The rain finally falls, but not very much
We finally got a little bit of rain, but it’s not expected to help the situation much.
Lanier got 0.11 inches of rain yesterday (while the lake fell about 3 more inches) and has seen a total of 0.92 inches today. Sadly, despite the rain, the lake is down 0.05 feet for the day — about 1/2 inch.
There may be a bit of good news, though. The amount of water released from the dam by the Corps is calculated so that they can maintain a certain level in the Apalachicola river (5,000 cfs, currently). If other streams that feed into the Chattahoochee south of the dam get some rain, they’ll feed more water into the river and the Corps can release less from the dam and still maintain the 5,000 cfs mandate. However, the rain seems to have been lighter to the south and almost fully absorbed by the ground.
The 15-day forecast still doesn’t look good, with our next chance at rain more than a week away.
Also, as predicted a week ago, the Governor has pointed out that the rain came one day after the prayer vigil. I don’t like to doubt what God can do, but I’m very skeptical that the useless rain we received last night had anything to do with the prayer vigil the day before.
November 15th, 2007 at 11:25 am
I have to say it -
The linked article says that the Governor calls the rain an affirmation. If he believes that the prayers of the day before caused the rain, then when the winds associated with the storm blow down small trees and interrupt power (as the article also suggests), can state citizens sue the Governor for reckless endangerment?
Glad to hear you folks got some rain, you needed it and tons more.
November 15th, 2007 at 12:11 pm
I prayed for a pony, but haven’t received it yet.
My other prayer was anwered, though–I prayed that the sun would come up in the morning, and lo and behold, it did.
November 15th, 2007 at 12:15 pm
gov. denial. that should be perdue’s nickname. i can understand most adults in georgia being in denial…who would ever have thought this could happen….but the gov, the leader….this is insane. leaders cannot be in denial. he knew long before that georgia was having water issues. the state govt has known for a long time. this is not somehting that popped up overnight. this has been going on for over 2 decades.
i suggest everyone here write to their rep’s and their gov and demand a long term plan. continue writing emails and letters and phone calls until the gov and state get the idea that we aren’t wiling to wait for god to solve the problem. sure it will cost in higher water costs and more taxes…but who here isn’t willing to kick in to preserve their home and business, etc. this prayer vigil and kiddie contest makes me sick….i don’t care if perdue does it at night on his own time, but during the day he needs to be working hard on this problem. we need to demand a long term sustainable plan at any cost. otherwise unless god decides to send many months of rain….this state will be a ghost town. i don’t know about you but i am not willing to take that almost guaranteed risk. disasters need actions not words and contests. a leader and, leaders who do not act during a crisis are useless.
November 15th, 2007 at 12:21 pm
Lake level before the rain started - 1053.22
Lake lever as of 11 AM this morning - 1053.16
Yeah, so much for that affirmation.
November 15th, 2007 at 12:23 pm
Nice of you here to use a tragedy like the Georgia drought to make cheap philosophical points on those who believe in the power of prayer. Sure, Sonny’s an ass, but does that mean you have to start slamming all of those who believe enough in a God to pray?
Being a smart-ass is a wonderful thing. Requires no love of your fellow man, no humility, and no doubts that every single thing you hold to be true might not be true.
November 15th, 2007 at 12:23 pm
I’m disappointed with the governor not recognizing Alabama’s and Florida’s right to their share of the water and blaming it on the endangered mussels.
So he is praying to suck up all the water and continue this reckless sprawl with no real planning for basic services?
I’m a real Christian but see too many phony people ignore problems facing us, distort reality, then try and claim a higher moral ground.
I still can’t believe Atlanta is this short on water?
With the climate changes from global warming this might be just the start.
November 15th, 2007 at 12:31 pm
Woah. I was only poking fun at the governor trying to wheedle a little free credit for the rain. I wasn’t working to incite a wholesale attack on the religously faithful.
He’d have gotten far more moxie points in my book if he’d just walked out in front of reporters, pointed at the sky and screamed, “I demand that you RAIN!”
Can you imagine the headlines? First, “Insane governor tries to control the weather” and then later, “Governor Perdue capable of controlling forces of nature! Demands re-election or he will fill all Geogia’s homes with bees.”
November 15th, 2007 at 12:31 pm
We in the Great Lakes region are watching the lake levels fall here too. We are also guarding our water so no other state gets any ideas.
