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Abilene/Big
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abilene
/ big country |
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- Local News
- ...
percent
during a 26-year span, according to a statistical study for the
water district. Though cloud seeding may increase rainfall, it’s
no miracle drought-buster, proponents emphasize.
The reason is that one hallmark of a drought
is a scarcity of clouds, and without clouds no rain can fall
naturally ...
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- Local News
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lake,
with an extension contemplated to last through May 31, 2000.
An acre-foot equals 325,851 gallons. At maximum evaporation rates
common during drought, Phantom's water level
could dip low enough by midsummer to jeopardize the power company's
ability to continue to pump water needed to generate electricity
...
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- Area farmers struggling
for profit from cotton crop
- ...
,
not the billowing bolls of fluffiness that feed a farm family.
For people like Jacobs, the harvest will prove more disastrous
than last year, when drought and heat scorched
the cotton crop beyond salvation. At least then insurance more
than covered the losses — paying off “like a slot machine,”
as ...
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- Local News
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,
twice the city’s daily allotment of 15.5 million gallons,
the 55 miles from the Stephens County reservoir to Abilene. As
the current 2 1/2-year drought continues, the
city can continue to pump well over its daily allotment because
it had “banked’’ water in Hubbard by using less
than its daily allotment ...
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- Local News - Democrats
want debate out of the barn
- September
14, 1999 By LANCE GAY Scripps Howard News Service WASHINGTON
— Battling drought, declining commodity
prices and bankruptcies, a Willie Nelson Farm Aid concert was
back in the Washington area to push Congress to bring back the
price ...
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- Fewer wildfires
rage in region this year
- ...
percent
of the fires reported. The firefighters’ recent return owes
more to the tinderbox conditions than the actual number of wildfires.
The area’s drought index, based on temperature
and precipitation, has soared into the extreme fire zone, increasing
the potential incidence and intensity of fires ...
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- City under ‘water
alert’
- ...
in
Lake Fort Phantom Hill , Mayor Grady Barr declared a water emergency
on Thursday and ordered the enactment of the first stage of the
city’s drought contingency plan, effective
at 12:01 a.m. today. “It’s no more than the proper
management of water,” Barr said. Under the so-called “water
alert,” consumers ...
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- Water supply adequate,
for now
- ...
By
ANTHONY WILSON Staff Writer Despite increased demands on Hubbard
Creek Reservoir, the lake has enough water to serve its four
cities through a lengthy drought, officials
say. The assurances, however, are tempered with warnings that
consumers must conserve water wherever possible. On Wednesday,
the board of ...
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- Airplanes may aid
fight against area's grass fires
- ...
The
Big Country's volunteer fire departments and the Texas Forest
Service are considering stamping out grass fires from the sky.
Since drought conditions have worsened throughout
the area and a number of grass fires have been reported, some
burning for days, the forest service brought in ...
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- Local News
- ...
raised
Phantom's elevation above the point at which water rationing
could be enacted. Late last week, the lake's level was about
1.8 feet above the drought contingency plan's
triggering point. Hargesheimer calculates the rise may have extended
Phantom's summer usefulness by 45 days. But Kirby remains
...
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- Drought conditions
persist despite recent rains
- Sunday,
June 13, 1999 By BOBBY HORECKA Staff Writer Although much of
the Big Country is still in the wake of recent thunderstorms,
the drought conditions for this part of the
state are not over, National Weather Service ...
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- Business ebbs at
lake-related shops
- ...
$150
per day. Tapia’s losing about as much revenue in worms,
selling 600 containers a week versus 1,600 during a normal summer
season. For Tapia, the drought that has dried
Phantom to nearly one-third its capacity couldn’t have been
more ill timed. After working 17 years at the tiny bait shop,
he bought ...
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- Water rationing
plan under consideration
- ...
city
council’s willing. After listening to resident opinions
during a public hearing, the Abilene City Council will consider
a revised three-stage drought contingency ordinance
during its 9 a.m. meeting Thursday. Among the proposed changes
in the first phase are establishing a seven-day sprinkling schedule
...
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- Tougher water usage
ordinance to be considered
- ...
water
usage during droughts. A citizens committee recommended the changes
two weeks ago in an attempt to preserve what little reserves
remain in drought-shrunken Lake Fort Phantom
Hill. Feedback over the proposed changes has been scarce. “I
really don’t expect people to pay a lot of attention until
...
