South Suffers 100-Year Drought
June 16, 2000 9:15 am EST

Sinkholes Suck Down Houses In Florida

MIAMI (CBS News) - From the Carolinas to the Gulf coast of Lousiana and into West Texas, the South is now suffering through it's worst drought in a hundred years, reports CBS News Correspondent Byron Pitts.

In Orlando, sinkholes have sucked down houses.

In Atlanta, tough water restrictions will soon make it illegal for homeowners to water their lawns on certain days.

In South Carolina, the governor says drought stricken farmers are in desperate need of federal aid.

And in Flordia, where brush fire season is just heating up, crops are withering, while the wildfires burn. People are no longer just worried, they're scared.

CBS News has learned the government will officially report Friday that temperatures in this country, so far this year, are the warmest since record keeping began more than 100 years ago.

Federal weather forecasters have upgraded the classification of the intensity of the drought for much of Georgia, southeastern Alabama and northwestern Florida to "exceptional drought" conditions, its highest category.

James Laver of the National Weather Service Climate Prediction Center says, "Relief won't come until the tropical weather season comes, and that brings a whole new set of problems."