In essence, La Ceiba is built on a flood plain and viewed from the air after heavy rains can be an impressive sight, with its outlying villages and plantations laid out on a grid-like pattern of cleared areas, raised roads and irrigation canals. I flew into La Ceiba once and witnessed the sight of miles and miles of murky brown water trapped between the slightly raised highway and borders of various trees.
It is quite stunning from a “bird’s eye” view but a horrible occurrence for those on the ground and struggling to cope with the after effects of such flooding. Food and commercial crops either washed away or simply submerged; no clean drinking water supplies, no access to services due to roads being either washed out or bridges closed in advance of washing out.
The rains are not stopping…… This started approximately 4:30 am yesterday and it’s now 27 hours later. The news coverage has been simply appalling with people waist deep in water, a woman and her children being picked up by a passing loader, a man in a boat in the middle of the street and the list just goes on and on…
The rain finally eased about 9am this morning and though the clouds are still terribly low and heavy, I did hear two flights coming in so there’s a presumption that the airport is open and thus hopefully the roads leading to and from it!
On my side of town, the northern Caribbean Sea side, life has pretty much settled back to normal. Normal for after heavy rains that is! Some flooded side streets, some amazingly angry roaring surf and everything soppy, over saturated wet with folks bundling up in whatever they can find to keep warm in the damp and cold breeze.
This part of La Ceiba is the original area and is actually the highest part of the town, though only meters from the open sea you wouldn’t believe it. Obviously there has been extreme flooding in Miramar, Guadalupe and other areas slightly further west but these have always been marginalized and lower lying areas to start with.
The extreme flooding that has occurred has been more to the south of the town – in the newer subdivisions and outlying areas whereby there has been extensive building and development without the necessary infrastructure of drainage, sewage, land stabilization and such. It is those areas where almost all of the video coverage is coming from and though some of those people may be somewhat more affluent, no one, absolutely no one can afford the costs to home, family and self that this disaster has caused.
I noticed that my tap water smelt slightly of sewage but I’m able to have drinking water delivered. I’m one of the fortunate ones.
I did get out today, along the shore barrios and truly there really isn’t much more than the usual amount of street flooding that normally occurs after any heavy rain. All of the El Centro was attempting to do business as usual, though with such poor weather, and just sheer cold!, there weren’t the numbers of folks that I normally see. I stopped and spoke with a few market vendors. One woman said her daughter had lost her house, another said her brother’s family had lost theirs, some injuries were mentioned but overall, my sense is that folks are simply exhausted.
They’re exhausted by the fear, the weather, the cold, the stress, the uncertainty of knowing if the rainy season will ever end; everyone has family or friends that have been horribly affected and yet it supposed to be Christmas so very soon.
I will assure you, my friends that I am perfectly safe, dry and secure but my heart is breaking for so many people here. I know that you’re dealing with hard or bad weather yourselves but at least you have a familial and social safety net to rely on when hardship happens to fall. What if everyone around you lost everything at the same time, what would you be able to do? That’s what a lot of folks are trying to deal with here.
Feliz navidad, amigos….
This video shows Playa Taty's Restaurant and La Quinta Real Hotel, two of the top end places in La Ceiba. The storm surge has been so powerful, so quickly that the debris is still coming in, yet alone being cleaned up.
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