Declarations

Wild Imaginings

“Oh my Lord, I’ve got ducks swimming in pecan orchards. We never, in our wildest imaginations, thought there would be so much rain, or snow, in the pecan belt.”

—Randy Hudson, a pecan grower in Ocilla, Ga. The state has endured a warmer and wetter than normal winter that has threatened crops. December 2015 was the second-rainiest December on record, with consistently warm days and nights.

Not a Good Idea

“I’ve been over there and been in a ditch myself in a patrol car. … I’ve never had a crash or hit something, but I do know that it’s not a good area.”

—Wes Williams, emergency management director and former state trooper in South Dakota’s Day County, says an elevation change along a curve is partly responsible for the high accident rate on a section of a county highway. Day County ambulance service provider, Mark Christensen, also says he has responded to more traffic accidents on that curve than any other roadway in the county.

Social Media Risk

“Having your privacy compromised is not a good way to celebrate getting your driver license.”

—New York Department of Motor Vehicles Executive Deputy Commissioner Terri Egan issued a statement warning drivers of the risk of identity theft from posting images of their newly-obtained permits and driver licenses on social media, particularly popular among young adults.

Bad Gas

“Our focus remains on quickly and safely stopping the leak and minimizing the impact to our neighbors in Porter Ranch.”

—Dennis Arriola, president and chief executive officer of Southern California Gas, was responsive after California Gov. Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency to protect residents from natural gas that has been leaking from Sempra Energy’s underground storage site near Los Angeles for more than two months.

Levee System at Work

“The levee system is working as it’s supposed to.”

—Jeffrey Graschel, a hydrologist at the Lower Mississippi River Forecast Center, an arm of National Weather Service, in Slidell, La. The weather service expects the Mississippi River probably wouldn’t rise as high from Arkansas to New Orleans as previous forecasts had projected following massive rainfall in the Midwest.