Much has written and said about the drought in Georgia and what it means. But hearing about the drought and then seeing the effects up close are dratiscally different.

Back in February, we spent a weekend at cabin in Santee, South Carolina, which has numerous campsites and cabins along Lake Marion, a man made lake. Though we had gotten a cabin on the lake, we had arrived late at night, so there was much to see. The next morning I got up and walked the 30 yards to the shorelline and was perplexed by the strange trees I saw on the shore, pictured below (yeah it's crappy photo, but my camera's light sensor seemed to go on the fritz, blowing out the highlights)


It took me a minute to realize that I was seeing the part of the trees that was usually under water. More frightening was that I seeing about 5-6 feet of previously hidden tree parts.

Then I looked around and saw just how bad it really was:


The previous waterline was visible all around the lake. Where I was standing had previously been underwater and now it was just...gone, with nothing left to replace it. And judging from how much water had gone done, it would be a long time, if ever, before the water levels returned to their previous state.