RAIN

Okay, not more about the weather.

It stopped raining and I was able to get most of my clothes washed and dried on Wednesday.

We’ve had some very hot days, though, and the typical later afternoon or evening torrential showers. Today, however, the rains started at 1:15 pm and I got soaked walking to Caritas. (I need a new umbrella!)

But what I really wanted to mention is what Ismael, a Caritas worker in Community-based management of natural disasters told me yesterday. This week he went with some of the government disaster management people in the department of Lempira to assess the damage.

There are bridges and storm drains damaged by the rains as well as some houses and crop damages. He mentioned that in some places the rivers had risen one meter higher than they had during Hurricane Mitch in 1998. But the people were better prepared and so the loss of life was relatively lower.

This points to the value of some programs that may not have shown immediate results. However, the people seem to have learned a bit about how to deal with natural disasters.

Ismael will be passing on to me the results of their assessment. Caritas will be working with the Honduras national Caritas office and perhaps with Catholic Relief Services if there are needs that should be addressed.

More later.