NEWS
PRESS
Dry state worsens
While drought impacts most of
http://www.news-press.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=200770502001
“This drought is
affecting almost all of the state of
Those restrictions
are designed to save 45 percent of water consumption instead of the 30 percent
restrictions in place for much of
“Right now I don’t
think we are planning a Phase III” on the west coast, Merriam said. “But the
more you can conserve, the less the chances of going to a Phase III.”
Phase III cuts
lawn watering to one day a week.
Lee Werst, a water manager with
“We manage against
the resources, and things are relatively stable at this point,” Merriam said.
April showers
helped
NBC-2 Chief
Meteorologist Robert Van Winkle said an above-average amount of rain fell on
the area in April, typically the driest month.
Van Winkle said
afternoon showers this week are a sign the summer rainy season is just around
the corner — although it does not officially begin until June 18. “They will be
hit and miss,” he said of the showers. “Not everyone will get them, but it is a
precursor to changing into summer weather.”
And lightning
strikes at the beginning of rainy season could bring increased wildfire danger,
said Ben Nelson, state meteorologist with the Florida Division of Emergency
Management.
The area remains
so dry a brush fire Sunday spread from 15 to more than 800 acres in Lehigh
Acres in a matter of hours. The blaze destroyed two homes and required more
than 200 firefighters and other emergency personnel to contain it.
“Folks need to be
fire-wise,” Nelson said, “and we all need to do our part to conserve the water
until the rains come.”
Getting his
sprinklers in line with the restrictions is something Dennis Roussey, 73, of
“Including me,” he
said. “I think it’s very serious.”
Four locks closed
in the northern part of the lake last week. And while the Okeechobee Waterway,
which connects the St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee rivers, remains open to boat traffic, it is operating on a limited schedule to limit
water leaving the lake.
Fourteen
submersible pumps have kept the water trickling into surrounding canals. Later
this month, the lake is expected to surpass its all-time low of 8.97 feet, set
in May 2001 during the last drought.
“It’s very low,”
said Al Linder, 71, an Okeechobee resident who walks his dogs on the dock. The
dock now stretches over cracked earth and stops near the water’s edge, where it
overlooks an island of grass that’s usually submerged. “The water is usually
into shore, but now it’s almost gone,” Linder said.
La
Niña worrisome
Nelson,
the state meteorologist, said a drier-than-normal rainy season could take years
to overcome. “Statewide,
The
fear is a La Niña event this summer — last seen
during the 2001 drought — will prevent summer storms from reaching
“La Niña typically means drought in