Continuing rain causes deaths, evacuations and closing of Canal

 

After the wettest year on record, December has seen the isthmus suffering under heavy downpours for days on end.

 

Two eleven year old children and an adult are missing, thousands have been evacuated from their flooded homes, roadworks have been damaged and crops destroyed and a road to the Centennial Bridge has collapsed.

 

Rain will continue until March according to weather forecasters.

 

Falling trees in many areas of Panama City coupled with the large number of Mothers Day shoppers caused major traffic jams on Tuesday (December 7).

 

The Panama Canal Authority (ACP) announced on Wednesday that, for the first time in its 96 year history, transit of ships has been "temporarily suspended"  because the Alajuela and Gatun lakes have reached the highest levels ever recorded. 

 

ACP Executive Vice President of Operations, Manuel Benitez, said the move was taken because transit through the Canal could be affected by the currents of the Chagres River, which flows into the channel on the way to Gamboa. 

 

In the interior over 6,000 people, and 50,000 hectares of crops have been affected and domestic animals lost in 33 flooded communities.

 

Ronald Czech, provincial director of  The country's civil rescue authority (Sinaproc), said the Kuna communities Wala, Nurra and Morti-among the poorest in the region, have lost all the coffee and banana production to the floodwaters of the river Chucunaque and the Pan American Highway was damaged after the rise of the river Zapallal.

 

Sinaproc) has been stretched, working around the clock in many locations and issued a red alert on Wednesday and 5000 people from 18 communities in the Pacora region, east of Panama City, were evacuated.

 

Fifty more were evacuated from Guayabalito Santa Rosa, at the bottom of the Madden Dam.

The evacuees are being housed in a gym and in Chepo schools.

 

The communities surrounding the Chagres River and the New Watcher, Salamanca and Boqueron, on top of the dam, have all been put on evacuation alert.

 

Earlier in Pacora in the eastern sector of the province of Panama, sluice gates on the Bayano dam were opened and 435 people were evacuated from the community of El Llano .

 

The evacuation was carried out by Sinaproc.A red alert had been issued by AES Panama, which operates the Bayano dam in Chepo and opened flood gates to reduce the dangerously high water level in the reservoir. A helicopter flew to the community to arn residents.

 

As waters swept down rivers crops, were carried away and, three people were reported missing. Sinaproc Director Arturo Alvarado said the disappearances occurred in the mouth of the Cañazas river.

 

In Chepo, houses were flooded and livestock and plantations of cassava, pepper, cucumber, corn, and other products were swept away.

 

Even though the AES Panama has conducted simulations of dumping, including participation of communities surrounding the river, Alvarado said that the emergency plan for power generation "has substantial flaws in the operating plan for emergencies."

 

In Chorrera, Panama families have been forced from their homes and a bridge on the the Panamerican Highway, is in danger because of flooding from a tributary of the Caimito river.

 

In Colon problems have been reported up and down the coast including a landslide that buried a 23 year old man, who was rescued by Sinaproc and is recovering in a medical center.

 

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Original Source: Newsroompanama.com

Date Retrieved: December 8, 2010.