Set sprinklers to water the lawn or garden only - not the street or sidewalk.
Use the microwave to cook small meals. (It uses less power than an oven.)
Purchase "Green Power" for your home's electricity. (Contact your power supplier to see where and if it is available.)
Scrape, rather than rinse, dishes before loading into the dishwasher; wash only full loads.
Cut back on air conditioning and heating use if you can.
Turn off appliances and lights when you leave the room.
ASHEVILLE, N.C. -- Rainfall in late-December helped Asheville narrowly avoid its driest year on record and increased water supplies in Raleigh and Durham by several weeks.
But water supplies remain critically low in parts of the state. A reservoir that supplies Durham has risen more than three feet since heavy rainfall Sunday, but it's still about 18 feet below capacity.
Falls Lake just north of Raleigh rose more than a foot, which added two weeks to the city's dwindling water supply but is still about 8 feet below capacity.
Asheville ended the year with 23.55 inches of rain, which is less than an inch more than the record 22.79 inches of rainfall recorded in 1925.
All of North Carolina is still suffering from drought, and about three quarters of the state is in exceptional drought conditions, which is the most intense category.
