Drought still lingers Father Samuel Heitkamp

 

This year we have had the driest first six months ever I heard. There was only 0.01 inch of rain officially in San Antonio in all of the month of June. In fact, less then four inches for the first six months of this year. We have been praying for rain, but back on June 30, late in the day, I washed my car. That is something I seldom do. Yet in just hours on July 1, the showers began to hit. We had, I believe, nine days of some showers. There was even some minor flooding in parts of San Antonio. We ended up equaling almost one half of all the rain thus far this year. We set back mandatory water restrictions until at least the month of August, but very little help reached the crops of our farmers. For most crops, it was too late.

The Express-News on July 15 compared this drought to the one in the early 1950s. I remember that drought as the one when Landa Park Lake in New Braunfels dried up. You could actually walk across it and jump in the middle and not get wet.

The paper also says that the United Nations report on food shows that the grain shortage, which has led to higher food prices resulted, among other things, due to the use of grains for the making of biofuel. Remember, President Bush was opposed to the use of grains and pushed rather for the use of certain grasses, etc. The resulting grain shortage will not be helped by a poor harvest in this part of the country, due to the drought. This drought is not over yet. I may have to wash my car again.

Father Samuel Heitkamp is pastor of St. Joan of Arc Church in Kirby. He wrote this before Dolly hit Texas.