英语小故事第136期. Drought Attacks Georgia

The state of Georgia is in the midst of a major drought. Experts predict that, unless it rains “cats and dogs” real soon, the whole city of Atlanta will have no drinking water in four months. Lake Lanier, the source of Atlanta’s water delivery system, is now at only 20 percent of its usual level. To make matters worse, when Georgia water officials tried to block the flow of the Chattahoochee River southward to Alabama and Florida, those states threatened Georgia with lawsuits. They claimed that they were just as desperate for and entitled to that river water as Georgia was.

The Georgia Civil Air Patrol has been trying to seed the clouds overhead for the last six months, to no avail. State officials asked the local Cherokee Indians to do a rain dance. The Indians told them they would do a rain dance when the state returned all the land that it stole from the Cherokees. Officials hired the nation’s number one water finder. He found a still for making whiskey.

Finally, the governor himself held a press conference on the steps of the state capitol building. He asked all the media to bow their heads, raised his hands to heaven, and prayed. “Lord, we are asking for relief, not for us, but for the sick and the young in this state. Thank you, oh most powerful Lord.” The Georgia Association of Atheists immediately sued the governor for conducting prayer sessions on state property.