I’ve been kind of obsessed with the level of Lake Lanier since the media made such a big deal about it last year or so and said it could run out of water completely, or that they might have to use dead zone water that was stored there since the beginning and completely out of oxygen. None of that ever happened and the lake is actually up 10 feet from last November. In fact, just this week it was announced that the drought is over.
Though the amount of water per inch of lake varies, an article from the AJC in January said that 1 foot of Lake Lanier is equal to 10 billion gallons of water and could supply Atlanta for 25 days. That article also said that Lake Lanier holds five times as much water as Lake Allatoona, which is now full.
Part of the problem with the water level was due to a bad gauge at the lake which led people at the dam to release billions of gallons of water, or about 2 feet.
Kathy was also very worried about the water level. She had us keeping pots of water in the sink. I never was worried, because what we need to live on and run our economy is such a small part of what is distributed. And over time, the gulf and jetstreams send plenty of rain to Georgia.
I’m glad things never go nearly as bad as they are for Nicole. She has been getting by in Armenia with 2 to 4 hours of running water per day. She has had two stretches recently of 4 plus days without running water. Somehow the city survives this way. (I keep thinking in U.S. prisons you get to flush whenever you want.)
We also had an ace up our sleeve. We could always say “to heck with the Florida oysters… turn down the flow!” Nature bounces back, as the weeds in my yard continue to remind me.
Jeb is fairly draught-proof considering he could easily tap into the subsurface water running underneath his house.