Obama turns attention toward California drought

By Greg Avetisyan |Assistant Sports Editor|

The state of California is in its worst dry spell in the last 100 years.
President Obama made a trip down to Southern California to address the drought.
Obama and Governor Jerry Brown met with farmers in Fresno, CA.
Fresno’s farmland has suffered through a winter with a lack of rain and snow.
Obama has pledged over $183 million from an existing federal fund to help farmers recover from the severe drought.
“Water has been seen as a zero-sum game: Agriculture against urban, north against south. We’re going to have to figure out how to play a different game. We can’t afford years of litigation and no real action,” Obama said to The Huffington Post when he met with farmers.
Electronic signs can be seen on California highways saying, “Serious drought. Help save water.”
“I see the signs on the freeway every day I come to school, it really makes you think about how we can all help recover,” said student Daniel Lopez.
The state is asking citizens and residents alike to help in the water saving effort.
Los Angeles averages about 15 inches of rain each year, according to the Western Regional Climate Center.
However, in the last three years that number has decreased from 12 in 2011 to two in 2013.
We are currently halfway through our rainy season and we’ve had less than one inch.
There’s no telling when the state might come out of the drought.
Mathematician and oceanographer at Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s Bill Patzert spoke to The San Bernardino Sun about the possibility of getting passed the drought.
“You crawl into these things, and you crawl out of them, but I can guarantee that we’re eventually going to find ourselves in a bad one,” said Patzert.
Patzert is considered the foremost expert on the interaction between the ocean and weather patterns, according to The San Bernardino Sun.
Residents are being told to save water and help get passed the drought.
On Jan. 28, the St. Helena City Council ordered mandatory rationing, limiting each house to 65 gallons a person per day, with warnings for first offenses, then fines of $374 for every 748 gallons above the limit. For the fifth offense, the fines triple, according to The San Bernardino Sun.
“The message to the public right now is, ‘Hey, no more kidding around.’ We need to be very, very serious,” said St. Helena Mayor Ann Nevero.
As the state’s water drought becomes more and more serious, the residents are being ordered to begin limiting the amount of water they use.
President Obama and Gov. Brown encourage California citizens to join the cause and contribute more to the disaster which has taken notice by the government.