Wanted: Rain

From the Mississippi River to the Atlantic, a hot sun blazed down last week out of a cloudless sky. Ever since November, rainfall throughout the East had been far below normal. The drought in Kentucky was the worst since 1889, in Tennessee the worst since 1901. Virginia had not been so parched since the great drought of 1930.

As wells ran dry in Indiana and Kentucky, farmers used trucks to haul water for their stock. In New York, garden crops were badly damaged, lack of hay and pasturage threatened a shortage of dairy products. Farmers from Maryland, Delaware, Virginia and West Virginia met in Richmond, sent Secretary of Agriculture Claude R. Wickard a plea for "immediate help." In the Ashland, Va. Herald-Progress Publisher Paul Watkins advertised: "WANTED: One good rain for immediate delivery. . . . No thunder showers, ten-minute gully-washers, easy sprinklers or dust-layers need apply."

North Carolina's bright-leaf tobacco, "the golden weed" that normally puts $150,000,000 a year in the pockets of Tidewater farmers, was irreparably damaged. Forest fires, raging over 400,000 acres from the Blue Ridge to the coast, sent up white columns of smoke that were visible from the sea. In Jacksonville, N.C. an artesian well that had poured out 49 gallons of water a minute for 27 years went dry.

Rainfall in New England and Pennsylvania for five months before May had been 33% less than normal. In Ohio, rainfall was down 44%, in Indiana 46%. At Monticello, Ill. the Sangamon River had only 10% of its normal flow.

What made the East's dry weather most irritating to farmers was that on the other side of the Mississippi, from Kansas to the Pacific, rainfall had averaged anywhere from 11% to 133% above normal. There had been floods in California, Arizona, New Mexico. In Lake Mead, above Boulder Dam, was stored enough water to provide every inhabitant of the U.S. with 67,000 gallons, supply New York City for nearly 27 years.

Worst feature of the Eastern drought was that it came so early. Unlike the drought of 1930, which came in summer, when most crops were well advanced, 1941's drought caught the seeds before they had a chance to start growing. At week's end clouds hovered over the East, here & there dropping a thin, misty rain. But for many a farmer the damage was done: even a downpour would be too late.

But the same hot sun brought still graver trouble to U.S. powermen. TVA's reserves were so depleted that it had only a nine-week supply of water left. In Nashville, Tenn., in the midst of TVA's vast power development, the Vultee aircraft plant had to close down, suspend work on observation planes for the U.S. Army, dive bombers for Britain.

In Washington, TVA's father, Senator George W. Norris, started the ball rolling for a new power project. Senator Norris suggested appropriating "several billion dollars" to set up regional power authorities from coast to coast, build new dams and a nationwide network of power links. Meanwhile, Franklin Roosevelt, who also had something to do with starting TVA, contented himself with asking Congress for $40,000,000 to step up power production in the Tennessee Valley. But these were long-term plans. With less than six weeks' reserve backed up behind their dams, Southern utilitymen figured that it would take nothing short of a series of torrential downpours to rebuild their power backlog.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.