What had been an “Orange Alert” for many parts of Guatemala turned even worse on Sunday, October the 16th. Guatemala, caught between two opposing low pressure weather systems from the Pacific to the Caribbean, has been constantly deluged with days of rain. The end of the rainy season, which usually occurs about now, had already saturated the hills, mountains and low-lying areas. The addition of several inches of rain in the last week, still coming down, has only aggravated what devastation remained from last year’s mighty storm called Agatha. The present Tropical Depression known as 12E which has been lashing everything between Mexico and Nicaragua, in league with the Caribbean storm, has caused at least 80 deaths, 100000 homeless and the closure of the Pan American highway.
Lake Atitlan, one of Guatemala’s more famous tourist attractions, has been cut off for days. El Salvador and Honduras, neighbors to the east, have likewise been hammered. On Sunday, in a televised broadcast, El Salvador’s President Mauricio Funes said “The situation has only gotten worse, and the rains are still coming.”
This does not bode well for Guatemala: the country’s vital infrastructure, the highways, roads and bridges, were still being repaired after last year’s inundations. The country’s budget for such has been depleted, and what bridges were unscathed are now in pieces. Temporary measures such as the use of “Bailey Bridges” are being installed but these, being temporary and one-lane in size, only create choke-points for the vital traffic of much needed foodstuffs. The price is corn has already risen, as the rains have damaged Guatemala’s primary diet source. And it’s still raining: the weather experts say that the Central American region is in for another three days of downpours. The death count will rise, the rivers will continue to flood and toll of human misery remains to be counted.
Antigua, Guatemalas' other most famous tourist destination has largely been spared the misery of the last week. Her streets of 400 year old cobblestones carry the brown-colored rain water downhill, at least until the drains back up and the streams become minor rivers. Our main complaint has been that of the occasional electrical black-out or the inconvience of wet shoes. Set in a large valley,at 4500 feet and ringed by three volcanoes, Antigua will survive: the rest of the country isn't so sure: it might be called a Country of Calamity.
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