Drought not over yet in Georgia

11 Alive (Georgia, in the US): The Georgia Environmental Protection Division imposed severe outdoor watering restrictions in North Georgia more than a year and a half ago because of the deepening drought. Despite all of the rain over the past few weeks, Lake Lanier still has a ways to go before it gets back to comfortable levels. The state Environmental Protection Division knows that, too.

The person who decides on what to do about outdoor watering restrictions in Georgia has taken our exceptionally wet March into account and has this to say about the drought: "The drought's not busted," said EPD Director Dr. Carol Couch.

Couch says one soggy month does not end the drought. "It's going to take four consecutive months of returning to normal rainfall for conditions to be such that we could declare that a drought was over," Couch said.

Dr. Couch and her team will also be looking at soil moisture and stream levels as drought indicators. They are looking better, but Lake Lanier is healing -- not healed. "Remember that Lake Lanier today, even with this great rain over the weekend, is essentially at the same level it was when we went into the Drought Level Four declaration in September of 2007," Couch said….

River Forks Park on Lake Lanier, near Gainesville, Georgia, shot by Mike Gonzalez, under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 3.0 License.