The call finally came

By call, I mean phone call. Our local government has what I presume is a reverse-911 system, and they are so happy with it that everything seems to qualify as an emergency. From residents who go missing from area nursing homes to escaped jail inmates, if something happens then everybody gets the call. I suppose there’s an argument to be made that each of these cases could be termed an emergency case, but what happens when a firestorm is ravaging the county and the evacuation call gets ignored by most simply because they think it’s just another call about Fannie Mae getting lost from the home again?

Last night the call was the one I’ve been dreading: an official government request to cut water usage by 50%. Fortunately, these requests are still completely voluntary for us. I’ve blogged previously about how responsible local residents have already been in drastically cutting their water usage, even though our local water supply is considerably insulated from the effects of even the current extreme drought. I have little fear that residents will be able to achieve nearly the 50% goal, even if they don’t quite make the full amount.

Happy with just a sprinkle

We’ve had sprinkles of rain throughout the night and this morning. To most people, that isn’t news, but in the parched southeast United States, it’s huge.

A report last night on the Weather Channel really drove home just how severe this drought is: as of this week, almost 38% of North Carolina is classified D4/Exceptional, the most severe rating for drought conditions. You can see a map of what this looks like at the University of Nebraska – Lincoln’s North Carolina State Drought Monitor page. Georgia is lucky, comparatively speaking. Only (only, he says!) 27% of that state suffers from the most severe drought conditions. Now take a look at Alabama. Over 50% rated D4.

Winter Storm 2007: the Storm that Wasn’t

After dire predictions of several inches of ice and snow, here we sit with temperatures hovering at or just above freezing, all the early morning snow (it was so pretty!) melted away, and a light rain falling.  The end result is that the roads are perfectly clear and it’s all boiled down to a cold, rainy day.  This could all change tonight when temperatures will likely drop below freezing, but tomorrow is predicted to be in the 40-degree range, so that will melt quickly.

I keep reminding people that this year is when North Carolina is due for another Big Ice Storm, but we don’t need to worry about anything until Atlanta is without power under a few inches of solid ice.