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- Rains take some
strain off lake levels, city water
- ...
storms
crashed through the Big Country before ending Monday morning,
dropping ample rainfall in spots. But everyone’s still looking
for that elusive drought-buster. Area rainfall
reports were as high as 3 inches, such as in Ballinger where
the mood definitely wasn’t to carp about minor street flooding
...
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- Water use limits
may be tightened with revised drought ordinance
- Thursday,
April 22, 1999 By ANTHONY WILSON Staff Writer Abilene homeowners
would be limited to watering their yards one day per week under
a revised drought ordinance the City Council
is expected to consider ...
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- Local business owners
pouring in suggestions for city’s drought plan
- Thursday,
April 15, 1999 By ANTHONY WILSON Staff Writer City Hall sought
the private sector’s help Wednesday in plugging the leaks
in Abilene’s drought contingency plan,
preparing for the possibility ...
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- Local News
- ...
grow,
we need to get the next level,” Harle said. With oil and
gas prices under $15 a barrel and the agriculture business suffering
because of the drought, Abilene and the region
relying on other sectors of business to ensure survival. Because
of that effort to diversify, the region will survive. “We
...
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- Local News
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all
summer, but he’d still have to haul water,” Robinson
said. “Maybe everybody is going to make it, but they would
like some running water.” The drought has
caused stock tanks, wells and other water sources to or run seriously
low or dry up. Haskell County has not received enough rainfall
to recharge ...
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- Big Country churches
pray, praise God for rain
- ...
to
the soothing thuds of raindrops and praising his heavenly Father.
A sign at Wylie Baptist Church encourages passers-by to keep
the present drought in their prayers. Photo
by Steve Hebert/ Reporter-News “There’s no telling
how many times I thanked the Lord for the rain,” said Hoskins,
a devout Baptist ...
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- Plenty of water
to use, not enough to waste
- ...
to
waste By ANTHONY WILSON Staff Writer Curtis Dawson pilots his
pickup atop the Hubbard Creek Lake dam, an elevated border that
literally separates drought from drenched. To
the right are the parched, dirty-brown hills of northern Stephens
County. To the left, the reservoir’s blue-green waters slap
...
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- Tips for saving
water
- Sunday,
March 7, 1999 Abilene City Hall launched the “Water Smart”
program during the 1984 drought to convince
citizens to conserve a dwindling water supply. The program offers
tips for lowering a household’s water usage both indoors
and out. Inside your home - ...
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- Water resources
need to be used creatively
- ...
months
of the year every time a promising cloud bank appears in the
skies of the western Big Country. Some think of the cloud-seeding
program as a drought-breaker, though that’s
a misnomer, says Ralph Truszkowski, CRMWD engineering manager.
“You’ve got to have clouds to seed,’’ he
explains. “It’s best ...
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- Firefighters preparing
for serious wildfire season
- ...
and
normally you are looking at a live fuel moisture of 120 percent,"
he said. "Right now, they are about 70 percent which means
they are drought stressed. "When grass
torches up those trees and out as embers, it can cause wildfires
that you can't control." Although the area is not
...
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- Water district approves
drought management study
- Friday,
February 12, 1999 By JERRY DANIEL REED Senior Staff Writer The
board of the West Central Texas Municipal Water District on Thursday
gave the green light for a drought management
study to be done by a two engineering firms. Freese ...
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- Rain, rain come
today...
City
Council about the water supply and the public demand at its Thursday
meeting. The presentation is routine, he insisted, and not prompted
by the drought conditions. The director is hesitant
to speculate about future forecasts. "I'm not in charge
of the rain business," Hargesheimer said ...
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business |
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- Drought dampens
holiday shopping
- Tuesday,
December 14, 1999 By DOUG WILLIAMSON Business Editor This holiday
shopping season is not turning into the joyous time some Big
Country retailers anticipated. The almost two-year drought
and a much warmer ...
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- Drought strikes
good, bad cords with businesses
- Saturday,
August 7, 1999 By BILL BERGSTROM Associated Press Al Pinkerton
hasn't had a day off since May. As the Al in Al's Water Hauling
Service, he's been making emergency deliveries at all hours to
homeowners whose wells ...
