By Patrick O'Driscoll and Larry Copeland, USA TODAY
The Southeast's worst drought in more than a century is forcing parched states and communities into crisis measures to conserve water and fight for access to more.
A region accustomed to plentiful rain from tropical storms and hurricanes is experiencing its second straight year of less rain in the summer and fall.
"This idea of wait-and-see, because some (rain) might be around the corner, can really suppress timely responses," says Mike Hayes, director of the National Drought Mitigation Center.
Urgent efforts range from shutting down small-town car washes in North Carolina to a total ban on outdoor watering in Atlanta. Georgia's top water official, environmental Commissioner Carol Couch, says industrial and commercial water users very likely will have to make "across-the-board reductions" next.
Outdoor watering bans already cover the northern third of Georgia and dozens of cities, counties and towns in surrounding states. Farmers are selling cattle because pastures have dried up. Alabama's Elmore County had to bring in floating pumps and barges to extend its water intake pipe farther out into shrinking Lake Martin. Georgia might have to do the same at Lake Lanier, Atlanta's main water source.
Although rain is due today across parts of the region, it will barely dampen the 16-month drought. Through September, it is the region's driest year in 113 years of record-keeping. In five of the six worst-hit states, rain totals this year are close to a foot below normal.
It is the driest year on record for North Carolina and Tennessee, second-driest in Alabama and third-driest in Kentucky. A tree-ring study this summer of Tennessee's rainfall history shows this is the third-driest year for the state in at least 350 years, behind only 1839 and 1708.
Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue said this week that he will sue the Army Corps of Engineers unless the federal agency holds back more water in Lake Lanier. The corps, which by law must release water downstream to protect endangered aquatic species, says it is "exploring possible drought contingency options." By various estimates, the lake has only two to four months' supply left. Couch says if the water releases are not curbed, metro Atlanta could need water deliveries from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
In Tennessee, towns below Normandy Dam south of Nashville convinced the Tennessee Valley Authority this week to begin "winter pool" storage of water a month and a half ahead of its usual Dec. 1 start to protect their dwindling supply.
Monteagle, Tenn., is buying 350,000 gallons a day from three neighboring towns and enforcing mandatory curbs in water use.
Hayes says the severe conditions in the Southeast are busting myths that drought strikes only semiarid regions and that the West is more vulnerable than the rainy East.
"If it can happen there, it can happen anywhere," he says.
Contributing: Jordan Schrader, Asheville (N.C.) Citizen-Times; Marty Roney, The Montgomery (Ala.) Advertiser; Leon Alligood, The Tennessean in Nashville; Ron Barnett, The Greenville (S.C.) News; Jessie Halladay, The Louisville (Ky.) Courier-Journal; Matt Reed, Florida Today in Melbourne, Fla.; Jennie Coughlin, The Daily News Leader in Staunton, Va.
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