Hurricanes & Earthquakes?

Tags

earthquakes and heavy rains, El Salvador Earthquake, Mindo Murals

(Mindo Ecuador) Dedicated artists continue working on murals….

” …heavy rain induces thousands of landslides and severe erosion, which removes ground material from the Earth’s surface, releasing the stress load and encouraging movement along faults … the reduced load (can) unclamp the faults, which can promote an earthquake.”  – Shimon Wdowinski, associate research professor at the UM Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science

Several days ago as Otto began creeping toward Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama, I remembered noting that strong earthquakes seem connected not only to full and new moons, but also to Hurricanes and periods of heavy rains.   Doing a bit of homework, I opened two sites that discussed the earthquake-hurricane connection.

Working by phone and flashlight!

Working late with the mural-painting projects, I intended to read the stories with more focus when I had more time; the page was still on the screen when the 7.0+ quake hit El Salvador.

Here’s the link if anyone’s interested in post-turkey dinner reading material:  Hurricanes-Typhoons May Trigger Earthquakes.

Meanwhile, many are watching Otto’s trek across southern Nicaragua and northern Costa Rica.   May all of you have a safe evening.

Is anyone ready to stop for the day?!

 

A-typical Thanksgivings

Tags

costa rica, Hurricane Otto, Nicaragua, thanksgiving in Ecuador

Tent Community between Jama and Playa El Matal (Ecuador)

Greetings to all on this USA day of Thanksgiving.    In strong contrast to those affected by world-wide unstable weather, I spent the early morning helping with finishing touches on a mural-painting “minga” near Mindo’s central park.   Students, teachers and artists worked in easy harmony over the past few days while all-but perfect sunny skies smiled upon us.

Although the experience filled me with gratitude for these lovely people who embrace foreigners into their culture, my thoughts have also been tweaked to equally-loving people in Central America who are and will be affected by Otto’s late-November visit to the area.

Late-November Otto & Central America

Tags

costa rica, Nicaragua, Tropical Storm Otto

Thinking of all of you that are affected by Otto’s late-November surprise.

When I scan maps of Central America, I always spot that large Lake Nicaragua- Cocibolca (Ometepe is home to Debbie and Ron, who – ironically- were in New Zealand and experienced the recent 7.8 earthquake…)  Then I look due south to find the Nicoya Penisula where many of my friends live…. and now due east to Barra Colorado on the north-east border with Nicaragua, where my friend Dan has Rio Colorado Lodge.   Hang in there everyone…  Many will be watching from afar.

Kris out of Panama posted an update on weather in the David area. ‘Otto is Soaking Us”

(To anyone with internet there, updates are appreciated…)

Lessons to all:  Keep your homes well stocked – disasters seem to be surprising people world wide….

Love,
Z

Reminiscing

Playa El Matal/Jama/Ecuador – Pat Godkin’s home will most likely be demolished today.

“We are all such escape artists, you and I. We don’t like to get too serious about things, especially about ourselves. When we are with other people, we are apt to talk about almost anything under the sun except for what really matters to us, except for our own lives, except for what is going on inside our own skins. We pass the time of day. We chatter. We hold each other at bay, keep our distance from each other even when God knows it is precisely each other that we desperately need.” Frederick Buechner

Jama Ecuador – Buechner’s words articulate this past week’s experience as I’ve taken a slower & meandering trail through earthquake-ravaged Jama.    Those that I’ve spoken with have learned the above lessons, and circumstances have steered our conversations to tones of sobering seriousness.  We also find humor, though a heavy undercurrent flows through the entire area.

People are smiling, people have hope, yet there is a different energy of emotional heaviness, of unspoken weariness.

Jama Ecuador – Before & After

Tags

7.8 earthquake jama, earthquake, jama ecuador, Palo Santo Cafe, volunteer work in manabi

“Wherever there are birds, there is hope.”
― Mehmet Murat ildan

Jama, Ecuador –  Arriving in Jama just before dark, I was happy to see Luchy Cevallos unloading items from his car at Palo Santo Cafe.  “Lisa!!” he smiled, “Come in and have a cafe!”   I accepted on the condition that I share the tasks before they opened at 7.     He also prepared a pizza that we shared, and then he dashed to the cabanas to prepare #3 for me to spend the night.  Yay!

Business was brisk, and I suspected that each dime would help with repairs on his hostal.   When I left at ten, people were still visiting while enjoying good food at a very fair price.

I also took photos to compare before and after, so here’s an ‘after’ photo taken in front of Palo Santo…

Jama – in front of Palo Santo Cafe – Nov 2016 What’s missing?

Compare the photo above with one taken a few years earlier:

Jama Before –

More before/after comparasons:

Jama before – (Wear White for Peace)

Jama after earthquake – Luchy’s brother’s house is gone (to the right) as is a two-story house to the left…

Turning back time to 2008:  How well I remember walking the lazy streets of Jama as if I’d stepped into a time warp from my childhood.  Cowboys nudged their cattle along the streets at the end of the day.     The town slowly changed over the past seven years, but the April 16th earthquake turned Jama and neighboring areas upside down.

Many have shared their stories.

“…It began like the usual earthquakes – starting slowly, and we became aware – Earthquake – and assumed it would be finished in a few seconds. But it didn’t, and the slow subtle start sort of tricked us…   I was in the street outside my house when it happened… first it wasn’t scary – it was like a normal earthquake and then it got stronger. One house fell and then another and another… and I looked at our house and thought, “Please don’t fall…” – and it didn’t….   A few more minutes, and I think the house would have fallen down.”

Weather, Extinctions and Round-the-World Deforestations

Tags

climate change, deforestation, endangered species, eulogy for a planet, extinctions, reforestation, silent spring rachel carson, what can one person do

 

Ecuador’s Powerful Woodpecker (Campephilus pollens) resembles North America’s possibly-extinct Ivory-billed Woodpecker.  What will it take to awaken mankind that preserving and restoring the habitat has reached critical importance?

” The ivory-bill is so iconic: big, beautiful, mysterious—a symbol of everything that’s gone wrong with our relationship to the environment. I thought if someone could just locate an ivory-bill, could prove that this remarkable species still exists, it would be the most hopeful event imaginable. We would have one final chance to save this bird and the bottomland swamp forests it needs to survive.”  From Surfbirds.com – interview with Tim Gallagher, author of The Grail Bird.

While working, I  was rewarded by first hearing and then seeing this magnificent Powerful Woodpecker!

“Earth’s population of wild vertebrates — all mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and fish — declined 58 percent from 1970 to 2012. (That’s up from 52 percent in the 2014 report, which spanned 1970 to 2010.) In other words, the total number of wild animals with backbones has fallen by more than half within one human lifetime.”   Russell McClendon – Mother Nature Network (Oct 27/2016)

Mindo Ecuador –   Something happened last month that had a profound effect on me.  I’ve been trying to figure out how to approach it, how to share it with you – with those who might be interested – but even more for those who are not.