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- Brown County drought
damage assessed
- Saturday,
August 8, 1998 BROWNWOOD -- Keith Graf of Dallas, North Texas
regional director for U.S. Sen. Phil Gramm, visited Brown County
Thursday to assess drought damage. Lewie Newman,
vice president of the Brown County Farm Bureau, accompanied
...
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- Higher yields can’t
entirely offset low commodity prices
- ...
Higher
yields can’t entirely offset low commodity prices By Emilee
Trlica Staff Writer Walking through scorched, sparse fields accessing
the extreme drought damage was the task of many
agricultural economists about this time last year. This year
the crops look good for the most part, and some producers
...
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- LAP funding comes
up short for producers
- Friday,
April 23, 1999 By EMILEE TRLICA Staff Writer The 1998 drought
made it difficult and expensive for West Texas ranchers to feed
their cattle. Now, a monetary drought in Washington
has cut assistance payments to what some ...
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- Droughts prompt
legislators to consider relief
- ...
and
ranchers hard, drying out fields across the state, and state
lawmakers say another bad year could force many out of the business.
"The 1998 drought was bad, the 1996 drought
was bad and 1999 looks to be bad as well," Texas Agriculture
Commissioner Susan Combs said. "From an individual
...
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- Federal aid, crop
insurance help soften blow from storms
- Thursday,
February 18, 1999 HOUSTON (AP) -- The last Texas drought,
blamed for major crop losses, was less devastating thanks to
hundreds of millions of dollars of federal aid and crop insurance,
a published report says today. ...
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- Some parts of Texas
still rainless, even after drought ends
- Wednesday,
January 13, 1999 Some parts of Texas still rainless, even after
drought ends By CHRIS NEWTON Associated Press
OLD GLORY (AP) -- When cotton farmer Glen Germont hears reports
that the drought is over, he just laughs. Then
he counts the months since he last saw rain -- nine ...
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texas |
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- Texas drought thins
out pucker-up plant
- Friday,
December 24, 1999 By MEGAN K. STACK Associated Press Writer HOUSTON
(AP) — Revelers looking to steal a smooch this week could
be out of luck. After centuries of crowning December doorways
and inspiring ...
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- Most Christmas trees
for this season not damaged by drought
- Tuesday,
December 14, 1999 By SUSAN PARROTT Associated Press Writer DENISON,
Texas (AP) — For many Texas families, the smell of a fresh-cut
Christmas tree is synonymous with the holidays. ...
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- Drought might prompt
emergency measures at Sam Rayburn Reservoir
- Tuesday,
November 30, 1999 BEAUMONT, Texas (AP) — A continued lack
of substantial rain could force officials at the Sam Rayburn
Reservoir to erect costly barriers to keep saltwater from
...
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- Texas News
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should
be reserved for winter. Farmers fear their crops could die. And
there's little relief in sight. "The prospects of recovering
from such a drought are minimal because of the
drier-than-normal and warmer-than-normal winter we're expected
to have," said Mark Svoboda, a climatologist with
...
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- Corn crops in good
condition due to soil
- ...
rains
have not been excessive, but they have come at about the right
time so the corn has sufficient moisture and is not stressed,”
Latimer said. Drought stress last year made
corn susceptible to the organism that produces aflatoxin. Latimer
said cattle produce a waste product when they eat corn that
...
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- Texas News
- ...
month.
To the north, Ralph Edmondson is ecstatic because he has grapes
the size of golf balls. Tears were the only water to fall during
last year's drought, but the skies have been
kinder in 1999. Traveling across the plains, the results of several
torrential rains are easy to see. What was once barren
...
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- Texas News
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5,000
and 16,000 acres and between 300 to 400 head of cattle, Hamilton
said. With rising costs of ranching equipment and the constant
threat of drought, the small rancher is always
endangered, Hamilton said. "They can put together a good
herd and then it won't rain and they can lose everything
...
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- Texas News
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rainfall.
The level of the Edwards Aquifer, the city's water source, is
dropping by almost a foot a day as the region suffers through
a moderate drought, officials say. If the drought
management plan is triggered this summer in San Antonio, it would
be the third time in four years. The aquifer's level ...
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- State leaders urge
wise water use
- ...
