Go Green

By John Sutter

After being petitioned by the governor, the state agriculture secretary, two U.S. senators and a U.S. congressman, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced on Thursday that it will send drought relief to two Oklahoma Panhandle counties hit with a drought that’s been compared to the devastating 1930s Dust Bowl.

The disaster declaration comes after state Agriculture Secretary Terry Peach said that drought relief likely wouldn’t come until September. The drought has plagued Cimarron and Texas counties–at the western end of the Panhandle–for more than a year. Climatologists and officials didn’t take notice until the spring, after a Cimarron County commissioner sent a letter to state government.

Conservation officials prompted that letter, and, in effect, it led to the area being given the government’s most severe drought rating– “exceptional” — and to recent visits by Peach and Assistant State Climatologist Gary McManus.

Read more about the people of the Panhandle and the lead-up to Thursday’s disaster declaration in previous blog posts.

By John Sutter

For this morning’s paper, I wrote a story about scattered rain that’s fallen recently on the drought-ridden Oklahoma Panhandle — nourishing one couple’s hope that they’ll be able to keep their cattle, and their ranch.

I left out a fun detail, though.

There’s a newsman in Boise City named C.F. David. He’s the publisher/owner/editor of The Boise City News, a weekly paper that’s been prodding Gov. Brad Henry for two years to visit Cimarron County, at the western end of the Panhandle.

David has a $50 “bounty” out for anyone who can prove the governor has been to Cimarron County before. The governor’s spokesman says Henry’s never visited. You’d think the newsman would be thrilled that the governor now says he’ll visit the Panhandle soon (although he’s yet to set a date), to take a look at drought conditions that locals are comparing to the 30s Dust Bowl.

But David’s got his doubts.

If the governor comes, David said he will hand him a $50 check: an answer to his bounty. But until that happens — and this is the part I left out — David is telling locals to send the governor Oklahoma maps. He asked them to circle Boise City on the map, and trace the 6-hour route from Oklahoma City to the Panhandle for him.

Maybe he just doesn’t know the way.