Dear Companions on the journey,
It’s Monday, September 6, after a weekend full of disasters caused by heavy and not-so-heavy rains. The sun broke through the clouds here in Quetzaltenango this morning. By mid-morning, the death count was up to 44, with 16 people still missing. Much of the media attention has focused on the landslides that buried cars and people along the Interamerican Highway, but many communities along the south coast were flooded as well. President Alvaro Colom declared a state of emergency on Saturday. Today he called for three days of national mourning for those who have died.
Amid all of the statistics and laments about the much-higher-than-usual amounts of rainfall, there is finally some public discussion of the human responsibility for the ongoing disasters. After the first landslides on Saturday morning, Vice President Rafael Espada reminded the public that deforestation leads to landslides. This morning one of the national radio stations interviewed two engineers. In response to direct questions from the reporters, the engineers admitted that it is possible to built highways through mountains in such a way as to prevent landslides. However, the laws here do not require such measures nor are there funds to construct highways in a safe way. So people here pay for both bureaucratic and engineering decisions with their lives.
It was strange driving around Quetzaltenango this morning. Everything seems normal, though most of the highways around Quetzaltenango are closed. When I went out to take Tamara to school, no newspapers were being sold, but by mid-morning they had come in from the capital. Fresh vegetables were scarce in the supermarket, but other products seemed to be available.
Food supplies may soon be a problem.
