Just What Does a Cold Front Mean?

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

                                                           Courtesy Trujillo Noticias

                                                         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.

                                                         Courtesy Trujillo Noticias

Yesterday it looked like this.

                                                          Courtesy Trujillo Noticias

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.

                                                         Courtesy Trujillo Noticias

                                                          Courtesy Trujillo Noticias

In the rest of the country a cold front/tropical depression looks like this:

                                                            Courtesy La Prensa HN

A family's home is destroyed.

                                                                                         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.

                                                            Courtesy La Prensa HN

Communities are cut off with bridges washed away, and who knows when this bridge will be replaced.

                                                                                          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.  

                                                            Courtesy La Prensa HN

Unlike FEMA, COPECO uses whatever works to get food and other supplies to victims in a timely manner.

Another tropical depression is waiting off the coast to move in when this one leaves.

How were we directly affected?

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!

The Weather and Other Things

I haven't blogged in a few days, because nothing is really happening.  It has been raining since Wednesday, the 18th, except one short 2 hrs on Friday.  We took that opportunity to go to the produce market and stock up.  You have not seen rain until you see it rain on the North Coast.  We get a yearly average of 142 inches, amd most of it happens during, of course, the rainy season.  Duh!!!

The problem with the rain is not only  that you have to stay inside.  After a couple of days, even the quietest little creek becomes a raging flood.  This results in bridges being washed away on many rivers.  When that happens, Trujillo can get cut off  from the rest of Honduras until the bridges are replaced either with a make-shift made from wood, or a Bailey bridge.  This morning's La Prensa shows a picture of a big, gaping hole in the road between Tela and La Ceiba which looks to be about 6-8 feet deep in places, and covers  all of one lane.  The road from El Centro up to Buenas Aires is so rutted that it almost takes 4WD to get up here.

                                                Photo Courtesy of La Prensa.hn

The other problem is that the rain cools everything down, including the 6-8 inch  thick walls in most homes, the concrete floors, and the rocks that are everywhere.  This results in no radiant heat.  When coupled with us having only screen in the windows, it is an unpleasant, wet cold.  Casa Ramirez will have glass windows.

The good news in Buenas Aires, our colonia, is the nice breeze that comes down off the mountain, making AC unneccessary most of the time.  The bad news in Buenas Aires is the stiff breeze that comes down off the mountain during rainy season, causing a chill factor that can be as low as 40 degrees. 

OTHER THINGS:  The rain chases mice into the house.  These mice are so smart!!  How smart are they?  They can do anything except read and write, all the time they are stealing the bait right out of the trap.  It is against the law to teach mice to read and write.  At least the mosquitoes are not so bad.

I actually found broccoli, cauliflower and green beans in our local market. along with the regulars, chayote (a squash), camote (a sweet potato), and yucca.  What a gift or me!  Macho Man, on the other hand is very disappointed.  He is a rice and beans man, and only eats other veggies because he knows they are good for him.

We had a scare about the Grandbrat.  Daughter called Thursday night and said they had been to the ER because she had a virulent allergic reaction to some unknown agent and was covered with hives and a rash that was threatening to swell her eyes shut.  After IV steroids and Benadryl she seemed to get better, so they let her go home. 

Friday she broke out again, and her mother called  me to ask what to do.  I told her to give her the meds the ER doc prescribed and add some OTC Benadryl to it.  Daughter took her back to the ER and told them her mother, the nurse, wanted to know why they didn't give  Princess Baby Girl a Dose-Pak.  They hemmed and hawed and gave her a Rx for prednisone if she needed it.  Saturday she was completely clear.  Monday she goes to the allergist to see what caused this.  The RN in me feels helpless.