Since Georgia’s problems go back a ways, why hasn’t anything been done?
November 15th, 2007 at 12:37 pm
Since Georgia’s problems go back a ways, why hasn’t anything been done?
The governor was too busy praying.
November 15th, 2007 at 12:42 pm
BPC,
Just speaking for myself, I’ve got nothing against people who believe in the power of prayer. What I object to is the fallacious _post hoc, ergo proper hoc_ argument that prayers brought the rain (which suggests also that the drought was caused by a _lack_ of prayer.)
November 15th, 2007 at 12:42 pm
You know the answer to that CGB.
It’s two part - first is money. Solutions are expensive. Second is urgency - even when the problem is recognized, if there isn’t any urgency, it gets put on the back burner. That’s the way governments operate. It’s not even entirely their fault - would Georgia have approved a referendum to spend say… two billion dollars, to build desalination plants for the state, when the state wasn’t in a drought?
It’s just not likely. People would have said the money can go for more (here it comes) urgent… needs.
The better question is, “Now that there IS a crisis, why isn’t there a huge push to develop a plan and get something implemented, first for the deadpool in Lake Lanier to give several more months buffer, and then for a long term solution?”
We don’t have an answer for that yet.
November 15th, 2007 at 12:50 pm
You guys got rain last night, no more crisis, might as well erase this blog.
November 15th, 2007 at 12:59 pm
It’s disturbing that people think they need to rally behind the governor in order to defend the power of prayer. This is a political move, plan and simple, scheduled on a day when rain was already in the forecast. Purdue is a politician, not a leader; if he was, there would be PLANS in place for water shortages, not the desperate plea for prayer.
God is Real. God loves us. But God is not mocked, and all our political leaders who use him as a prop to help themselves get elected or win brownie points with the public do not please him. I do not claim to speak for God, but history in the Bible shows this to be true. We are a foolish people if we do not remember what the Bible has clearly shown us. Our leaders are vain, they take the Lord’s words and distort them for personal gain and to begin wars and remove freedoms and squander the great natural resources of our country.
Shame on Sonny Purdue. Shame. May God please bless Atlanta.
November 15th, 2007 at 1:11 pm
Um, those of you who are so convinced that prayer works, I have another idea…how about a little forethought and PREPAREDNESS? To have absolutely no plan and then to pray for rain is not only irresponsible, it’s reckless.
Until we start actually addressing problems, we are at the mercy of nature.
November 15th, 2007 at 1:14 pm
I think you folks have figured out how to solve this crisis. Don’t worry about conservation or wasting water. Just keep on prayin’.
November 15th, 2007 at 1:15 pm
There is no plan, there won’t be a plan. The so called captain of our Titanic is in Canada for some reason (probably buying the canadian dollar). It’s not just GA, the people who are entrusted to react and plan for these things are AWOL.
Article today, the govt knows of “catastrophic” water shortages in 36 states in the next 5 years. But, no planning is occurring - back to on of my prior posts, elected officials want the crisis so they can campaign on it and take more of our money and civil liberties, period. Its sick.
“The U.S. Government Accountability Office warns that the combination of rain shortage, rising temperatures, urban sprawl, and population growth will cause at least 36 states to experience catastrophic water shortages within the next five years.”
http://www.thetrumpet.com/index.php?q=4430.2688.0.0
November 15th, 2007 at 1:23 pm
Inquiring minds want to know:
Have the new “town management” companies that have recently been established in the Atlanta suburbs been praying too? They signed a contract to supply the residents with all services, including water. Will they break contract soon?
November 15th, 2007 at 1:25 pm
I pray that my son comes back from his second tour in Iraq in one piece. I also pray that the fools running the show will realize their folly and stop this damn war before he has to do his third tour.
November 15th, 2007 at 1:27 pm
[...] prayer service to combat the drought, I suppose I should close the loop by pointing to this post at the Atlanta Water Shortage blog: Lanier got 0.11 inches of rain yesterday (while the lake fell [...]
November 15th, 2007 at 1:33 pm
We knew a potential cold front was on the way before the Gov called for his prayer session.
While I don’t have an issue with prayer (hey, who knows, it might help), it’s a bit of a stretch to give prayer credit for something that was already in the near-term forecast. IMO.
November 15th, 2007 at 1:35 pm
Let’s keep the comments on topic. If you want to talk about Sonny wasting (or not wasting) time by holding prayer vigils, that’s fine.
