Life abroad: As Robert sees it

Hello Everyone,

Well, it looks like the US press was worst hit by this latest storm because we had no wind, little rain and never lost water, electricity or phone. I have no idea where they were getting their reports from, unless they were in La Mosiquitia where Felix landed. Everyone I talked to from around Honduras also had the same mild weather as us here in La Ceiba. Just goes to show that you should not always trust what you see on TV.

Those pictures I sent yesterday were the worst that happened with Felix. And that squall lasted only 30 minutes and was over. Hurricane Dean was by far worse.

Now here is some perspective: I said yesterday Hurricane Mitch killed 11,000, Felix has killed 30 from Martinique to Mexico. From a Typhoon that killed 33 people in the Philippines, 18 of those died from falling coconuts so take those news reports with a grain of salt.

Rasa will now be leaving on the 10th to NY and I will follow the first week of October. Thank you everyone for your notes of concern.

Robert Kent Jr- robjkentjr@gmail.com
Wat/San/Health Consultant
www.RobRasa.com/hisblog/
Cell: +504 9871-5396
Work/Home: +1 (631) 458-1119

Hurricane Felix is bearing down on us today. The rain started at 11am this morning but has not been bad so far. There are no really strong winds yet. The full brunt of the storm is supposed to hit tonight and the newspapers say to plan for at least four days without power. Right now, the town is eerily still and locked down.

Everyone panicked on Monday waking up to the newspaper forecast from Sunday night that there was going to be a Category 5 Felix 25 miles off the coast. As it turns out, Felix is currently overland and has been downgraded to a tropical storm. The grocery store was a madhouse with the shelves picked bare and the lines halfway to the back of the store. All the shops were boarding up their windows and moving their electronics to higher ground. Our family checked into a hotel for 3 nights just so they would have a generator and water. Rasa’s flight back to the States was canceled because the airport closed down for two days. The Peace Corps evacuated all its volunteers to the interior with their passports in hand just in case.

Compared to Hurricane Mitch in 1998 here is what we know. Then, 11,000 people died in 70 inches of rain over 24 hours. Now, Felix is following the same path as Mitch and is forecast to drop 60 inches of rain. The wind will not be the problem this time either. Then, the flooding washed out the roads for two weeks. Now, all the transportation out of La Ceiba is closed down.

Rasa and I rented movies yesterday and are just relaxing in the cool weather today, waiting for the lights to go out. Or not. Here are some pictures:

This is our backyard after a strong downpour of about 30 minutes.

The drainage system for La Ceiba is not planned very well so there are always low points where the water comes back out of the drains.

This is the street in front of our house.

This street runs parallel to the beach, about seven blocks away. Every street in between is the same.

With all that water coming back out of the drains, it brings all the above muck with it. This water is highly contaminated with trash and fecal coliform, which then mixes back in with our drinking water because there is no pressure in those lines to keep out the muck.

This is why we stocked up on water before the storm.