THE CALIFORNIA DROUGHT By Laura Perdew Content Consultant Josué Medellín-Azuara Senior Researcher Center for Watershed Sciences University of California Davis Essential Library An Imprint of Abdo Publishing abdopublishing com ECOLOGICAL DISASTERS
Workers delivered bottled water to residents of the parched city of Okieville California in the summer of 2015
Chapter ONE EXTREME DROUGHT In Okieville California in 2015 residents measured the water they used in drops not gallons Then as the fourth year of extreme drought in the state continued the town’s wells went dry Nothing came out of the taps except air or sand The hillsides were parched and barren Children played on dry soil where lawns once thrived Layers of dust coated everything Residents saved rationed recycled and cherished every single drop of water Nothing was wasted OKIEVILLE In the 1930s settlers from the dry Great Plains hoping to make a new start founded Okieville located in California’s Central Valley Today it is a town of approximately 100 homes They mostly belong to farmworkers and their families who work in the 5