However, this isn’t the place for theological arguments for or against God. Posts that are solely for that purpose from either viewpoint will be removed.
November 15th, 2007 at 1:38 pm
You know what else sucks? I went there with a metal detector and they said I couldn’t use it past the swim-line buoys. Why not??? I was cleaning up God knows how many old beer cans… and was hoping to find at least one non-alcoholic treasure. Looks like there’s a drought of liberty as well in the area. Might as well make good use of the low lake levels, right? Maybe they should have a treasure hunt day and charge a $10 or $20 admission and donate the money to some drought-related efforts… hmmmmm. Someone call the Governor for me when he’s not busy praying.
November 15th, 2007 at 1:50 pm
It’s interesting that he scheduled this prayer day within days of the five day forcast that called for rain on every local television weather station.
Tomorrow morning at around 6:30 I’m going to hold a prayer circle to pray to the Flying Spaghetti Monster that the sun will come up. If it does it will prove that He exists and is answering our prayers.
True believers in the FSM are encouraged to join me in this important prayer circle.
November 15th, 2007 at 1:57 pm
I’m kind of surprised about the metal detector thing.
November 15th, 2007 at 2:02 pm
Spavid, sorry to say, but your “not past the swimming buoys” example is just the beginning of restrictions to seemingly benign liberties we all will see as the crisis deepens. “Everyone” but “no one” will be in charge. People with and without badges will just start making up rules with no foundation or law - look out….
November 15th, 2007 at 2:15 pm
Ignoring the questions of the power of prayer and simply focusing on the question is this a productive response to the situation, Jay Bookman wrote an article in the AJC today entitled ” THE DROUGHT: Needed: A process, a deadline, a panel” In it he recommends that we should assemble a panel of outside experts, give them a year and a sufficient budget, and then make their final recommendations binding on all three states and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. You take out the politics and the posturing, and you get a decision based on the facts of the case.
He goes on to say that “Such a process would undoubtedly require congressional action, but the alternative is to keep fighting this in the courts forever, which serves nobody.
However, the process can’t end there, because the issues won’t end there. Alabama, Georgia and Florida should also agree to a tristate commission to manage the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint watershed, following the model of states facing similar challenges.”
This is, IMHO. one of the best and most logical and well thought out approaches to addressing the problems that we are facing. Someone should award Mr Bookman $2000 for his idea
http://www.ajc.com/opinion/content/opinion/stories/2007/11/15/bookmaned1115.html?cxntlid=inform
November 15th, 2007 at 2:19 pm
God may have answered his prayer, but Sonny should have put a little more emphasis on how much he needed.
November 15th, 2007 at 2:37 pm
Hi, I was listening to Sean Hannity last night driving home from work; anyway wow, he was blasting Georgia’s folks on prayer to the point I had to turn off the radio. Sean does not know how many of us have been trying to push to resolve water issues for Lake Lanier for years? This finger-pointing contest has been going on and no action has been happening to fix it. Then a couple of Months ago (a little late) the State Government comes out swinging and I really thought he/they may come up with emergency funds for drilling or something? Next move, we are praying for God to basically fix what another of our government programs is messing up right in front of our eyes? I do pray just like others, but most of us are sick of government/media as we watch the government miss-run these programs; i.e. Social Security, Schools, Katrina, Possible healthcare, Security issues/wars and the good old Corp. of Engineers? Our monies keeps going elsewhere and us here in the good old USA have decaying roads and bridges, no boarders, and no water here in GA anyway, and now a economic disaster for these areas both here and down the stream? Thanks for the ear.
November 15th, 2007 at 2:57 pm
Bonnie,
My response:
http://xkcd.com/154/
You can believe in whatever god you want. I don’t care. You can believe that if you pray for it, he’ll bring you rain or, let’s imagine, a pony. But you have faith, not results. I went out and bought a pony - I believe in rationally attacking the situation. You still don’t have a pony. The rest of us are depending on your link in the Pony Express, or we’ll be left with hardship (someone’s going to need to ride 40 miles in the dead of winter instead of 20, resulting in frostbite). You had a responsibility to procure a pony, and if your faith failed to provide, I think it’s fair that we call your faith a dumb way of running the Pony Express. If the 1000-head mustang herd that you keep on your ranch is in foaling season, it’s fair to say that your faith had nothing to do with procuring your pony, and you’re a charlatan.
