When I was living in Potrerillos people would sometimes ask me what happened to the huge amount of rain we’d get. After all, September saw a record SIX FEET of the stuff. My answer was we live near the top of a mountain. It all goes down hill.
Well, now I’m living at the bottom of the hills. Two thousand some odd feet lower, anyway, and right beside a small river. The rainy season is supposed to be drawing to a conclusion but we’re still getting some tremendous rainstorms. When the weather is nice the river beside the house looks like this:
Take a look at the rocks in the river during its tranquil stage and try to keep them in mind. The large rock in the upper right of the frame is about 2/3 the size of a Volkswagen Beetle.
Yesterday we had a real downpour that lasted for several hours and it filled the ditches beside the road leading down towards the house and then into the river:
Now, remember those rocks? Now you see ’em, now you don’t:
That’s a lot of water sluicing through and it cuts under the bank with pretty good force. The greatest force is always on the outside of a river’s bend and that’s what’s aiming at the house’s back yard. I haven’t seen anything caving in but it’s only a matter of time. It’s about 20 yards from the fence to the drop off into the river. Nature will eventually take its toll.
One More Good Adventure 
Hello Richard:
Your point is well taken. The precipitation for November was absolutely unexpected. There have been enormous floods in Los Santos (Pedasí and Tonosí), Pacora, and Bocas del Toro (Sixaola and Changuinola River). I don’t recall having such a wet November in a very long time.
Weather reports are saying that it might continue raining until the month of Mach is is extremely unusual. Harvest of melones, watermelons, rice and other agicultural products have been destroyed. Many hardships are expected in the countryside as a result of the heavy rains.
Thanks for those extraordinary videos—the calm river and the “not so calm” river. I hope further destruction is stopped and the house will not be affected.
We live on top of a hill in PC, so the water flows down, as was your case when you lived in Potrerillos.
Regards,
Omar.-
It has been a record-setting year. I just hope I’m not what caused it.
Beautiful videos. I must confess I was especially taken with the roosters in the background – the combination of water and roosters took me straight back to Liberia.
I noticed this morning that Jeff Masters’ blog entry on Weather Underground is about the record flooding in Columbia, and Sunday’s landslide that killed well over a hundred people. I can’t remember the exact number – and of course they may not know, either. You can read Jeff’s account here. Meteorologically speaking, that’s right in your back yard.
Thanks for the comments. I’m working on a book about Columbus’s fourth voyage which traversed Panama. In a couple of his (his men, actually) adventures they had to traverse rivers that are not too far from here and walking around this one with its trees, vines and rocks gives one the feel of what that must have been like.