DISASTER. dum dum dum duuummmmm

Yeah, so, this post is basically a short one about what is going on here right now. For those who don´t know, Hurricane Ida passed through here a week ago and dropped ALOT of water. People are wondering why it was so bad and it passed over in a matter of less than 2 days. Well, the Category 5 storm, Hurricane Mitch in 1998 hung around here for 5 days and dropped 400mL of water. Hurricane Ida in its best moment was a category 1 storm that dropped 355 mL on my volcano in 5 HOURS. What makes it worse, is that it had already rained here every day for 2 weeks on and off, so the ground was already pretty saturated. The mix of steep terrain and super steroided torrential rains, created the perfect conditions for disaster in my area.

So as far as results go....My community had quite a few landslides that blocked the road up to the main town. We got lucky though because the mayors office sent a machine deal in addition to a bunch of shovels to clear out the biggest one off the road. At that point they ran out of gas, and found out that the only exits down the volcano were blocked by a bunch of different landslides. So with no gas for anyone, the town hung out for a nother day of on and off rain with no power or water or exit. Eventually, in the next few days, they cleared out enough room to get a truck by and down the mountain, but the buses still couldnt run because there were huge boulders in the way. It took dynamite to blow them into small enough pieces to move off the road hahaha.

Today, on the 19th day without water in the main town and 9th in my community, both are now getting power and water back. The infrastructure damage though has been pretty bad. There are 24 bridges damages with 8 being wiped out. Just in my municipality we have 3 community that are still out of contact as afar as vehicles go. A few dont have water or power still (although some never did:) It will take a while to get things back in order, Id say a year for the whole region to get going. We should be back up in running in a few months though.

Our municipality had no deaths reported, although in a nearby river a 9 yr old girl was found. Most of the death were further down the mountain where basically two super large mudslides put a hurting on towns called Guadalupe and Verapaz at the base of the volcano as well as San Vicente. Also a nearby lake overflowed and wreaked havoc on the towns around it. There are even some neighborhoods that were completely erased. The death toll is up to 184 with 60 missing still.

In the good news, my home leave is now booked and I will be back Nov 27 to Dec 28.

Here are some of the few pics that Ive been able to get my hands on.

Washing out of roads was common.

This was the entrance to the community where the new volunteers had been placed.

Since there isnt water, the river is busy busy.

Some of the help that came in for the needy

Organizing the help.

Up the mountain towards San Pedro Nonualco

A small obstacle

Houses at risk in the outlying communities of San Pedro

A large boulder blocking the way down the mountain

More of the road to where the volunteers used to be... totally blocked off.

Trying to head down the mountain. Govt workers trying to clear the way.

One of the hundreds of landslides in the area covering roads.

Another.

in the way.

The road washed out at the only entrance to Santa Maria Ostuma

People climbing the valleys to find ways to accesible roads and work

What used to be the piping to our community, the reason we dont have water. They hadnt fixed it though because it is right below where they were going to dynamite the boulders, haha.

People walking down the volcano to work in San Sal.

Clearing the way down the mountain.

More love.

More wash outs.