ordering businesses and utilities to cut water usage by 10 percent, Georgia’s governor recently filed a lawsuit demanding the US Army Corps of Engineers slow down the release of water downstream.

But Alabama’s governor has asked that Georgia’s request be ignored.

Gov. Bob Riley (R-AL) said, “No state should have the ability to unilaterally go in and decide how much water any other state is going to get.”

In North Carolina the governor called on his residents to half-it.

Gov. Easley said, “Half-it means use half the water you normally would. If you usually take a ten-minute shower, take a five-minute shower.”

The water police are out in full force in many of the affected states, writing hefty citations to any resident caught using excessive water.