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Too Dry!

Spanish Translation

By Martha Pickerill
Reported by Rita Healy/Marvel, Colorado
and Maggie Sieger/Scottsbluff, Nebraska

Farmer Bob Roberts grew up hearing tales of the Dust Bowl, the awful droughts of the 1930s that turned farmland to dust. It was the hardest time anyone in Scottsbluff, Nebraska, could imagine—until now. Roberts, 67, tells of this year's measly 2.16 inches of rain. That's much less than during the 1930s and 80% below normal. Roberts's corn and sorghum crops are fading fast in the blazing heat. "You're looking at a sad man," he says.

Hot, Dry and Dusty
Across the nation, Americans are being choked by one of the worst droughts anyone can remember. According to experts, only two others in the last 100 years have been as bad.

A drought occurs when a region gets less rain than usual and water supplies fall short. Unlike a tornado, hurricane or other weather disasters, a drought sneaks up and does its damage slowly. The current drought began in 1998. This year's extra-hot summer only made matters worse. It baked what little moisture there was right out of the ground. Now some places need more than 15 inches of rain to end the water shortage!

A New Dust Bowl?
Because farmers and ranchers can't stay in business without water for crops and animals, the pain of drought hits them first. So far, western corn and wheat crops, Massachusetts’s cranberry bogs and Georgia’s pecan crop have all been hit hard. "The damage is done," said Peter Furey of the New Jersey Farm Bureau. "Some of these crops are flat-out dead and not coming back."

Over the last few months, many states have declared water emergencies. Officials in some areas have banned washing cars, filling swimming pools and watering lawns. The big reservoirs that provide running water are far below normal levels. Recent rains brought some relief but not enough to fill up the reservoirs.

Even schools have been affected by the drought. In York, Pennsylvania, kids are using paper plates in their cafeterias so that no one will have to wash dishes. In Mayer, Arizona, school kids are sipping water from bottles instead of fountains, because local wells have dried up.

A few kids' sports teams have kissed their playing fields goodbye. A soccer league outside Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, ended its season a month early because the school district closed its parched fields.

One of the worst things about this year’s drought has been its impact on the nation’s forests. In Oregon, Arizona and other western states, dry conditions have contributed to raging wildfires. More than 6 million acres have burned so far. That’s more than twice the area that burned by this time last year.

Turn Off the Tap!
Drought experts say that if Americans save more water when rain is plentiful, we will be able to make it through droughts without severe shortages. Americans use about 27 billion gallons of water a day. Not all of that water is used wisely. Farmers near Durango, Colorado, are being put out of business by the drought. And yet in the tourist town of Durango itself, sprinklers keep a golf course bright green and an outdoor restaurant sprays mist on its customers to keep them cool!

Each state makes its own rules about how to distribute its water. In 1980, only three states had emergency plans for handling a drought. Today, 38 states either have a plan or are starting to develop one.

For now, drought-stricken Americans are watching the skies and praying for rain. "It will take two or three years to get out of the hole we are in," says Ken Beegles of Colorado’s Division of Water Resources. "We are counting on Mother Nature to change." Clearly, if we want to avoid long-term water shortages, Americans will have to change their water-wasting ways too.

Next: A Plan to Help the Planet