Yesterday when I got up, it was cold.. Well, it was cold for us, about 70 F. with a WCF of about 60 F. I was going to write something fluffy, like about how I could wear one of my bulky sweaters, which I did. About how I was wearing sock and shoes and not flip flops, which was true. About putting an afghan on the bed and letting Chico sleep with us, which we did. Then I got serious and decided to write about a cold front means in Central America.
A cold front combined with a tropical depression, combined with the rainy season in Central America means rain, lots and lots of rain. It has been raining for 8 days, and is suppose to continue over the weekend. One community in Honduras reported 36" of rain in 24 hours. That is roughly a quarter of the normal rainfall for the year on the North Coast falling in one day. Here in Trujillo we had a tourist who died yesterday when a flash flood hit the car she was in, washing her out to sea. Her body was found today on the other side of the bay near the port.
The Rio Cristales (Crystal River) is normally a fairly benign river. It is where most of our water come from. A couple of weeks ago we crossing the river and noted it was almost dried up, explaining why we had no water pressure. This was Rio Cristales yesterday
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| Courtesy Trujillo Noticias |
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| Courtesy Trujillo Noticias |
If you remember, last year the main bridge between Trujillo and the rest of the world was washed away. It just reopened last month. Puente La Burra spans the Rio Aguan and in normal times it looks like this.
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| Courtesy Trujillo Noticias |
Yesterday it looked like this.
The Mayor of Trujillo was out yesterday surveying the situation at La Burra, and this is what he found. The road leading up to the bridge apparently was not built on an adequate substrata, and is washing away. Remember this was just opened last month.
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| Courtesy Trujillo Noticias |
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| Courtesy Trujillo Noticias
In the rest of the country a cold front/tropical depression looks like this:
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| Courtesy La Prensa HN |
A family's home is destroyed.
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| Courtesy La Prensa HN |
A road falls into a ravine, cutting off the countryside from food and other supplies. These people will have to walk pig trails to get to work, school, or just to buy food.
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| Courtesy La Prensa HN |
Communities are cut off with bridges washed away, and who knows when this bridge will be replaced.
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| Courtesy El Heraldo HN |
An official from COPECO, the Honduran equivalent of FEMA, on horseback assessing the damage in an area in southern Honduras. The man in the canoe is delivering potable water, food and baby diapers.
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| Courtesy La Prensa HN |
Another tropical depression is waiting off the coast to move in when this one leaves.
How were we directly affected?
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The bodega is flooded, and the boxes are leaning precariously as the ones on the bottom get soaked. We will have to repack, but that's okay, because we can use this opportunity to get rid of some stuff we don't really need and check for termite damage.
The rain keeps falling and is so loud at times we can't hear the TV, or each other.
There is no view from the balcony, or at least not the usual view. That should be the sun shining off the bay.
We have a dry, warm place to sleep. We have clean food and potable water. We have electricity for now. Chico thinks he is in heaven, because he can get on the bed, something that is usually a big no-no.
We are blessed!
