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Crops Withering Under Severe Drought Conditions in Southeastern U.S.

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DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: We go from the West to the Southeast where farmers are watching their crops wither from severe drought conditions. And farmers are not the only ones affected by the drought.

CNN's Eric Horng joins us now. He is near Lake Ammonia (ph) just outside of Tallahassee, Florida. He has details on just how dry things are there.

Eric, good morning.

ERIC HORNG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Daryn, good morning.

It's very dry here. And to illustrate our point, we are here, as you said, at the bottom of Lake Ammonia just north of Tallahassee in the northern part of Florida. And about three years ago where I am standing right now, the water level would have probably been near my chin or possibly even higher. But today, I am dry, and as you can probably tell, much of Lake Ammonia is as well, just one illustration how severe this drought is in the southeastern U.S.

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(voice-over): In Florida, farmers Gene and Kirk Brock inspect their corn crop. The soil bone dry, the corn stalks, usually seven- feet high in June, stunted by an unusually brutal drought. The Brocks call this year's crop a total loss.

KIRK BROCK, FARMER: You look back on the time that you put into the crop, planting the crop, fertilizing it, cultivating the weeds out, and it's like you just spent all that time for nothing.

HORNG: They're not alone, much of the Southeast in the grip of a drought, the likes of which some states haven't seen in generations, Georgia posting the driest May since 1895, officials in Atlanta imposing tough water-use restrictions for the first time in 12 years.

In Alabama, the governor declaring a state of emergency for at least 19 counties, some farmers saying the drought began 10 months ago when last year's crops were still in the ground. And in Florida, a rain deficit of 10 to 18 inches. The estimated cost to Florida ranchers and farmers exceeds $200 million. STEVE SEIBERT, FLORIDA DEPT. OF COMMUNITY AFFAIRS: It's a very dire situation. It's so dire that, in many crops, particularly in the panhandle, they're not even putting them in. It's not that the rain hasn't made them grow, they're not even putting them in.

HORNG: But farmers aren't the only ones affected. Wildfires fed by dry brush have destroyed dozens of homes in Florida since the beginning of the year. In the past few weeks, officials have been monitoring an average of 200 hot spots every day.

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HORNG: And the cause of all of this lies thousands of miles away in the Pacific Ocean, the weather phenomenon La Nina cooling those waters, changing weather patterns and giving the southeastern U.S. its driest spring in decades.

Eric Horng, CNN, reporting live in Lake Ammonia, Florida.

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