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Lake Lanier is full but empty
Summer a no-go for lake recreation as rains keep visitors away
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Parker Cook touches up one Gainesville Marina’s rental pontoon boats last week. - photo by NAT GURLEY
Be careful what you wish for? Lake Lanier is full and beautiful this year, but the rain that has kept it so robust has beat down visitation numbers to less than half of previous years, according to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, going into the Labor Day holiday weekend. Even before hard numbers were available, boats on the lake have been notably absent, and rain on some particularly important weeks had a huge impact, said Stacey Dickson, President of the Lake Lanier Convention & Visitors Bureau.