When it rains...

Well, last night I finally began writing about my week in el DF. And then, the river overflowed. Remember all that rain I was talking about? There's been a lot more of it. And despite our best efforts to hide out far inland up in the mountains, some of that flooding has caught up to us. Thank you, Hurricane Karl. It's not that bad up by my house since I live a little higher up and not that close to the river (Mom - you can stop freaking out right now, I will be fine), but a bunch of the houses near the riverbank (including those of some of the students at the ICO) were flooded with mud and water.

Last night I headed over to Bradia's house to hang out with a few kids on our last night before classes begin. It was raining pretty hard as I walked over to her house, but thankfully I arrived without getting struck by lightening. I have to cross a few bridges to get to her neighborhood, and I did notice that the water level beneath them was a lot higher than usual, but didn't think that much of it. Fast forward a few hours. Right as we reach the credits of the movie we were watching (a surprisingly high-quality pirated version of Toy Story 3, complete with Chinese subtitles), Bryan gets a call from his family, asking him where he is because the bridge by his house has been wiped out by the river. Oh shit. That is the bridge I have to cross to get back home. We rush outside to see what's going on, and are affronted by a swarm of ambulances, firemen, and some very wet people. After asking around a bit to gauge the situation, we learn that everyone is ok, and the firemen are just there to block off the roads since the bridge has been wiped out. We wade around in the mud for a while, surveying the situation. There is no way I am crossing the bridge to get home. I call my house to let them know what's up, but nobody answers. After resigning myself to the fact that I will probably not be going home, Bryan informs us that some of the houses nearby have begun to flood, and the people need help moving their things and blocking off the water. As we head back to Brad's house to look for shovels or anything else to help out, we run into Bryan's dad, who stops us in our tracks. He tells us that it's no use trying to stop the flooding, because it's only going to get worse, and there's nothing we can really do until the water level starts to drop. He then tells us to go home immediately for our safety, and thankfully informs me of an alternate route to get back. So we all head home, a little shaken up.

When I got back, everyone in my house was asleep, so I was left alone to contemplate the night. It was such a strange feeling, sitting safely in my home, knowing what was going on, wanting to help, but also knowing that there was nothing I could do. The whole situation made what I've been watching on the news seem so much more tangible. While the flooding here does not even approach the scale of the scene in Veracruz and the rest of Southern Mexico, I really began to understand the tragedy of how much damage has been caused by the rain here. Thankfully, when I checked on the scene this morning, I learned that the water levels have dropped, and all that's left are the cleanup efforts. The rain has stopped (for now, at least), and as far as I know the worst that happened was some property damage.

This is the larger bridge near my house, not the one that was wiped out last night. Usually the river is pretty tame, but this morning the water was super wild and muddy.