This Is Rain!!!

The latest weather report stated that there was another cold front going to move in today and that there might be a minor amount of rain involved in its arrival. HAH! So much for technology!

This latest storm arrived about 4:30 this morning, with me lying in bed wondering what the noise was that had woken me. It took a few minutes for my brain cell matter to kick into gear and identify this particular noise and when I finally registered that it was rain, I lurched out of bed to close the bathroom window.

Too late, this storm had come from the north and the wind had driven the rain through the louvers to make a briskly flowing little stream that I spotted before slipping and sliding on the wet tiles. So there were a few minutes spent closing all of the windows and mopping up what had already arrived indoors. What a lovely way to start the morning!

It has been an unseasonably long and extremely damaging rainy season this past two months in Honduras and I’ve listened to reports (prior to this particular storm) of main highway closures, major roadway wash outs and towns like Trujillo being cut off from supplies and reliant upon air delivery of basic necessities like clean drinking water.

Even my own arrival here November 25th entailed a prolonged wait at San Pedro Sula airport, waiting for a van to drive us to La Ceiba, as its airport was closed that day (and evening!) due to weather. That particular 3 hour long, night drive also included the driver coaxing our van over the single lane (which was all that remained of the original bridge) after being allowed through by the federales stationed there.

I’ve talked and written about the torrential tropical rains that we get here in La Ceiba, in the past but truly this must have been the mother of all storms that arrived today. Heavy rains with individual reports of 25cm (10”) in the first 12 hours; horrendous thunder erupting immediately over the house over the course of 2 hours this morning and there is no end in sight.

I turned on the local news channel and watched the clips of whole barrios (neighbourhoods) being washed out complete with people standing or walking in thigh high waters, buildings collapsing, taxis with water up to the door windows and sewage canals overflowing throughout the whole city. There were pictures of parks with two and three feet of water running through them and there are reports of the bridges on the main highway leading to the airport and to Tela being closed, for fear of them washing out. Needless to say, there won’t be any flights arriving while this continues!

Everyone here is at the complete mercy of the weather. You can’t get around town, there’s no business for the market sellers or street vendors and the poorest people who live in the tin and wooden beach shanties in Miramar or other extremely impoverished areas are suffering grievously. I’m convinced that people may well die today because of the flooding as well as the fact that there will be a high increase in the number of infectious bronchial and contaminated water diseases over the next days and possibly weeks.

This is just another side to living in Paradise and in my estimation, only the toughest survive, sadly enough.

I've included a 10 second video so make sure your sound is a high volume to get the full effect of the rain on the tin roofs of my barrio. Now imagine this sound going on for hours and hours, all day and all night.....