"Extreme" U.S. drought worsens

(NBCNC) - In just the last week an area larger than California and New York combined moved into either extreme or exceptional drought.

The weekly U.S. Drought Monitor report calls it "alarming" how quickly the drought is intensifying.

It's so dry the few remnants of Monument City, Indiana, a town submerged 50 years ago to build a reservoir, are now reemerging after the drought dropped the water level 13 feet.

Near Great Bend, Kansas very little is left of the Arkansas River, with some parts completely dried up.

It's not yet as bad as the drought of 1988, but some of the Mississippi River bed is exposed for the first time since then.

In Cairo, Illinois, the river's 12 feet lower than normal, in Memphis, it's lower by 17 feet, and in Vicksburg, Mississippi 21 feet lower.

In especially hard-hit Illinois some corn farmers have given up on this season's crops and are mowing down their fields.