Politics
State leaders to ‘pray for rain’ as drought grips Georgia
September 15, 2016 - Gordon County - Milton Stewart, 79, and his foreman, Rigo Orozco, discuss a spraying strategy for this field which they found to be infested with army worms. He has several hay fields in and around Gordon county that have been decimated by drought and army worms. Northwest Georgia is the hardest hit corner of drought-plagued Georgia. Some counties have lost 85% of hay and cotton crops to drought and army worms. BOB ANDRES /BANDRES@AJC.COM
Georgia’s leaders have a long history of asking for divine help to break droughts.
Gov. Joe Frank Harris did it in 1986. Gov. Sonny Perdue did, too, in 2007.
Now, U.S. Rep. Doug Collins, R-Gainesville, and Agriculture Commissioner Gary Black want God’s help to end the latest drought to parch Georgia’s fields and streams.
Collins and Black will travel to Lavonia, in northeast Georgia, on Monday to pray for rain. The event begins at 9 a.m. at 1269 East Main St.
Fifty counties across North Georgia are in at least an "extreme" drought. Some in northwest Georgia are in "exceptional" drought, the worst kind, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. More than 7.9 million Georgians live in drought-affected areas.
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