Tech | May 24, 2011 | 23 comments

After eleven months Colombia asks; Who'll stop the rain?

source: http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2069653,00.html?xid=rss-fullworld-yahoo

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JanforGore
In the novel One Hundred Years of Solitude, a five-year-long downpour imprisons people in their homes, washes away the banana plantation and reduces the town of Macondo to ruins. But the deluge dreamed up by Colombian novelist Gabriel García Márquez in his magical-realist masterpiece pales compared to the real-life flooding of his homeland now.

Amid 11 months of nearly nonstop rain, dykes have burst and rivers have topped their banks, inundating communities, cattle ranches, and croplands in 28 of Colombia's 32 departments. Waterlogged Andean mountainsides have collapsed, burying neighborhoods and blocking highways. More than 1,000 people have been killed, injured or gone missing. In the flooded town of Puerto Boyacá in central Colombia, coffins holding the dead are being floated to the cemetery on boats.
(Read a Q&A With Colombia's President Santos.)

All told, more than 3 million people — nearly 7% of Colombia's population - have been displaced or have suffered major water damage to their homes and livelihoods. President Juan Manuel Santos calls it the worst natural disaster in the country's history, one his government predicts will shave 2.5% from Colombia's 2011 GDP. Yet hardly anyone outside of Colombia has noticed because the tragedy, unlike an earthquake or hurricane, has unfolded in slow motion. "Drop by drop the rain causes more damage every day," Santos said recently. "It's like Chinese water torture."

Santos and other government officials blame La Niña, the weather phenomenon that causes unusually cold temperatures in the Pacific Ocean along the equator and provokes heavy rains. La Niña kicked in around the middle of 2010, dumping five to six times the average amount of precipitation on some parts of Colombia. And there's been no respite. Last year's wet weather continued through what is normally Colombia's dry season and merged with the current rainy season.

Complicating matters is extreme geography. Colombia is divided by three Andean ranges, and the rain-saturated mountain soil is crumbling away, causing daily landslides as well as sedimentation — which raises water tables in rivers. One of the hardest-hit cities is Cúcuta, located on the Venezuelan border. Cave-ins and landslides have blocked highways leading to Bogotá and the Caribbean coast, leaving residents largely cut-off from the rest of the country. Ironically, Cúcuta also lacks drinking water because so much rain has increased sediment in local rivers, overwhelming the city's water purification system.

Santos has toured some of the worst flooded areas, but the government's response has been marred by bottlenecks and graft. Due to the isolation of flooded villages, the inexperience of local officials and the presence of rebels and drug traffickers, just four of 753 public works projects to repair roads, bridges, homes and schools are underway. Four governors and 26 mayors are being investigated for allegedly mishandling flood assistance. Outraged victims have blocked highways in protest.
(See pictures of FARC, Colombia's notorious guerilla army.)

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The Universidad de la Sabana (University of the Savanna), one of the Colombia's elite academic institutions, sits next to the Bogotá River in the capital suburb of Chía. On April 25, the surging river punched a 60-ft.-long hole (18 m) in a nearby levee. Now, the university's library, amphitheatre and science laboratories sit five-feet deep (1.5 m) in putrid black water. As he climbed into an aluminum boat on a mission to salvage classroom desks and computers, volunteer relief worker Luis Gabriel Angel said: "Nobody imagined the flooding would be this bad."

Fortunately, the downpours won't last as long as they did in the fictional Macondo. Forecasters predict the rain will peter out by July. But thanks to global warming and climate change, Colombians should get used to extreme weather, says Ricardo Lozano, who heads the government's Institute of Hydrology, Meteorology and Environmental Studies. He points out that just before the floods, Colombia suffered through a lengthy drought. "It's wrong to think that climate change is a future threat because it is taking place right now," Lozano says. "The world should learn from what's happening in Colombia."



Read more: http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2069653,00.html#ixzz1NImrU5mu
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23 comments // After eleven months Colombia asks; Who'll stop the rain?

  • lazloman
  • altair83
    • 0
      altair83  

    • Rains in Colombia, Chile is dry as hell, Tornadoes here... yeah, climate change is a lie, or maybe is just one of those problems that go away when you deny them

    • 1 year ago
  • Gravity_Man
    • 0
      Gravity_Man  
    • altair83:

      A very insightful comment Altair83. Yes, when we stand in the street and look to our left and watch a tornado passing by and look to our right and see a river carrying people's home & pets off into the ocean.. it does indeed appear we have come to a PARTING OF THE WAYS.

      Some of us are even being parted period. One is being taken and the others left.

    • 1 year ago
  • damush
  • ozoneocean
    • 0
      ozoneocean  

    • Man hat was a dull book... Wasn't there the big rainstorm at the end? Anyway, it was very well named -_-

      I don't hold out much hope for the Columbian government to electively deal with this. They're so ripe with the worst sort of corruption and far more interested in killing left wing rebels than mounting serious rescue efforts or dishing out aid.

