June 5, 2010: The following is an excerpt from an update published by As Green As It Gets (www.asgreenasitgets.org). To read the update in its entirety, please click here. To donate to their Agatha relief fund, please visit their website.
“Greetings, and thank you to all that have helped so far,
The last few days have given us more excitement than we bargained for. Let me bring you up to date.
Volcano Pacaya erupted just over our horizon. It rained down enough ash to close down the international airport and send residents of nearby towns into refugee shelters. Fortunately for our families, we were far enough away that it amounted to nothing more than a little sprinkling of ash on our roofs.
Tropical Storm Agatha then hit while Pacaya continued to erupt. Agatha hit us head on, and San Miguel Escobar is much worse for wear. Most of the damage was caused by a pair of flash floods. Torrential rain hit the town and the hillside above town for several days. I remember noticing we had so much rain that the water in the streets ran clear, not muddy brown. Much of the rain moves downhill through a single causeway. The torrent brought down enormous boulders and trees—rocks that weigh several hundred pounds each and tree trunks 3 feet in diameter. These dammed the causeway, causing flooding over the dike. The river made two new paths, right through any homes that were in its way. I say river, but it was really a wall of water. It took out a fifty-foot section of concrete wall on my street in a matter of seconds…”
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