Record Rainfall - Panama Canal Closed for Third Time in History

I know a lot of you up north have been suffering through unbearably bitter cold, snow, ice, and other types of miserable weather, but those of us 8º north of the equator have been having our share of climatologic problems as well. Until 2 days ago, I wasn’t sure the sun still existed. In the 73 years that climate records have been kept, it has never rained so much in Panama. People have died, landslides have wiped out communities, roads have collapsed, and bridges have been rendered impassable. Additionally, on December 9, 2010, the canal was even closed for the first time in 21 years. (The last time occurred when the US sent troops in to topple Noriega and his government.) In other words, the country’s main source of income was shut down for a day.

What exactly happened to shut the canal down? Water overflowed the banks of both Lake Gatun and Lake Alajuela, which supply the canal. This made it impossible to use the locks that transfer boats through the canal. In order to improve the situation, the floodgates in both lakes had to be opened causing more than 1500 people to be evacuated from nearby neighborhoods. Homes, lost.

Adding insult to injury, a mudslide in the Caribbean coastal town of Portobelo killed eight people and left the community of 3,000 inhabitants cut off from the rest of the country. The total number of dead is 10. In what the Panamanians call “the interior” of the country over 6,000 people, and 50,000 hectares of crops have been affected and domestic animals due to the heavy rains. In total, 33 communities were flooded.

And, now, as a repercussion to all of this rain, one of the water treatment plants has been working at only about 10% of capacity over the past 3 days. Too much mud is clogging the system. No one is sure when it will be fixed.

La Niña (“The girl” – a phenomenon that causes extreme weather) has been blamed for all of this. What’s the expression – “Hell have no fury like a woman scorned.” So, what did we do to upset this girl so much?