Most of you know about the floods here as a result of e-mails and/or phone calls, but, primarily because I'm bored and suffering from near-terminal cabin fever, I'll spend a little time summarizing the situation and bringing everyone up to date.
According to locals, this is the worst flood to hit Chiriqui and Bocas del Toro in over 40 years. Although we routinely get very heavy rains here, most of it comes from the Pacific in short-lived torrents which wash quickly down the rivers and out to the ocean. This front, however, was in the Caribbean and has lingered well over a week. The Telemanca Mountains, behind our house, lie between the Province of Chiriqui and the Province of Bocas del Toro, a series of islands in the Caribbean off Panama's north coast. (Remember, Panama runs east to west, not north to south like most Latin American countries.) Prolonged rains in the moutains resulted in catastrophic amounts of water running downhill, into the rivers of Chiriqui. Thus, the flooding.
The Caldera River flows out of the mountains and through the Town of Boquete. The northernmost bridge over the Caldera is the one just north of the historic Panamonte Hotel and is on the main route to Palo Alto, where we live. When the Panamonte Bridge (barely a year old) collapsed from flood waters and rocks, it formed a semi-dam which flooded the roadway to its east, which leads to our house, and completely undermined a brand new hotel there, La Ladera, prominently featured in the flood photos. Had only the bridge been destroyed, we would have had access to the new bridge next to the fairgrounds, accessed by the same road. Fortuitously, that bridge, which has been under construction for over a year, opened the day before the flood. Otherwise, all of north Boquete would have been completely cut off because the only other bridge serving our area, which lies at the other side of the Palo Alto/Alto Lino loop, also was so badly damaged as to prevent vehicular traffic. To get to the new Fairgrounds Bridge, however, involves a long trip in four-wheel drive up through Jaramillo, over a very rough dirt road made even rougher by the rain, and down a disintegrating paved road which forms part of the Jaramillo loop. It is this harrowing, treacherous trip that Larry has made several times over the last five days to get food for us (from dwindling supplies) and gasoline for the generator.
We have a reserve water tank, but the pump requires electricity. We have a generator, but the generator requires gasoline. So our principal source of stress has been access to town to acquire gasoline. That stress has been alleviated. The good news is that water was restored late Tuesday and electricity late yesterday morning. While it clearly will take a long time to replace the Panamonte Bridge, heavy equipment is on site redirecting the flow of the Caldera River and clearing the roadway to the Fairgrounds Bridge. And we just received news within the last hour from friends Jane and Barry that Los Naranjos Bridge, at the other end of the Palo Alto/Alto Lino loop, has been sufficiently repaired to allow cars to cross.
We felt much better, of course, once water and then power were restored, but then cabin fever set in. Our house suffered no damage, but the garden is a wreck. But with the continued rains and intermittent winds, there's nothing we can do. Because the authorities are limiting access to the area to residents, Demaris and Juvenal haven't been with us this week, and Edwin, although he lives in our area, wouldn't have been able to get much done with unceasing rain. (He did make the trip up to check on us, however, which we appreciated, and has called every day--even though he and his family were experiencing the same deprivations.) Having been busy almost constantly since we moved into the house, this situation has left us totally unprepared to do nothing. I told Larry today that I feel "retired" for the first time; and I don't like it much.
There are so many people displaced and so much charity work going on, but it's been headed up by persons in parts of town not so stranded. Luckily, many gringos live in areas of Boquete that didn't suffer significantly, and, judging from e-mail accounts, have done heroic work with all the people in shelters. We did manage to donate food and pillows and blankets on one of Larry's trips to town, but we haven't been able to be in the thick of things because of fears that we wouldn't be able to get back home. Bocas del Toro has had even more severe problems because the long road between David and Almirante, by which all their supplies are delivered, was heavily damaged by floods and landslides and may take up to three months to repair. The latest news is that fuel and food are being brought in via helicopter.
We had sausage and bean soup for Thanksgiving today, and I'm going to put up the Christmas tree over the weekend just to have something to do. By the first of the week, surely the rain will have stopped and we can get down to the business of cleaning up and seeing what we can do to help others.
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