Relief Available As Drought Continues?
According to USA Today 
, the drought that has tormented the Great Plains the last few years is starting to ease. But as we wrote last summer, drought has such a wide area of impact and is of such duration that it's hard to treat it like a disaster in the usual sense. You can't just hunker down in your "drought cellar" and wait it out—drought affects everything while it sizzles.
Water means power, and low levels don't turn the generators . Ecosystems are stressed as wildlife moves away from dry areas and then congests other areas. The quality of remaining water is lessened, meaning water contaminated with microbes and an increase in disease-carrying agents .
So far, the USDA has a long list of programs for mitigating the effects on farmers, ranchers and other food producers. When I search the Web for drought relief agencies in the U.S., all I see is tons of news on international drought relief.
Is there an agency or a program that treats drought the same as a hurricane or a volcano? Let me know!
