Record Breaking Drought Takes Its Toll...08/05/99

(AP) - In parched public parks and private backyards across the East, the record-breaking drought is ruining some of summer's most basic pleasures. Anguished gardeners battle to save their plants, golf course fairways wither and picnickers spread their blankets over straw-colored grass under trees whose leaves are falling seven weeks before autumn. The drought is devastating crops and ruining lawns from Virginia to New England. Parts of the worst-hit Middle Atlantic states are seeing the driest 12-month period ever recorded, and experts say it could take a massive tropical storm to reverse the conditions. Maryland, where the rainfall deficit is about 10 inches, Wednesday became the first of the stricken states to impose mandatory water-use restrictions backed by the threat of fines.

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