Just as praying for rain may perfectly fairly be called a dumb way of running a US state. The rest of us who don’t share your against-all-evidence belief in an invisible man in the sky are RELYING on you to SAVE OUR CITY. Saying that God will provide a solution is equivalent for us (And for many Christians), to saying that you don’t know how the hell we’ll solve things, let’s just give up trying. When our leadership GIVES UP THEIR RESPONSIBILITY to try to save our city, it worries us. Leadership matters to our well-being, and if prayer matters to leadership, then our opinion of prayer is not a sacrosanct, irrelevant topic.
As a (presumably) pious Christian, would you elect a minister for governor who decided everything using a dice-roll, trusting that God would guide the dice after his all-day prayer sessions?
November 15th, 2007 at 3:22 pm
Great post Jerry! These policies have put us in the USA in a real bind.
November 15th, 2007 at 4:33 pm
There’s not a single lake of any substantial size in Georgia that isn’t man made. For such a God loving, God fearing state, the real estate developers who are tearing up the metro Atlanta area and overhauling the landscape with the work of their hands, have very little hubris.
They say “Man plans, God laughs.” But we need a water plan down here, folks.
November 15th, 2007 at 4:54 pm
Neener there is a plan:
Come spring, pack up the car and head to grandma’s!
November 15th, 2007 at 5:02 pm
Personally, that’s our family’s plan. My in-laws have extra room and are in better shape water-wise. If it gets to that point, we’ll just head down there for a while.
November 15th, 2007 at 8:07 pm
Thanks JohnC,
Sean Hannity said it was pouring rain in GA. on his show tonight when I was driving home from the prayers, but it was dry on I-85 for me? I did send Sean an email and expressed that GA people may be asking for help as many most likely listen to his show locally on WSB 750.
We have got to get involvement for solutions, short and long term and neutralize the blame games?
November 15th, 2007 at 9:18 pm
Mike Malloy summed it all up the other night: Atlanta was designed to sustain a population of maybe one million, two million at best. With five million people, the water supply will fall way short.
There’s nothing wrong with praying; first, though, you just have to crunch some numbers and put a moratorium on hyper development.
November 15th, 2007 at 9:53 pm
Well said Steve. The big cities in NC and GA sucking up all the water in the entire region isn’t everyone’s idea of progress.
Developers and residence scoff at the notion living within any limits.
GA has a history of imposing policy from political strength. They will take as much as they can and to hell with everyone else.
November 15th, 2007 at 10:45 pm
God is all-powerful in the moral realm of things.
But He has no power whatsoever over the physical world.
Any God that could actually effect changes in the physical world would be indistinguishable from the Devil.
Pray to God if you want help trying to deal with crazy ole Purdue; but don’t ask him to turn on the spigot in the clouds.
November 27th, 2007 at 8:04 am
Elected officials must act and develop long range plans!!
December 24th, 2007 at 5:53 pm
West Texas has been in a 15 year drought with lake water levels dropping 60 feet. They still have plenty of drinking water and can survive another 15 years of drought just because they have been through this before. Surprise Georgia!!! You are in a 2 year drought. You will not get 50 inches of rain every year just as West Texas will not get 20 plus inches every year. They are thankful just to get 15! My suggestion is to make your resiviours deeper along with your already planned new resiviour that I heard is being constructed at an old quarry. This will happen again as you will not get 50 inches of rain every year. AND the population will continue to rise! So, I suggest Georgia invest in dredges to deepen you resiviours if that is at all possible.
P.S. While traveling through your state we brought our own drinking water from drought stricken South Carolina to do our little part to help with the drought situation. Although, I don’t think it will help that much. Good Luck!
Sincerely,
South Carolina Visitor
January 29th, 2008 at 2:50 am
And what happened to WSB-AM’s fake 750 Water Watch?????? Every day they were counting down how much water allegedly was available. Now, they’ve quit. It was BS to begin with. Lame station.
April 30th, 2008 at 8:43 pm
We do need to be aware of the water “shortage”, but I wouldn’t worry about it too much. This happened in the Old Testament (of the bible) to the people of Israel. It was only when they would turn from their sins, turn to God, and pray, that God would end the drought. Besides, the EPA predicted that the “shortage” won’t be until somewhere between 2015-2025. Thats 8-18 years from now.