Rain, Rain and More Rain

[william webster]

Hahaha fgorgon...

ECO,
I am a firm believer in the cyclical argument but I will temper that with a dash of humankind interference.
However , I might argue that mankind's actions have less impact on Nature's circumstances than many propose.

Yes , perhaps a man made influence but minor at best.
The tail doesn't wag the dog.

 

[Ecoman1949]

Hahaha fgorgon...

ECO,
I am a firm believer in the cyclical argument but I will temper that with a dash of humankind interference.
However , I might argue that mankind's actions have less impact on Nature's circumstances than many propose.

Yes , perhaps a man made influence but minor at best.
The tail doesn't wag the dog.

Forgot to mention. More icebergs along our coasts these days, ergo, more rum and vodka made with iceberg water, thousands of years old and very pure. If one has to watch ones house float away on the rising tide, it's better to do it in a rum induced euphoria. lol!

 

[william webster]

Iceberg Alley....
in the news recently... causing Newfie Traffic jams as gawkers arrive.

 

[cobraboy]

The Maldives and Seychelles are losing shoreline to higher tide levels.

Or sinking of the land mass or simple erosion.

There was a study done in the mid-70's that showed the Maldives may actually be *rising*, based on tidal marks going back to the early 50's.

 

[ju10prd]

Climate change in the DR is a bit harder to gauge because of its location and existing climate. Hurricanes tend to be stronger now because of warmer ocean waters. Their frequency fluctuates from year to year. The Maldives and Seychelles are losing shoreline to higher tide levels. The DR is not experiencing this problem yet as far as I can tell. Some scientist say long periods of normal weather is abnormal and intermittent periods of abnormal weather is normal. No need to have a boat tied up by your house yet. It will be a long time before water is lapping at your door due to tidal range rise, if it ever happens.

You may wish to read this very recent article in El Caribe as web translated below to gauge the effects in DR of the steady increase in global ocean temperatures and the strengthening in recent years as a result of the effects of El Nino and La Nina.

Whilst the debate for some (as the gorgon refers) will be about if it is man made as the introduction to this article concludes( but that discussion is for OT), the scientific fact is that ocean and air temperatures have risen steadily since records began but more sharply in the last 30 years, and the poorer nations generally in the topical and sub tropical zones have been suffering exponentially through changes in their nations climate. Go back to the 80's and the climate in the Caribbean was very predictable with the exception of tropical storms and now it is all over the place with droughts and unseasonal rainfall amongst other matters.

The increase in the accumulation of greenhouse gases in our atmosphere, such as carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), sulphur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen oxides (NOx), has been responsible for the increases in temperatures that are producing significant changes in regional climate and have a direct impact on every other phenomena of El Niño and La Niña , which are expressed in the form of long periods of drought and subsequent periods of rains and floods, which means that when the El Niño phenomenon, there are many rains and flooding in the tropical Pacific Ocean Strip, but at the same time there are long droughts in the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, and when it ceases the phenomenon of El Niño in the Pacific Ocean then begins the phenomenon of La Niña, causing torrential rains and flooding on the Islands and territories of the Atlantic Ocean and its sea Caribe.Fruto of the phenomenon of El Niño the Dominican Republic suffered the ravages of the prolonged drought of 2013, 2014 and 2015 and million-dollar losses in the production of drinking water and food by the diminishing flows in all the aqueducts and all the irrigation channels of the country causing a decrease in the production of rice and bananas, to the end that a unit of banana came to cost 30 pesos, and forced the Government to import bananas from Costa Rica to counteract the shortage and sky-rocketing prices. At the beginning of the year 2016 it completed the phenomenon of El Niño in the Pacific Ocean and began the phenomenon of La Niña in the Atlantic Ocean, so at the end of the year 2016 there were torrential rains on the North coast of the island of Hispaniola to the end of producing rainfall that marked a record for one month since Puerto Plata recorded a total of 1,250 millimeters of rain per square meter for the month of November 2016 and that rainfall in a month is equivalent to rain accumulated in the area for a normal period of almost a year, causing floods that damaged bridges, roads and hundreds of homes, and crashing down slopes and paving of roads and local roads, which were joined by rains in the Central Mountain range that discharges from the dam of Tavera which flooded to Santiago and the Northwest line They incomunicaron to dozens of communities and damaged banana plantations, estimated that total losses by the rains and floods of November 2016 could be closer to 20 billion pesos. But when the authorities and the population thought that they had already delivered from rains, new rains have returned to punish the country overflowing with almost all of the rivers, filling nearly all dams and motivating that Hatillo dam free spill from entering and causing flooding in Arenoso, Villa Riva and other communities of the low Yuna , and however our previous warnings Z101 radio, that same afternoon flooding of the low Yuna found communities without any plan preventive, as without any preventive plan they were communities of Barahona, Enriquillo, El Naranjal, El Higüero and their neighborhoods when in just one day of this last week fell 395 mm of rain which flooded everything because that is the amount of rain that there usually falls in a year Similarly has been so much rain fall over the Central Mountain range that this past Saturday the Chapterhouse of the Intermountain city of Jarabacoa declared in State of emergency by floods and landslides in slopes and embankments of roads and highways, as also flooded was the entire low Samana.producto city climate tropical rains will be increasingly more frequent and increasingly severe generating higher levels of damage Agriculture, aqueducts, roads, bridges and embankments of roads to the homes located on the banks of rivers and streams, the roads and the unstable hillsides, so the authorities and communities must be increasingly more alerts to these phenomena. Hence, to prevent damage from floods and droughts we must start thinking in a program of construction of dams on the rivers Sanate, Soco, Chavon, Yaque del Sur, Ozama, Haina, Yuna, Camu, Boba, Bao, Yaque del Norte, Amina, Artibonite, Joca and Macasia, because the dams will pay for themselves in just 5 years. Additionally we clean sediments accumulated in our 34 dams because those sediments have reduced the capacity of storage of water in reservoirs, 1,000 million cubic meters since theoretically our 34 dams had to store 2,500 billion cubic meters of water, but to be sedimented between 30% and 40%, because the reservoirs of our dams have never been cleaned , the actual available storage when they are full is of the order of the 1,500 million cubic metres of water, and we need much more water to supply aqueducts and irrigation canals when drought, being necessary to take many preventive plans are functional to reduce impacts of climate change and stop running away when everything is already flooded and damaged or when the drought already has hit us. l See more at: http://www.elcaribe.com.do/2017/05/01/cambio-climatico-sequias-lluvias-presas#sthash.B2RCfog5.dpuf

