The Final Call

Drought strikes South and Southeastern states

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The prophetic warnings of the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad through his servant, the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan that Allah (God) would use the forces of nature and weather to continue to strike America as punishment for her treatment of Black and Indigenous people, continues to come to pass.

This combination of two fi le photos shows, top, the cracked and dry bed of the Almaden Reservoir on Feb. 7, 2014, in San Jose, Calif., and, below, the same reservoir full of water on March 14. Amid a wet start to California’s rainy season, and some mending of Californians’ backsliding ways on water conservation, the advice of the state’s drought czar: Relax and enjoy the rain. For now. The state has dealt with a nearly three year drought emergency. Photo: AP/Wide World photos

As parts of California received rain which helped relieve some areas in the state suffering from a drought that has lasted several years, some Southern states have now been dealing with record-setting dry conditions. Waterfalls are rushing in Yosemite National Park as the state’s five-year drought eases in Northern California. But lawns in Southern California were the same old brown as late as Nov. 3, with nearly a quarter of the state locked in the deepest category of drought. California remains in a nearly three-year-old state-declared drought emergency. However, rains have Northern California in its best shape since 2013.

But in parts of the South, a record dry streak has caused problems. According to The Weather Channel parts of the Deep South haven’t seen measurable rain since September, setting new all-time record dry streaks and quickly worsening the Southeast’s drought this fall.  “No measurable rain (at least .01 inches) has been tallied at Birmingham’s Shuttlesworth International Airport since Sept. 18, over a month and a half’s time, a record-long dry streak for the city dating to 1930,” reported weather.com. Anniston, Ala., Meridian, Miss., and Rome, Ga., each have 38-day dry streaks through Nov. 3. 

Going over a month without rain, coupled with record-smashing heat, quickly plunged a large part of the Southeast into a worsening drought, reaching exceptional levels in parts of Alabama, Tennessee and Georgia, the site continued.

“Reservoir levels have plunged, triggering major water restrictions. Friday (Nov. 4), a stage 4 extreme drought emergency was declared in the city of Birmingham,” it added.

According to The Weather Channel meteorologist Mike Seidel, over 1,200 fires have burned in Alabama since Oct. 1.

(The Associated Press contributed to this report.)