UPDATE Friday 6, Nov98 09:39 CST

Good morning everyone! Well, today there's good news and bad
news. The bad news is that it rained here all last night and
it is still raining this morning - at times heavy rain. The
river has not reacted much to the rainfall yet but if we get
a lot of rain in the areas that feed the Rio Dulce then the
river could rise again which is something we definitely do
not need.

The good news is that a person has driven here from the city
and arrived safely. We knew that the bridge at Maruelas had
been "washed out" and that that was the major problem on the
Atlantic Highway. We now hear that the bridge itself was not
washed out but that the road approaches at both ends of the
bridge were. Apparently, the river rose and bypassed the
bridge on both sides, washing away the road. The bridge,
however, is well constructed and withstood the torrent. Our
driver from the city bypassed the bad spot by going through
Zacapa and he says the damaged road sections should be
passable within 24 hours.

The road to El Estor is supposedly open. Two buses
successfully passed that way yesterday but the river may
have risen again because of the rainfall last night.

The marinas are still flooded with docks and restaurants
underwater. You can drive your dinghy right up to the bar at
Hacienda Tijax. The Cayuco Club has moved operations to the
ranchito at Mario's and the restaurant at Tijax has moved to
one of the large ranchitos also. Suzanna's restaurant is
closed with water waist deep in the kitchen. None of the
boats here have any problems.

The flying club here at the Bacadilla has 55 members and
most of them are out volunteering their equipment and
services, risking their lives flying airplanes and
helicopters to rescue the isolated and carry food to
isolated areas. There are 45,000 to 75,000 persons isolated
or missing in Guatemala alone with over a million homeless
thus far in Central America.

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

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