Surviving a Natural Disaster

If you haven’t been following the news, let me fill you in. Rio just had the worst flooding it has seen in recent history. It rained HARD for over 48 hours and on and off for 3 days after that. So far, 180 people have been confirmed dead (mostly due to mudslides) and hundreds more are still unaccounted for. No one could go to school or work because all the streets were flooded. My host brother told me he has never seen it this bad. The lake just down the street from me completely flooded its banks, which no one can remember ever happening before. Water stood in some streets over 5 feet high. Although for many people this was merely a inconvenience because they could not get to work, for people who live in favelas or up on the mountains, it was VERY dangerous.

For 2 days I couldn’t leave my apartment because the street outside was a rushing river of trash infested water. My school canceled classes for the entire week because of electrical problems. Luckily, Rio has a great system of street cleaners and the roads were pretty clean a few hours after the heaviest rain stopped. Apparently, the drainage system in this city is not large enough to handle the amount of rain that they get. Every time it rains hard, it floods. The difference this time was that it rained in 2 days what it usually rains in 1 month!

Here is a link to a news report: http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2010/04/08/world/international-us-brazil-floods.html?_r=1&ref=americas.

To see more pictures watch this slideshow, which includes many of the places I see everyday: http://g1.globo.com/Noticias/0,,GF81194-5606,00-VEJA%20IMAGENS%20DAS%20CHUVAS%20NO%20RIO%20DE%20JANEIRO.html

Hopefully they fix this problem before the World Cup and Olympics!