mcangeli
Loading ... The water is only turned on for three hours a day. During that time people scramble to cook, shower, do laundry and a myriad of other trivial tasks that require water. At nine its turned back off and life returns to normal for this tiny town. Three days a week, the Volunteer Fire Chief hops in the firetruck and drives to a fire hydrant in Alabama where a firetruck from a neighboring city helps transport water to the town’s tower in order to allow for this daily three hour respite from drought.
Here in the Metro-Atlanta area we’re quick to focus on our problems and the dwindling supply in Lake Lanier (which can apparently last until the summer if the Corps of Engineer’s float a barge in the area considered the dead pool and pump water out) and we often over look the other areas hit by the drought. The tiny Tennessee town of ORME ran out of water a while ago. Last summer, the turned water off to the town over night. This year, they’ve tightened things a little more.
They have a plan though, they’ve received disaster relief from the Government and are working on building a pipeline to a local alabama water supply, something they hope to have done by Thanksgiving. The town isn’t mad, or protesting or complaining. They take it in stride and worry about how their larger neighbors will fare, the Mayor Tony Reames says:
“I feel for the folks in Atlanta,” he says, his gravelly voice barely rising above the sound of rushing water from the town’s tank. “We can survive. We’re 145 people. You’ve got 4.5 million people down there. What are they going to do? It’s a scary thought.”
It is a scary thought, but if they can survive on 3 hours a night, I’m sure we can do a little more than stop outdoor watering can’t we??
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November 2nd, 2007 at 2:35 pm
sorry, off topic but, I appreciate your comments on my blog about my stumbleupon widget (can it be used as a plugin?). I have rewritten it so that it can be used as a widget or a plugin and also it can show text links or as icons. It’s at my blog thanks for your suggestion!
November 2nd, 2007 at 3:02 pm
YAY!! Awesome work /me runs off to download and install the plugin!
November 3rd, 2007 at 12:24 am
Wow, we’re experiencing a drought here too. Technically speaking, NM has been in a drought for several years now. But it is most certainly not that bad. Considering how far flung everyone is across the state, it makes me wonder what would happen if we were in such a situation. I feel for those people.
November 4th, 2007 at 12:22 am
I’m down in Valdosta and honestly, I’m worried about fires again. We’re at a high enough risk for them, and under a drought, what would we do? My lungs can’t take anymore smoke…my asthma went crazy this summer! I’m hoping there’s no need for concern with the cooler weather all moving in.
November 5th, 2007 at 4:31 pm
I remember driving through Valdosta earlier in the summer it was bad. When we stopped in it was raining (YAY!) and one of our friends at VSU said she was glad for the break… hope it doesn’t spark back up, there’s no water to put a fire out…