"It's A Mess in Boquete Right Now"
By DON WINNER for Panama-Guide.com - Received this morning via email: "I live at the foot of Jaramillo Arriba in Boquete. My two adjacent houses were both flooded by the Quebrada overflowing its banks. The Quebrada in this area goes through lots of culverts and these get plugged by fallen tree branches, etc. Anyway, the houses are full of mud and the yards are partially destroyed. The only good thing was that the electricity was only off for a few hours. I have a very good friend whose beautiful (and very expensive) house is now a "tear down" because of the mudslide in Valle Escondido. Another good friend's roof has partially collapsed because of the weight of the rain. It's a mess in Boquete right now. Penny" According to the National Hurricane Center Hurricane Ida churns well to the North of Panama, Bocas del Toro, and Boquete, but the storm continues to have an affect on local weather as it pulls moisture up and over Panama from the Pacific. These are effectively "arms" of the hurricane which bring the heavy rains but not the associated hurricane force winds, of course. As I have already stated several times in recent days, November is the rainiest month in Panama, caused by the Inter Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) making its way back to the South for the dry season, and right now it's passing over our heads on its Southward trek. Here in Panama you have to be able to read the terrain because that little ravine that might be a dry bed in the summer or a little trickle most of the year can quickly turn into a raging torrent when a significant amount of rainfall occurs upstream in a short period of time. And, the storms in Panama tend to dump huge amounts of water in a very concentrated area, very quickly, causing dangerous flash floods. When the rainfall is sustained and over a larger area then all of this water flows into the larger rivers which leave their banks and flood the surrounding low lying areas. So, those living in higher areas have to worry about fast moving flash floods, and those living in lower areas have to worry about wide spread flooding and rising flood waters over a larger area. In about six weeks the ITCZ will have made it's way South, the rains will first taper off and then stop practically completely, and our annual dry season will kick in, starting on about 15 December, more or less.
Copyright 2009 by Don Winner for Panama-Guide.com. Go ahead and use whatever you like as long as you credit the source. Salud.
