Flash flooding in Shell!
So, last night we had some major flooding in parts of Shell! It was amazing, because it didn't rain that hard here in Shell, rather farther up river in the jungle. Honestly, I had no idea of all the damage that was done until I started seeing posts on Facebook. Here in Shell, two places were heavily damaged, and then there has been a lot more damage and backlash all over Shell.
The dike (used to make a nice swimming hole and tourist attraction) on the way up to Casa de Fe was totally destroyed, and the river was actually up and over the big bridge, but thankfully that was not affected. At Casa de Fe, the river rose to such a point that it almost entered the wash area, and although thankfully none of the washing machines or fruit that is stored there was affected, it did wash gravel, sticks and muck into the play area behind the foundation, and washed out a good part of the driveway and road at the entrance of Casa de Fe.
The other area heavily damaged was the bridge to Sacha Runa, a small village just outside of Shell...although the bridge itself was not affected, but several yards of the bank on both sides were totally washed away, including several houses. Praise the Lord everyone had enough time and warning to get out, and no one was killed.
Today, the main bridge to Casa de Fe was closed until they could inspect it, so we had to walk up to casa de Fe in the rain, skirting several streams in the process. Another one of the major aftereffects is the fact that the whole town of Shell is without water, probably for some time, as the water supply comes from the other side of Casa, crosses this river to get to Shell. At Casa de Fe they still have water, but all of us on this side of the river are out of water.
UPDATE: It has been several days, and the water comes and goes...but what does come is only a trickle, and very dirty. Saturday, about noon we finally got water from an outside faucet, which has a different pipe source than the rest of the house, so we no longer had to bring water from the river to wash in, and just hauled it from outside to inside...we use the cleaner rainwater to wash our faces and rinse the dishes in, after we wash with the dirtier tap water.
UPDATE: It has been a week now, and the water is just about back to normal. It went out for another day and a half yesterday, but is now back, and is almost totally clean. We are still collecting the rain water, and the pressure in the pipeline isn't enough to fill the washer or to take a shower, so we are showering out of buckets and hand-filling the washer! It is not the first time that we have had to do this since we are here, and probably will not be the last...when we are visiting the villages in the jungle, all of this is done in the nearby stream!!
