The news in Caracas is being dominated by the heavy rains that have
been falling in the last forty eight hours. In the last day Caracas
registered 3.33 inches of rain, a historical record for the city for
any twenty four hour period.
Three people have died in Caracas, while thousands of vacationers that
went to the beach near Caracas for the long Carnival weekend are
stranded. There are a number of problems there. First, the highways
were already in bad shape as they have never recovered from the
tragedy in 2000 when mores than 40,000 people were estimated to have
died when many days of rain made rocks and mud come down from the
mountains and destroyed buildings and roads.
This time, it is more flash flooding from heavy rains than the
softening of the mountains near by, although one can not rule out a
repeat of that if the rains continue. A second problem is the traffic
from vacationers who did not realize what was happening. Some people
(my brother) are trapped between two overflowed rivers. Others have
been hours in traffic coming up from sea level to Caracas which is
3,000 feet (1,000 meters) above sea level. The highway is reportedly
full of dirt, little rocks and mud which makes progress very slow.
There are a few landslides along its length (about ten miles from the
airport to Caracas)
In Caracas, the Guaire river which cuts right through it lengthwise
has overflowed in various parts. The subway system is not working and
classes have been suspended for tomorrow. Some houses have flodded
near that river.
I am not in Caracas and had planned to return tomorrow but I guess I
will have to wait and see, play it by ear. As I said my brother is
trapped in the coastal region in his car with his family between two
rivers and my mother and another sister are further beyond but they
are in a high building just waiting it out.
The Devil's Excrement 
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