After 10 virtually dry months, we are now enjoying the tropical rainy season we have felt cheated of for so long. Tegucigalpa was looking like a dusty, dry, barren land a month ago. However, we have been blessed with daily rain for the last 2 weeks and now the thirsty mountains are getting water-logged. As we drove around the city today, much of the water run-off on the street was the brown-red color of earth. With this much rain in a short period of time, it cannot soak into the drenched ground anymore and is just rushing down the mountainsides and into storm drains.
A common sight over the past couple of weeks have been water rushing UP and OUT of manhole covers. This is truly an amazing sight and our best guess is that clogged pipes underground are not allowing water to pass, so rivers are created on the roads as the water is coaxed by gravity to go somewhere else.
This picture from La Tribuna was taken yesterday in Comayagüela (across the river from Tegucigalpa).
These pictures, from El Heraldo, were taken in Tegucigalpa as well.
Here is a video from the news.
There are a lot of people who are impacted by this storm in a significant way. Many people in this city live in houses that are in areas where mudslides and torrential rains can wipe out their homes.
We hope to fly home for the summer this Thursday evening. The airport has been closing for periods of time over the last few days because of the rain. We're keeping our fingers crossed that our plane will be able to take off. But we also realize that our potential problem of having our flight cancelled is small potatoes compared the real problems, heart ache and challenges other people endure.
As is typical in this land of extremes, the storm is dissipating, the sun is coming out and with luck, things will return to "normal"...
ReplyDeleteKeeping our fingers crossed that you are able to fly home on Thursday. Have a safe trip :-)
ReplyDelete