it seems that the male named storms bother us more than the female. <here in Bani, in the heavily hit southwest part of the country, we have had so much rain that <i wonder if we can handle any more and it is still coming. We have been without power since Sunday night and so <i am at an internet centre writing this and using a Spanish keyboard so please excuse the punctuation mistakes.
The rain started around noon on Saturday, with a thunder and lightning storm. The latter hit a tree across the street from us, fell and hit our power line and knocked out our inverter so we have been dependent on street electricity since then. Since this has been non existant, we are using a cooler filled with ice for our fridge.
The rain began in earnest Saturday evening, all day Sunday and <monday. Some time <monday morning the river crested and <i think it was 25 to 30 feet above normal. When <i saw it later in the morning it had gone down somewhat but it was still a ragin torrent and still is. Several people, maybe 20 maybe more lost their houses and many more had two or three feet of water in them which is now mud. <unpaved roads are difficult to drive on so you use your snow experience as mud and snow are more or less the same for driving.
According to the radio, 41 people are confirmed dead and about 40 are missing. Some people have spent three or four days on the roof of a school and some in trees waiting for rescue. The helicopters were busy today so hopefully everyone has been rescued.
The bridge in Paya broke in two but was fixed by Tuesday afternoon. The bridge that was out in Galleon is also fixed. The road to Ocoa is missing about 400 metres so no one can pass there. Azua is shut off from Bani by another bridge that is down.
<people who lost their houses are taking refuge in schools or with neighbours. <on <monday there were people moving their mattresses, beds, stoves and other possessions in pickup trucks to the school. The government is sending trucks with food and mattresses. Today we had a bit of sun and lines and fences all had clothes drying.
In other words, it is a mess here but at least now we in Bani can communicate with the capital, if not with other parts of the southwest. <hopefully it will stop raining soon.

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