South Prays For Rain -- Intense Rain

With 475,000 acres already burned, metro Atlanta suffering from lung-choking smoke, the southern Georgia wildfire has inspired many to wish not just for rain, but a real whopper: a tropical storm. The kind of drenching rain that fills gullies (and dried-out swamps, in this case) may be the antidote to the drought that set the stage for the record-breaking wildfire. And the South may get it, as federal hurricane scientists yesterday added their predictions to a growing list that forecast a very active hurricane season, according to a story in the May 23 Atlanta Journal-Constitution.