This is a very real issue and has concerned me for years. I'm an environmental studies major and water is something I think we don't take seriously enough.<p>But when I was homeless in California for nearly six years, it was during drought years for the first five. Towards the end of that, I recall similar photos going around of empty lakes and boats and dick's sitting in the mud or on dry lakes bottoms.<p>Then the drought broke and the last year I was on the street was much wetter. These were deadly storms with record rainfall causing much flooding.<p>I borrowed money and spent three nights in the cheapest dive I could find, not knowing how I would eat for the rest of the month but certain that being out in the storm would cost more and have devastating consequences.<p>The lakes and reservoirs filled back up. Years worth of deficits were remedied in relatively short order.<p>I do wish we would take water issues much more seriously. But I also wish we would remember that variation in rainfall is normal and reservoirs exist because of that and it's normal for them to rise and fall.<p>If you are interested, <i>Salt Dreams</i> is an excellent read about water issues in the American Southwest and Southern California especially. Fresno County has an excellent track record of raising its water table in some years and a lot of water rights law and canal building tech was developed in that county hundred or more years ago.<p>This book about the history of Fresno water development was an excellent read (at least if you are a hydrology nerd, I guess) and I highly recommend it:<p><a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/water-for-a-thirsty-land-the-consolidated-irrigation-district-and-its-canal-development-history/oclc/36954078&referer=brief_results" rel="nofollow">https://www.worldcat.org/title/water-for-a-thirsty-land-the-...</a>