Tuesday 03Nov98 - 12:29

Hello Everyone!

At Capt. Nemo's we have received a lot of requests for
information on the status of the boats and businesses on the
Rio Dulce after the passage of "Mitch". Rather than
answering them individually, I thought I send out a single
report to all.

First of all, all of the boats are fine. There were no
strong winds here, just some heavy rains. The only real
problem we have right now is the high river level. All the
highlands of Alta Verapaz drain into Lago Izabal (via the
Rio Polochic, etc.) and this causes the river here to rise.
Furthermore, the water level in the Bahia Amatique was
higher than the river level so the river current through the
canyon was backwards! Even now, the river is STILL rising
although very slowly. All of the marinas and restaurants
except Bruno's are flooded. The river is now about 5 inches
short of coming over the floor of Bruno's restaurant. Pilots
flying over the area say that the department of Izabal looks
like one huge lake.

I am keeping a watch on the satellite photos to see if more
precipitation is coming to the areas of Guatemala that
affect us. So far, the sky is clear but rain is being
reported again in Guatemala City. We're keeping our fingers
crossed. Even so, it takes time (hours or days) for water to
make its way down from the hills, to the lake and then to
the Rio Dulce so we really don't know how high the water
will go even if we get no more rain.

The water supply is fine so far. Electricity was interrupted
several times but is now stable. There are still occasional
interruptions as the work crews cut the power in order to
reconnect a repaired line. Many of the outlying power lines
were knocked down by falling trees. The trees fell because
of the rain, not because of wind.

The high river level does not, however, affect the boats
because boats float! Many low-lying homes here in Fronteras
are flooded and the people have moved out but business is
proceeding fine in Fronteras, so far.

The road to Guatemala City is closed but the road to Puerto
Barrios is open so we don't expect any really serious food
shortages although some shortages are already appearing.
Most vegetables are grown in the highlands and Fronteras
appears to be out of tomatos, potatos and eggs and stocks
are getting low on other foods as well. Part of the problem
is that Morales is completely disabled because of widespread
flooding and there are thousands of refugees in the area of
La Ruidosa. Those people are drawing their food supplies
from Fronteras which aggravates the problem here. However,
since we have access to Puerto Barrios, one would presume
that food shipments coming in by freighter could come
directly here and avert serious problems.

The road to Guatemala City, is closed because one or more
bridges are down. Because of this, there is no freight or
land transportation to the city. The banks have been closed
here because they have no cash! Taca is still flying from
Barrios to Guate and they have increased their number of
flights. Russell is also making flights back and forth from
the Bacadilla to Guate as often as he can, weather
permitting.

Fortunately, our phones have been working fine throughout
this period and we have been handling a huge amount of
traffic with over 80 emails going in and out of the office
every day plus dozens of phone calls.

So, yes we have some problems here on the river but they are
hardly noticeable in comparison to the disasters that have
happened in Honduras and Nicaragua. And to reiterate, none
of the boats here have had any problems nor were they ever
in any danger.

Felipe
Capt. Nemo's Communications
Rio Dulce, Izabal, Guatemala

-------------------Capt. Nemo's Communications-------------------
         Rio Dulce Info-COME VISIT OUR WEB SITE!
               http://www.mayaparadise.com <<<
rio@Guate.net - Your connection to the Rio Dulce, Guatemala
        (Please put FULL NAME or BOAT NAME in reply)