Drought

Lo, J. and I traveled over the weekend to visit Lo’s parents in North Carolina and watch our Hokies beat up on Duke. Because we drove down Friday night, we did not see just how dry Central Carolina is but when we drove back Sunday morning, I was stunned. We drove a stretch of I-85 that runs past the Durham area and traverses Falls Lake. That lake is one of the primary reservoirs for the Triangle and folks, it is dry. Furthermore, it has been dry for long enough for huge swathes of greenery to sprout from the lakebed. In 10 years of traveling that route, I have never, ever seen that. As a result, Durham has less than 50 days of water remaining in its reservoirs.

When I discussed this with Lo’s Dad, I posed the question “what happens when a major city runs out of water?” Neither of us had a clue and nor could we come up with an applicable parallel. Therefore, I pose it to you. Has anyone ever heard of a town of a quarter million people simply running dry? What happened? And could we witness some sort of reverse Katrina, where a lack of water causes the evacuation of a city?