Texas Drought Declared Natural Disaster

[ujoni08]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/2 ... 86992.html

'Drought and wildfires have lead to the decision by the US Department of Agriculture to declare the entire state of Texas a natural disaster. KCBD in Lubbock reports that in all, 213 counties in Texas have lost at least 30 percent of their crops or pasture.

The disaster declaration will allow farmers and ranchers to qualify for emergency loans at lower interest rates. "This is a disaster," Texas farmer Scott Harmon said. "This is a train wreck." Mike Swain, who farms south of Brownfield, told the Lubbock Avalanche Journal that loans aren't what he's looking for. "I will be real honest, I don't need a loan - I need rain," Swain said. Ranchers have also been hurt by the drought, Swain noted. "A lot of people have lost their livestock, their homes, their fencing," he said'.

Jon

[biffvernon]

http://thinkprogress.org/romm/2011/06/2 ... s-drought/

This is “the worst Texas drought since record-keeping began 116 years ago.” Drought and wildfires have led the US Department of Agriculture “to declare the entire state of Texas a natural disaster.” Over 70% of the state was in “exceptional” drought last week, with another 20% in “extreme” drought, and “213 counties in Texas have lost at least 30 percent of their crops or pasture.”

Interesting to see that the Land of Denial has the worst floods ever and the worst drought ever at the same time (though, obviously, not quite in the same place).

And an interesting set of pictures from around Los Alamos with this article http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... l?ITO=1490
I gather there have been some 800 forest fires in New Mexico just recently.

[JohnB]

Isn't it more of a man made disaster? Or has it now been accepted that us humans are part of nature, so anything we do to screw up our planet therefore must be natural?

[RenewableCandy]

Au contraire: they've "accepted" that humans have nothing to do with it.