State leaders on the Eastern Seaboard are scrambling to deal with something Western governors know all too well — drought and fire.
Governors in New York and New Jersey have begun warning their residents to save water as an unusual drought grips the region. Even with some rain in the forecast this week, it likely won’t be enough to bring relief.
A bleak picture is only worsening. Both states’ governors have alluded to long-term forecasts that suggest the winter ahead may be drier than normal, too. It is nothing like California, where wildfires routinely destroy hundreds of thousands of acres a year. But raging fires — which prompted local evacuations and smoke wafting into New York City — have given residents and political leaders alike another taste of West Coast life in a warming climate. Last year, the region’s air was dangerously polluted by smoke from fires in Canada.
The most severe drought problems may be in New Jersey, where Gov. Phil Murphy (D) last week put the entire state under a drought warning amid what the Democrat called an “incredibly serious” dry spell that has left water supply reservoirs depleted.
