They call drought the slow-motion disaster, and for good reason.
While earthquakes and volcanoes strike in a moment, and
hurricanes unfold over a few days, a drought is simply a day
without rain that becomes two days without rain…and then a
week…and then a month and then longer. The damage worsens by the
hour, but it can take weeks or even months before the effects of
drought become visible in cracked soil, stunted crops and dried
up lakes. Even then, there’s none of the explosive drama that
marks other natural disasters. Instead, there are days of sun
and heat, a steady drying of the landscape, as if the all the
water in the air and the soil were simply being sucked away.
(MORE: The Great California Fire) So while the drought of 2012
may not have generated the iconic images of Hurricane Katrina or
Haiti earthquake, remember that was is happening right now to
the heartland of the U.S. truly is historic. The National
Climatic Data Center reports that 55% of the country is now in
moderate to extreme drought, ma