If the Southeast drought’s effects on Orme, Tenn., are a sign of things to come, folks in Atlanta should start scheduling their showers. The rural home to 145 people has run completely dry, and what water gets trucked in can be used only between 6 and 9 pm. This means citizens have to rush to get supper made, clothes washed, and baths drawn, the AP reports.
Since the town's creek evaporated in August, the mayor has spent $8,000 of Orme's $13,000 annual budget to haul in water three times weekly. The feds have awarded a grant to build a 2½-mile pipe to the water supply in Bridgeport, Ala. "I can't tell you how many times I've turned on the faucet before remembering the water's been cut," said one resident. (More drought stories.)