    • 1 year ago
  • EvilDoer
  • JanforGore
  • northernexpat
    • +3
      northernexpat  

    • Thanks for this story Jan. I had no idea about all the rain in Columbia. The MSM never covers these stories. If it isn't sensational enough they can't be bothered. I try to keep up on these type of stories as they add to the proof of global climate change and helps to make my argument about it. Please continue to keep us informed about the incidences.

    • 1 year ago
  • JanforGore
    • +1
      JanforGore  
    • northernexpat:

      I was talking to someome who went to Colombia to visit family and she stated she had not seen it this bad ever in the area she was in near Bogota. And you bet the MSM is covering this up. They are all playing EXXON and natural gas ads instead of telling people how we can adapt to this because it's all about money.

    • 1 year ago
  • northernexpat
  • northernexpat
    • +2
      northernexpat  
    • JanforGore:

      I forgot to mention that they just took a survey up here asking if it was time for the Government of the Northwest Territories to work towards alternative energy to replace diesel. 70% said - Yes, the price of oil is too expensive and we need a cleaner source of fuel. Only 30% said - No, it is not practical and the oil and gas industry is better for our economy. So even the people up here recognize the importance of clean energy. It's just too bad that the federal government is standing in our way.

    • 1 year ago
  • figgdimension
  • JanforGore
  • JanforGore
  • Gravity_Man
    • 0
      Gravity_Man  
    • JanforGore:

      I'VE GOT IT JAN. A new "water cycle" has emerged. This is why Gore's ocean rise hasn't happened. The oceans at the Equator get more sun so when the ocean level RISES THE WATER LEVEL GOES HIGHER TOWARD THE SUN ~MORE HEAT~ so the excess ocean rise is being EVAPORATED UP into the Earth's atmosphere & being deposited onto land => Australia, Columbia and now the United States.

      Like how a hurricane will pick up frogs and fish and drop them inland, the same thing is happening with ocean water. Tell Al he was right if you ever get his ear that is.

      This is awesome, and also awesome BAD, because once a new cycle has begun like this well, to my way of thinking it took decades to cause it so it is likely HERE TO STAY. We're in deep do-do now people. Start building homes that float.

    • 1 year ago
  • Gravity_Man
    • 0
      Gravity_Man  
    • JanforGore:

      Connecting the dots some more Jan, the oceans have risen SOME so what that causes is more back pressure on every river in the world that exits into the ocean!!! Slowing down the flood waters from flowing back to sea.

      Wow, this is too mind-boggling for even me. Al is going to be rocked back on his heels.

    • 1 year ago
  • Gravity_Man
    • 0
      Gravity_Man  
    • JanforGore:

      #3, since it only began happening in earnest last year with Australia it surely means IT HASN'T LIKELY GOT CRANKED UP GOOD YET.

      It's in its INFANCY. It might take over 5 years to begin slowing down (in severity), that is once it has peaked. This can't be the Peak. Wow Jan Wow. The bowling ball has been rolled and we are all the pins.

      Pins don't fight back. Pins fall.

    • 1 year ago
  • JanforGore
    • +1
      JanforGore  
    • Gravity_Man:

      Yes, essentially it is that positive feedback loop and we keep adding to it as well as the effects becoming more pronounced, so, yes again, deep doo doo is an appropriate phrase. And I wish I could get Al "s ear. Would love to talk to him about this and have wanted to for years. I hope I get that chance one day. But suffice it to say, we are indeed watching a new hydrologic cycle of evaporation causing drought, changing rainfall patterns, and then dumping these huge storms on places that then flood. That is why agriculture is at the heart of all this.

    • 1 year ago
  • JanforGore
  • Gravity_Man
    • +1
      Gravity_Man  
    • JanforGore:

      I know one thing for sure Jan, that if floodwaters remain standing longer in the flooded homes from the water not moving on out to sea we're looking at permanent home destruction.

    • 1 year ago
  • Gravity_Man
    • 0
      Gravity_Man  
    • JanforGore:

      But you summed it all up very well. I don't quite understand why there has to be droughts for though... unless ya pull in HAARP, and it has much to recommend it. The video I watched about it was aying there's a possiblity of causing a reverse energy flash, a rebound flash back to Earth from the initial ionosphere pulse they send up.

      So I figure it's a good chance by now they've fine-tuned the HAARP to where they can control AND DIRECT that reverse pulse,

      Something else new has happened Jan. A lady poster earlier mentioned that in Texas they had had some really AWESOME BEAUTIFUL BILLOWY CLOUDS, and so happens the same day we had had the same clouds, in Virginia! I haven't seen clouds like that unless maybe as a youngun, but I don't rightly recall them then. We did have some beautiful clouds too, but these were the absolute best I've EVER SEEN.

      So I'm not complainin' just making notes.

    • 1 year ago
  • JanforGore
  • Gravity_Man
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