 

[jd426]

If " Global warming" is raising Ocean Levels ... why are the ocean levels on the North Coast of the DR going down ,, or are these just optical Illusions .
This Global warming stuff sure is confusing and contradictory ..

 

[Ecoman1949]

Or sinking of the land mass or simple erosion.

There was a study done in the mid-70's that showed the Maldives may actually be *rising*, based on tidal marks going back to the early 50's.

Islands tend to suffer shoreline loss in one area and shoreline gain in another. Sable Island off the coast of Nova Scotia is a classic example of this. Basically a moving sand capped dune. The shifts are measured in metres. Tidal range rise is on the increase in Atlantic Canada. Due to riding tide levels, stronger wind and tide driven storm surges. I remember as a child, our Bay was iced in solid for the entire winter. That hadn't happened in decades. There are obvious and not so obvious changes happening everywhere, including the DR. 

 

[Ecoman1949]

If " Global warming" is raising Ocean Levels ... why are the ocean levels on the North Coast of the DR going down ,, or are these just optical Illusions .
This Global warming stuff sure is confusing and contradictory ..

Like most science it's not an exact science. The science of prediction using computer modelling forecasts is only as good as the data that gets inputed into the models and nature has a way of skewing the data with anomalies. Most scientists, however, base their data on the long term not the short term. That gives it weight. Your right in the sense that the information can be contradictory from one place to another.

 

[cobraboy]

Like most science it's not an exact science. The science of prediction using computer modelling forecasts is only as good as the data that gets inputed into the models and nature has a way of skewing the data with anomalies. Most scientists, however, base their data on the long term not the short term. That gives it weight. Your right in the sense that the information can be contradictory from one place to another.

Problem is not ONE "climate change" model has been remotely accurate. None. Zero. Nada. Not even close.

 

[dv8]

all i can say is that i'm glad it's not pi**ing rain in puerto plata area anymore. we could not take any more heavy rainfall and recent months have been very bad.

i think that every year i manage to find something to b*tch about saying that things are worse than in my 11 years in the country. truth be told human memory is short and the past is easily blurred. it's a caribbean island: we get periods of rain, periods of drought, cold front, then the heat, hurricanes and whatnot. ma nature likes to remind us that we are nothing with an occasional slap in the face.

and dominicans are not making it easy on themselves either: infrastructure is poorly done and lacks maintenance, buildings are raised too close to rivers and/or cliffs/slopes; trees are cut, sand and gravels from rivers are extracted without control; trash is thrown everywhere and whatever meager rain canals exist get easily blocked; there is no control over construction sites that redirect/block/destroy small streams taking the water out of cities/barrios.

in other words, yeah, this problem is partially man made but on a local scale rather than on a global level. dominicans made the beds they sleep in.

