The "Wettest Drought I Have Ever Seen"

Water has been a concern here in WNC for 2 years now. We haven't seen a drop of water at our house in almost a month. Our garden is not producing anything. We have gotten about 10-20 beans total, and nothing else has yielded any produce.

When we started to have issues with our well, I decided to google around and see if other folks were experiencing water shortages. I found a lot of interesting things while doing my research.

*If Western NC doesn't get 13 WEEKS of straight rain above our average, we will be out of water in a year. Our water sheds will be completely dry. Sounds unbelievable doesn't it?

*One of Marshal's 3 wells has gone dry and they expect the other three to follow suit in a few weeks.

*The French Broad River is at its lowest levels since river levels and weather records were started in the 1800's.

*Combined with last year we are almost 30 inches below our average rainfall since January 2007.

But there was one thing that I found that just completely blew my mind. I came across an online chat discussing the weather and drought conditions here in WNC. A lady was posting how she didn't believe there is a drought. That she is getting rain every day, and the rivers and streams have plenty of water. She called it "The wettest drought I have ever seen".

I am appalled and amazed at both her ignorance and her lack of common sense when people tried to tell her about the issues with rain and water sources.

What really got me thinking about this today was that we decided to go to the "Ledges Park" on the French Broad. As I posted before, the water is the lowest it has ever been. Literally, there are no records showing it at these levels. As I drove down to the park I gasped. I hadn't been down in a month or so (you can find my last post from it) and when I saw the lack of water and the yellowing grass and trees, I was dismayed.


The boys and I waded in the shallow pools while Carl and Rhett paddled down stream for what may be the last time this summer, or even longer.



The water level is dropping so quickly that soon he won't be able to get down the river, today was close.


While Carl and I were talking about the amazing sight of the river and rocks, he really put it in perspective for me. We are looking at rocks and fossils that no one who is alive has ever seen.


No one has ever seen these rocks that are jetting out of the water and mud.


No one has ever seen the pot-holes that have been caused by millions of years of water rushing over a loose stone.



No one has walked on these cobblestones.


But then again, we are in the wettest drought I have ever seen.