Rockdale County is actually working on disaster planning. I was surprised to see it, but glad. We are lucky to have our own water supply. Last week, the powers that be met and named two locations for distribution of drinking water in the event it gets that bad. Info. was in an article published in the local newspaper. They are still working on details of how the distribution would be handled but intend to put together a detailed plan asap just to be on the safe side.

It makes me sad to thing that little children are worried.

I have been thinking about this too. I am very concerned and becoming more so by the day when I turn on the TV and see more mismanagement and mistakes.

If this goes on for more than another year I think we could see mass migration of hurricane katrina proportions. But unlike Katrina, we've got a long time to figure this out.

Definitely worthy of discussion.

As for me, I really kinda have to be in this area for business. While I can operate remotely for up to about 2 weeks, if the conditions become that hard to live with and people are evacuating, there may not be a reason to continue operating from here. Ordinarily, I'd say I'll move to the DC area or Virginia. It's a lifestyle and QOL similar to here. But that area is in a drought too or on the verge of a drought and I don't think I'd want to chance going through this twice. Also I'm sure that will be a top pick of many evacuees and since we will still have to continue making payments on our GA homes, the DC area would just be too expensive to maintain the quality of life that I'm accustomed to.

If I have to start fresh there is no telling where I'd go.
Maybe I'll just sign up for a FEMA trailer and head down to margaritaville.

Now is definitely a time to begin putting extra money away if necessary.

Even offices will be hit. You can't occupy a building without running toilets.

I have a pool that is way low; still could be used to provide flushing water. I'll start shocking it this week!

There was an article in the paper on Saturday that at the Georgia football game in Athens, they would be instructing restroom visitors to let attendants do the flushing - so that they could let it mellow if it was yellow, if you know what I mean. Apparently the stadium restrooms have 3.5 gallon toilets (which are not the lowest flush).

I thought that was very thoughtful of them to come up with that plan.

As to a drought plan ... I sure hope someone has one!

If we run out of water, does that also mean the fire hydrants will be empty, as well?

According to this article, the answer is yes.

Wow, I wish I could be relieved to hear others are worried as well. It sounds like we will be in for some reality check.

Interesting article, if the town is getting water from Alabama, is that water that is being sent there from Ga. ?

Harriet

I can't believe it would get to this. It is scary.

I can't believe our government is this irresponsible. Well, I guess I can.

Probably!

In truth the media is probably sensationalizing a lot as they normally do to get you to worry about doomsday events. I think it's fun to plan for such events though. It's easy to say there's millions of people in n.ga, they'll figure something out or to say the rain will come back. But did you ever think we'd have a total outdoor watering ban? It can get worse. Nobody really knows if the rain will normalize sooner rather than later. This could still take years to recover from. Anyway, it never hurts to be prepared.

I saw some outdoor watering this morning at a company on Boggs Rd in Gwinnett. The John Deere nursery on MkGinness Ferry in Alpharetta is still proudly pumping water out of habitat to support the front lawn.

Makes you want to boycott the nursery forever.

See........ you can't even water legally with an exemption because people get mad or rush to cry foul.

I feel bad for the nurseries. You don't know where the water came from and if it was newly planted stuff that is ok to water.

Boy, is that true. My heart aches for all the people who are in the business for love of plants and now facing financial ruin. We still had some areas close to eave runoff that tend to stay moist and took that as an opportunity to use up our meager plant budget now rather than later with a couple of nice plants from one of our local nurseries, but of course that would have been only a drop in a mostly empty bucket.

Worsening of the drought doesn't mean 5 million people will have to evacuate, but it does mean our gardens could very well turn sere and desolate before it's over. And past conditions might never return fully.

In my last water rationing, I sacrificed the lawn and other plantings easily replaced happily, plus a couple of areas I'd wanted to replant anyway, in order to save certain mature plants that would take years to replace.

A third class of plantings turned out to be ones that tended to look really awful, dropping leaves and mostly cancelling bloom, during the drought but survived nicely without significant dieback or stunting--a list we here might get together to develop through this experience since the books never mention those, none of them. In California, my mature hibiscus and camellia grimly hung in for over two years then perked up and looked like nothing had happened when the rains came again. The camellia got a rare drop or of water now and then, but the hibiscus simply hunkered down and ignored my cold-eyed decision to sacrifice it by denying it any water at all. We must have plants like that here too.

In any case, when the time comes when we can plant again, choosing plants for their ability to provide lots of very important green leaf surface and shade for our homes and still mostly be able to fend for themselves when future droughts come along is only sensible. Sadly, since I love trees of cooler mountain areas and moved north of Atlanta thinking I'd be able to grow some of them, I'm shifting my list to those that have always grown well in middle and South Georgia. Fortunately for me, I do really love pecans and magnolias too. Best wishes...

It makes me mad to think how much time has been wasted the last 17 years, fighting over water in court. They say we have the smallest water reserves of any city our size in the country. Knowing this they continue to let developments rampage onward. Somebody should have looked into the possibility of building reservoirs in all three warring states. Maybe its not that simple. If it is, then the one in Cherokee county is an example. It takes about 9 years to build one that size. The states have wasted twice that much time in court with nothing to show for it, except people on the brink.

On Nov 1, I checked the accuweather.com 15 day forcast for my zip code. Nobody can really see that far into the future and I think that is just based on seasonal averages. Might as well ask the magic 8 ball or the Juija board. It predicted a chance of rain on Nov 13. That would have been right on time since we've been getting rain once a month. But now that chance of rain has been removed. The forecast currently goes up to Nov 21 and none of the days show a chance of rain at the moment. Can we really go more than 45 days without rain time after time like this? Where is the lake water going to come from?

Not only that, they're reporting now that because the utility companies are seeing decreased usage, they are also bringing in less revenue. With the mandated cuts they may be in trouble from that.

This never-ending sprawl is ridiculous. It's like a runaway train. The utility companies have promised to keep our water rates low (amongst the lowest in the nation.)
Now if only the rates were as high as they are in other places with water problems and over development then you'd really see some reduction.
But it isn't just about that. They're sending water out of state! To the mussels and the people in Alabama who don't even have water restrictions!

The solutions our politicians are coming up with are low-flow toilets and cash rebates for modern plumbing fixtures!?!?!?! Come on! If that even makes a difference it will be a drop in the bucket. I'm betting that it will create even more wasted water.

All things being equal, like the water pressure for example, isn't it going to take just as much water to wash soap off your hands? The amount that comes out of the faucet at a time only determines the speed at which your hands will be free of soap or time until that dish will no longer have lasagna on it. Same with the toilet. Unless the size of that wad of toilet paper is reduced then the amount of water it takes will be the same, the longevity of the flushes will be longer and the number of flushes is going to rise.

Water is only wasted if it goes down the drain unused!