FISHERS -
Even though several inches of rain fell around central Indiana Wednesday, it's not nearly enough to get the area out of a record dry spell.
In fact, the government declared 25 new Indiana counties disaster areas, bringing the total to 80 counties statewide, including Marion, Hamilton, Hendricks, Johnson and Monroe counties.
Wednesday's rain was a welcome gift to Indiana's drought-plagued lands and waterways.
"I've been waiting on rain since May," said Craig Fread.
Rain fell Wednesday for the second day in a row in many areas.
"It's been so dry here and we need the rain, so it's good for us," said Abdul Rachman in Hamilton County.
Good, but not nearly enough to reverse the drought.
"We would need about 7-8 inches of rainfall over a consistent period of time to get us out of the level that we are right now," said Citizens Water spokesperson Sara Holsapple. "It's not going to take us out of the situation we are in for quite some time."
That situation includes water restrictions across the state, reservoirs being drained daily and the 80 counties now considered natural disaster areas by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The water level at Morse Reservoir is down about six feet since the drought started. Because of that, Citizens Water says it will start pulling more water from Geist Reservoir - about six million gallons more a day - because that reservoir is only down about two feet.
"We're only talking about six million gallons and when you think that we are pulling 25 million gallons, it's not a huge number," Holsapple said.
"Hopefully it doesn't get any worse, 'cause I don't know what they do after Geist gets all dried up," said Kelsey Schrank.
"Both reservoirs have six billion gallons of water, so we're not concerned about either of them drying up at this point," said Holsapple.
But ask anyone who's been out on Geist in the past few weeks and they'll tell you how thankful they are for any rain.
"We were getting ready to pull up and there's...it's really low over here and we got stuck," said Natalie Mills.
"We need rain. We need rain," Fread said.
Rain fell Wednesday, but the city still needs several more inches to get out of the drought.
Citizens Water says they will start pumping water from Geist Reservoir to ease demand on Morse Reservoir.
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