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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, APRIL 22, 1983
PAGE 8
The worst Dixie freeze ever so late in the season wiped out fruit
and vegetable crops from the Carolinas to Arkansas Wednesday.
For a third straight day, temperatures plunged to record lows in
at least two dozen cities from the Great Lakes to the Gulf Coast.
It made ice cubes of millions of young peaches and apples hanging
on trees in the Deep South, where many cities� colder than
Anchorage, Alaska, which had a low of 32.
In Georgia•••temperatures dipped as low as 12 degrees in the
northern part of the state..•• It was 30 de a rees
.!E
Atlanta,�
ting a record low for the date for the thir straight day. Other
Deep South citiesreporting recordsincluded Nashville, Tenn.,
26; Chattanooga, Tenn., 28; Huntsville, Ala., 30; and Charleston,
s.c.,
31•••• About 75% of the north Georgia apple crop appeared
to be lost•••• Peach growers in the northern third of the state
were also "devastated."
The next day snow fell on parts of Pennsylvania and upper New York State.
Record low temperatures iced more than 100 cities and towns from the Great
Lakes to the South. But as bad as things may be in America's Deep South, it
is nothing compared to what is happening in much of the Southern Hemi
sphere. We noted in an earlier report the drought conditions which led to
devastating bush fires in Australia. But conditions are just as severe in
southern Africa. An article in the April 1, 1983 WALL STREET JOURNAL writ
ten from Johannesburg, South Africa summarizes the weather crisis in that
part of the world where it is now autumn.
The worst drought this century is devastating farming communities
and bruising economies in southern Africa. Crops have failed in
! � belt stretching from the Atlantic
SQ_
the Indian Ocean
across South-West Africa, Botswana, South Africa, Mozambique and
the tiny land-locked states of Lesotho and Swaziland. Livestock
and wild creatures are dying of hunger and thirst••••
In Botswana, nomadic bushmen have for months been surviving on
wild fruit because drought relief officials don't have transport
to distribute corn rations...• Mozambique's international trade
minister, Manuel da Silva, has called for urgent international
aid. "More than four million people are suffering from drought
in this country," he says.
l.!! South Africa, which is! major supplier of
!222
to the entire
region, many reservoirs-ilave sunk to below half� levels of!
� ag ? ·
Many rivers have dried up and irrigation boreholes
nave
failed.
And for most of the country the normal "summer"
rainfall season is almost over. Only the dry winter lies ahead.
Sarel Hayward, South Africa's minister of environmental affairs,
the government department responsible for provision of water,
told Parliament last week: "Unless good rains occur in the.••
remaining months of the summer rainfall season, the drought could
well be the� severe
!hi!
century. In fact,! drought with!
recurrence frequency of one in 200 years could well become possi-
ble.ff
---- -
Climatologists at South Africa's weather bureau haven't any firm
theories on the cause. But they note that the drought extends to