10-21-11
Over the past week and a half, El Salvador has experienced its largest rainfall in recent history. A tropical depression dumped an average of 1500 millimeters of rain (that’s almost five feet, for those of us not on the metric system) across the country in just ten short days. For your reference, that’s almost twice as much as the disastrous Hurricane Mitch produced in 1998. If you’re wondering why you haven’t heard more about this in the international news, it’s probably because “Tropical Depression 12-E” sounds a lot less intimidating than “Hurricane Mitch”.
Another reason is that, thanks to the quick response of the Salvadoran government in evacuating people in flooded areas, the death toll was thankfully much lower. The official count as of today is 34 people, mainly from landslides and car accidents (as opposed to the 240 people who died in 1998).
In spite of the low death toll, this is a disaster in every sense of the word for El Salvador. Right now, 55,000 people are living in over 600 shelters throughout the country. 18,445 homes have been flooded and 879 landslides have occurred over highways. The Rio Lempa, which bisects the country and receives water from numerous tributaries originating in Honduras and Guatemala, has jumped its banks in numerous areas. The Lempa is the longest river in El Salvador; a series of dams on the river provide hydro-electric power to the country. As the Lempa approaches the Pacific Ocean, it spreads out into a broad flood plain known as the Bajo Lempa (or Lower Lempa). Because of the incredible amount of rain surging down the river from swollen tributaries, the pressure on the dams was immense, and the Rio Lempa Hydro-electric Executive Commission (known as “CEL” in Spanish) released large amounts of water, knowing even as they did so, that it would cause flooding lower down. CEL maintains that, because of the danger to the integrity of the dams, it had no other options. I can’t speak to whether they could have safely released less water, because I’m not an engineer, but it’s certainly true that the Hydro-Electric authorities are taking a lot of heat for their actions. In the aftermath of the flooding, CEL has sent relief supplies for people in shelters in affected areas.
Whatever the choices that led to the flooding, the results were devastating. In the Lower Lempa River Basin, located in the department of Usulután, 40 communities were completely flooded out and dozens of others were cut off from all outside contact for more than 48 hours as roads were washed out.
Thanks to the swift reaction of the government, working with various NGOs like Voices on the Border, the death toll from flooding was incredibly low. However, there will be some very serious long-term repercussions for El Salvador as a result of the rains. Aside from the immediate problem of clothing and feeding the 55,000 currently in shelters, thousands of people will have lost their homes in the flooding. Houses here are often made from cheaper materials like wood, tin, and adobe, that stand no chance against natural disasters. Those in flooded areas whose homes remain will likely have lost the majority of their personal possessions.
This year’s harvest has been severely affected as well. Numerous staple crops, like corn and beans, have been wiped out. A large number of crops that have already been harvested are wet and will rot if they can’t be dried out in time. An estimated 5,000 acres of crops have been destroyed. This is incredibly significant in a country where the principal occupation is sustenance farming. Voices from the Border described one scene they encountered as they attempted to evacuate the Lower Lempa Region:
This afternoon a member of Voices staff came across an agricultural cooperative in Mata de Piña where workers were trying to salvage their corn crop that they were almost ready to harvest. Members of the cooperative were working in waist-deep water, picking, shucking, and grinding corn in hopes of salvaging something. This is a bleak reminder of what is to come in the weeks and months ahead. The region has lost all its crops and will be dependent on food aid programs for the foreseeable future. Today – we’ll just focus on the basics… food, clothing, and shelter.
Health concerns are numerous as well. The government’s health system has been severely strained. Due to all the flooding and lack hygiene at the shelters and in coastal areas, it’s quite possible that the state of public health will be adversely affected. It’s likely that increases in diarrhea, dengue, and child hood diseases will be seen, especially in the flooded coastal zones.
For those of you wishing to help in some way the people affected by the flooding, Voices on the Border, the SHARE Foundations, and EcoViva are all accepting donations to help in their work in the Lower Lempa region and elsewhere.
As far as my community goes – well, we were very lucky. We’re located in the north at a relatively high altitude. Though the rivers the run next to my community did raise considerably, they are in too steep a gorge to cause us any problems. The biggest danger was from landsides. Although a few did cover the road at different times, they were quickly cleared away and didn’t result in any property damage, injury, or loss of life. Truthfully, the biggest challenge for most Peace Corps volunteers during the rainfall was boredom – because of the danger of flooding and landslides, our Emergency Action Plan was activated and we were not allowed to travel for well over a week. Fortunately, we all weathered the storms well and were thrilled to see the sun poke its head out for the first time on Thursday.
Click here for a video of the evacuation in the Lower Lempa region.
Here are some pictures from Jutiapa, Cabañas, another volunteer’s site.