CORONADO
Scripps Howard Austin Bureau AUSTIN — State leaders on Thursday
urged Texans to begin to use water wisely to avoid a repeat of
last year’s drought-related water shortages.
Texas was parched by droughts in 1996 and 1998 and more than
300 water systems across Texas last summer experienced severe
...
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- Texas News
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needed
rain and snow By CHRIS NEWTON Associated Press Writer LUBBOCK,
Texas (AP) - Just a day after Gov. George W. Bush declared West
Texas' ongoing drought an agricultural and firefighting
emergency, the clouds darkened, the temperature plummeted and
much of the region was blessed with the far-too ...
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- Bush declares emergencies
in 167 counties
- ...
a
state emergency in 167 of the state’s 254 counties —
including all of Central and West Texas — because of fire
dangers caused by an ongoing drought. He also
called on Texans to help prevent fires and conserve water as
the state faces its third potential drought
in the past four years. “I think we ...
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- Weather extremes
plagued Abilene in 1998
- ...
year,
tying 1998 for the fourth driest year since 1886, said Patrick
McCullough, a forecaster for the National Weather Service in
San Angelo. The drought didn't affect the 1998
wheat crop, but it crippled the milo and hay grazing, said Travis
Gary, manager of Abilene Ag Services and Supplies. Unable
...
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weather |
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- Weather ... storms
crashed through the Big Country before ending Monday morning,
dropping ample rainfall in spots. But everyone’s still looking
for that elusive drought-buster. Apr. 15 --
Heavy rainfall, hail cause damage in area towns: Sweetwater firefighters
and policemen formed rescue chains by linking arm in ...
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opinion |
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- It’s season
of the sky above, sauna below
- ...
bone-dry
rain gauges. Half of the nation has been baked by a killer heat
wave, and the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states have been desiccated
by a drought. The drought is
the region’s worst in 30 years, the second worst in a century
and, by an arcane indicator named the Palmer Index, the driest
it’s ...
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- Singing in the rain
- ...
1999
Singing in the rain In Sunday morning’s paper, the Abilene
Reporter-News devoted nearly four full pages to a comprehensive
report on the area’s drought, which is
well into its second year and is affecting us all. That afternoon,
.29 inches of rain fell in Abilene. The amount was miniscule
compared ...
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- Abilene has plenty
of water to use, but not to waste
- ...
Abilene’s
current water situation and the situation our community may be
facing this spring and summer. We are all aware that we are experiencing
drought conditions due to little or no rainfall
for the past 19 months. The few showers we’ve had have not
produced any water in Lake Fort Phantom, our major ...
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letters
to the editor |
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- Water before skating
- Thursday,
April 29, 1999 With all the drought and talk
of water rationing, should we be spending $100,000 on a skateboard
park or subsidizing another restaurant to be built downtown in
a “historical” building? Well, those ideas ...
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- Blaming 'holy man'
for current drought downright ludicrous
- Tuesday,
October 12, 1999 In Dawn Brown’s Oct. 8 letter, she claims
our current drought was caused by a priest of
another religion giving a blessing on our community. I must say
...
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features |
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- Features
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significant
cattle operations and the ranchers who oversee them, she found
the industry not only toughing it out in the thick of an unrelenting
drought boasting 100-degree heat but a confounding
haze from fires raging in Mexico. If that wasn’t enough,
ranchers were also being battered by low cattle ...
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outdoors |
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- Dove season looks
to be promising
- ...
opens
across north and central Texas - let's talk about the dove hunting
prospects for this area. First things first. We're still suffering
from the drought that began in this area last
year when we fell 10 inches below normal rainfall. That 10-inch
deficit is not a hypothetical number. If you have ...
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- Outdoors
- ...
weigh-in
trailer, contact Johnny Stoker at Sandy Creek Marina at 254-559-2815.
Catfish hot spot Having trouble finding a good fishing spot?
Has the drought reduced your favorite catfishing
hole to a dry plot of waist-high weeds? You need to check out
the newly opened Yatahay fishing dock at Lake Fort ...
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- Outdoors
- ...
turkeys
recently -- or have you ever seen a crop of birds do as well
with so little? If there is a hardier bird anywhere, better able
to withstand drought and cold, it would have
to be made of stainless steel to best a north Texas Rio Grande
turkey. We have lakes and stock ponds going dry, with wildlife
...
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