Strong Winds Blast Panama on Sunday

By JOSÉ ARCIA for La Prensa - About 30 trees were blown down by strong winds in Panama City yesterday, due to a storm system that also affected the provinces of Coclé and Colón. Panama's National Civil Protection System (Sinaproc) reported 48 houses had lost their roofs in Panama City and San Miguelito. In addition, the National Institute of Aqueducts and Sewage Systems said a transformer supplying power to a water pump at the raw intake for the treatment plant in Pacora burned out due to the bad weather. In Bella Vista and in Las Sabanas of Pueblo Nuevo cars were damaged under falling trees. Blas Cordova, of the Direction of Hydrometeorology of ETESA, said wind speeds reached 46 kilometers per hour in the area of Tocumen, and 64.7 kilometers per hour in Albrook. As a point of reference he said hurricanes can have winds of more than 118 kilometers per hour. Cordova said the high winds were caused by the convergence of three factors - a tropical wave that formed over the Caribbean Sea; the intertropical convergence zone, currently over Panama, and diurnal heating. The phenomenon only lasted a few hours which is why it can not be compared to a tropical disturbance (the phase before being upgraded to a tropical storm), he added. (See Comments)

Editor's Comment: Many years ago, when I first moved to Panama, one of the guys I used to work with came into the office with a story. It seems there was one of these wind storms and my friend's gardener told him that the wind had blown the roof off of this house. "That's terrible..." said my friend. "No problem," said the gardener, "I found it." Yesterday I decided to take my wife and daughter for a day at the beach. We drove over to the other side and spend a few soggy hours, basically playing in the sand and surf and generally ignoring the wind and rain, which fell quite hard at times. When the lightening started to crack then we called it quits and drove home. On the new highway back the winds were buffeting the car, and at one point there was the makings of a little mini-tornado - debris being swirled in a circular pattern - right in the middle of the road. We basically drove through the storm and got out of it on the other side as we got to Panama City, and then the storm just caught up with us and hit the city. Hell of a day to pick to go to the beach, eh? There was one fatality caused by this storm - a woman who was pregnant lost her child when a tree fell on her.

CALLES Y AVENIDAS QUEDARON OBSTRUIDAS; HUBO VOLADURAS DE TECHO

Vientos dejan daños materiales

La velocidad de los vientos alcanzó los 64 kilómetros por hora en Albrook, mientras que en Tocumen llegó a 46 kilómetros por hora.

TRÁFICO. Dos carriles del Puente de las Américas, en dirección a la capital, quedaron bloqueados. LA PRENSA/Noriel Gutiérrez

JOSÉ ARCIA jarcia@prensa.com

Unos 30 árboles no resistieron las fuerzas de los vientos que se registraron ayer en la ciudad capital, y que también azotaron en las provincias de Coclé y Colón.

Al cierre de esta edición, el Sistema Nacional de Protección Civil (Sinaproc) había reportado 48 casas que tuvieron voladuras de techo en los distritos de Panamá y San Miguelito.

Además, el Instituto de Acueductos y Alcantarillados Nacionales informó que un transformador, en la toma de agua de la planta de Pacora, se quemó debido al mal tiempo. En tanto, en Bella Vista, y en Las Sabanas de Pueblo Nuevo, algunos autos quedaron debajo de los árboles caídos.

Blas Córdoba, de la Dirección de Hidrometeorología de ETESA, explicó que los vientos alcanzaron, en su punto máximo, los 46 kilómetros por hora en el área de Tocumen, y 64.7 kilómetros por hora en Albrook. Como referencia, dijo que los huracanes tienen velocidades superiores a los 118 kilómetros por hora.

Córdoba señaló que se trató de la conjunción de tres fenómenos: Una onda tropical que pasaba sobre el mar Caribe; la zona de convergencia intertropical, que por la época del año se encontraba sobre Panamá, y el calentamiento diurno.

El fenómeno duró pocas horas, por lo que no podría compararse con un disturbio tropical (fase previa a una tormenta tropical), precisó.