rain, rain, go away

As I am watching the reports of the snowstorms and cold fronts sweeping across the US, we are fighting rain and landslides here in Venezuela. Due to the poor construction of many "homes" many peoples homes are completely destroyed and many people have died as well. We're grateful today that the embassy has insisted on such high security for our homes, which allows us to enjoy little to no effect from the mudslides and flooding that is going on in much of the city and country. Because we live so close to the embassy, those of us who are in town haven't had any trouble getting in to work like some of our locally employed co-workers.

One of my coworkers that lives about 15 miles outside of town usually takes 1.5 hours to get in to work. Yesterday, he left home at 4:30 am, and 2 hours later had only moved 4 kilometers. He took another 2 hours to get home after deciding it wasn't going to work to come in.

Schools have been closed in many states for the rest of the week, partly to keep people off the roads, of which many are blocked by mud, rocks, debris, and tree branches. Airports are closed, and a few of my co-workers were stranded out of town yesterday. We're hoping they're able to make it back into Caracas today.

The following link has pictures sent in by people in different parts of Venezuela showing the flooding and the problems it's causing: http://picfog.com/search/lluviasve

Official reports only tell of casualties in the low teens, but unofficial reports have cited many more (in the low hundreds in just one area). The landslides are supposed to be the worst in 10 years. Thankfully, embassy staff have not been effected very much by it, but it is definitely all around us. It's hard not to think about how the lack of decent housing is a major contributor to the mass casualties resulting from the rain.