Los Angeles restaurants are placing a picture of a glass of water on diners' tables instead of the real thing. Ohio's Governor Richard Celeste, surveying his once lush farm fields, sadly compares them to "sand dunes." In the South, where all outdoor watering has been banned, residents are using "gray water" -- what is left after bathing and showering -- to sprinkle plants and flowers. Along the normally wet Columbia River basin in Washington and Oregon, there is not enough water to irrigate all the fruit orchards.
It is not the Dust Bowl yet, but the country's midsection and parts of...