A Drizzle-cane

Just to make this more clear as you read, I’m writing this at my computer on Wednesday, Sep 5. After the first day of school on Monday we were informed by the administration at school that Hurricane Felix is on it’s way and we should be prepared with extra water, food, etc. Then last night they said that Tegucigalpa was already getting rain and it looked like there was a lot of flooding there. So we were a little panicked yet decided there’s not much we can do about it so we had a hurricane party last night. The rain started at around 3pm yesterday with a light drizzling but never got any worse. Then it stopped at about 8pm last night…wow, what a hurricane. We weren’t bummed, we just felt let down that a hurricane would have no wind and about 5 hours of drizzling. However, we were misinformed. Tegucigalpa was not hit with rain yesterday morning, it was hit yesterday afternoon and into today, just as we have been. The rain started again at 9pm with a drizzle. I suppose it’s slightly heavier rain than Seattle can expect in December. So it’s not terribly hard yet there was talk about canceling school. At 8:15am this morning Norma (Honduran administrator) came into my room and asked to speak with me for a second. She said that the school was closing under order of the Department of Education. Kids from Santa Rosa were bussed home at 9:30am and from here in Copan at 10am. As us smart Americans left school we were just as excited as the kids! No school! Relaxation! Fun! It’s just a drizzle! Why are these fools closing school?!

Then one of us talked to Norma who informed us that back in ’98 Hurricane Mitch was the same exact way. There was no hurricane that hit the Copan area. This area was devastated by a long, sustained drizzle, which the ground cannot support and it caused a lot of flooding. But still we didn’t necessarily understand. It’s now been over 24 hours straight of rain without any let up except for about one hour last night. We walked down to the main river in town to check it out and it was at least 2 meters higher than it was this weekend with no sign of slowing down. We past a corn field that was completely flooded and destroyed. We stared past the national police/guard who had closed the bridge at the other side of the water. We just hiked up that hill this weekend, but the entire path along the river, which was at least 2 if not 3 meters above the river was completely covered in water. As we walked to the river we crossed a little river of water crossing the road no more than a quarter inch deep. We were there for 20 minutes or so and when we left the water was about half an inch to an inch deep. It’s amazing how such a constant, steady drizzle can devastate everything around here!

I’m excited that we don’t have school tomorrow but I’m worried for many of the people around here who live by the rivers and streams. We are safe here in Copan Ruinas, but how many villages lie along the river that have already been damaged? They say to expect rain at least until noon tomorrow…yikes…


(Thursday morning) The rain has stopped! Woo! I haven’t seen the river yet today, but the rain stopped around 2 or 3 last night. Part of me is bummed because we will most likely have school tomorrow, but at the same time I’m also relieved that damage will be kept to a minimum and we can get back into the classroom. Maybe they will still decide to cancel school tomorrow, that would be ok with me, it’s like the best of both worlds. One more day of rest and no rain to keep the floodwaters rising.:)