Drought won't effect Gauley season
August 8, 2012 ·
While drought conditions plague much of the U.S., white water river outfitters in West Virginia are assuring rafters that there is plenty of water here.
Local outfitters are a little worried that potential customers
will be scared away by the drought.
Bobby Bowers of the West Virginia Professional Outfitters Association
has been looking at the map of the U.S. Drought Monitor and sees plenty of
water in the New and Gauley Rivers.
“The whole state of West Virginia
is at average rainfall for this time of year," notes Bowers. "The Gauley River
watershed has received an abundance of water recently.”
Each fall the Army Corps of Engineers drains Summersville
Lake and sends the water roaring
down the Gauley River. Bowers wants rafters to know the famed Gauley
season is still on.
“We’re just trying to get the word out so people in the
Mid-west knew they could come here and cool down," says Bowers.
The Corps will
release a minimum of 28 hundred cubic feet of water per second during all five
of the scheduled four day weekends that begin after Labor Day.