The Floods Are Over

Panama is finally beginning to return to normal after the floods, and all Volunteers are safely back in their sites. I would like to encourage everyone again to take a look through their blogs listed to the right of this post. Those blogs will be able to explain everything that happened better than I can.

Here in Cocle, we had 12 straight days of rain, but because the watersheds around my community are relatively small the flooding was not as bad as other locations. With that said, during my return from my last trip to town, I ended up hiking back in the rain. About half way through my trip, I had to cross a small stream. Normally, this stream is about a foot deep, but when I arrived it was 3 feet deep and quickly rising. I decided not to cross, and made a dash for the closest house to take shelter out of the rain. The small stream eventually crested at 6-7 feet higher than normal, and I ended up waiting for 3.5 hours for the stream level to fall. When I had only an hour of light left, I decided I had to make the attempt to cross. I hoisted my backpack up over my head and waded across the stream which was twice it's normal width, and the water rose up to my navel. I made it across safely, but thoroughly soaked, and managed to make it home just before dark.