 

[cobraboy]

all i can say is that i'm glad it's not pi**ing rain in puerto plata area anymore. we could not take any more heavy rainfall and recent months have been very bad.

i think that every year i manage to find something to b*tch about saying that things are worse than in my 11 years in the country. truth be told human memory is short and the past is easily blurred. it's a caribbean island: we get periods of rain, periods of drought, cold front, then the heat, hurricanes and whatnot. ma nature likes to remind us that we are nothing with an occasional slap in the face.

and dominicans are not making it easy on themselves either: infrastructure is poorly done and lacks maintenance, buildings are raised too close to rivers and/or cliffs/slopes; trees are cut, sand and gravels from rivers are extracted without control; trash is thrown everywhere and whatever meager rain canals exist get easily blocked; there is no control over construction sites that redirect/block/destroy small streams taking the water out of cities/barrios.

in other words, yeah, this problem is partially man made but on a local scale rather than on a global level. dominicans made the beds they sleep in.

Agree about blurred memory. A favorite expression is "the older I get, the better I was..."

Much of what you posted is the result of the DR being a poor country. There just isn't the money to do all things properly, especially infrastructure, the first time.

That said, the newer roads are well done, but even the harsh conditions cause problems. The new road from Santa Barbara de Samana to Las Galeras is falling apart above the new water pipes.

 

[ju10prd]

I am sure everybody is relieved that the last trough of low pressure has gone albeit high humidity and some atmospheric instability remains with lesser amounts of rainfall.

But we are told that another trough is coming our way......next week in mentioned in DR1 News based upon reports from COE. However Onamet in it's bulletin 6am this morning, paints a bleaker picture with the statement:

Esperándose un incremento significativo en las precipitaciones durante el fin de semana por el acercamiento de una vaguada. (- expected significant increase in rainfall during the weekend with the proximity of a trough )

I do hope that the expected new significant precipitation increase stays away from the recently badly affected parts of the country specifically the South, for long enough to allow for the 42 aqueducts currently out of service to be rehabilitated and resume water supplies to many communities.

http://www.listindiario.com/la-republica/2017/05/04/464491/ciudades-quedan-sin-agua-en-20-provincias

Maintaining aqueduct inlets operational from rivers when at such a high level and in a turbulent state of flood (as demonstrated by the videos) for protracted periods with gravelly expansive flood plains, must be a management headache for those dealing with water supplies, not to mention the turbidity issues to be addressed in making the water useable. And for a poor country with many of these resources having been installed many years ago.

 

[PeterInBrat]

Turbidity... Maybe that's why the town water only just came back today after ten days. Saw a couple houses destroyed by the river where the bank was undermined.

We went to a swimming hole a week or so ago next to an undeveloped flood plain. Perfect for corn or other crops but just used as wild growth cattle pasture. Washes out about once every five years which is no big deal. The plain was eight feet above a ten foot wide ankle deep river, but we're at the foot of a mountain range here in Higüey.

 

[cobraboy]

Turbidity... Maybe that's why the town water only just came back today after ten days. Saw a couple houses destroyed by the river where the bank was undermined.

Our water in Jarabacoa has been off for a few days because of turbidity, and the water dept. warns of leptospirosis, so I jacked up the chlorine content in the cistern and pool.

I filter water going into the pool with a 1 micron diesel fuel filter. The last week the filter has been capturing an amazing, huge amount of gunk.

 

[Ecoman1949]

What's the word on the road from a Maimon down to Luperon? Still in good shape? What about Luperon itself? Any flooding problems. Still to fricken cold in Canada. Went for motorcycle ride yesterday and even with fully lined touring suit, heated seats and handlebar grips it was mind numbing cold due to NE winds. Pondering heading down for another two weeks in June to spend a week in Playa Dorada and a week in Luperon. My cojones should be defrosted by then and I can head back home for some serious riding. Lol!

 

[ju10prd]

Turbidity... Maybe that's why the town water only just came back today after ten days. Saw a couple houses destroyed by the river where the bank was undermined.

.

It's bad enough keeping the inlets clear of sediments and the clearing of blocked inlets cannot begin until the river subsides.....there are a few photos in the media of excavators clearing the opening of the inlets into the aqueducts. But then there will be sediments in the aqueducts themselves too before getting to the treatment plant where more settlement of the suspended sediments can take place before flocculating the rest (or most) and treating. I read there was a shortage of flocculants in one of the Santo Domingo plants. And of course there will be the possibility of aqueduct damage where the rivers have crested beyond river embankments.

One of the first civil engineering jobs I managed many years ago, was a water treatment plant in Cumbria, UK with intake off the River Eden, which was a river often turbid, flowing off the moors, but the type of flows experienced here of recent are something quite different to deal with. And so people will need to be patient with the water authorities getting supplies back because they have real headaches to tackle.

 

[cobraboy]

 

[bob saunders]

Our water in Jarabacoa has been off for a few days because of turbidity, and the water dept. warns of leptospirosis, so I jacked up the chlorine content in the cistern and pool.

I filter water going into the pool with a 1 micron diesel fuel filter. The last week the filter has been capturing an amazing, huge amount of gunk.

How much chlorine would you add to a tinaco?

 

[cobraboy]

How much chlorine would you add to a tinaco?

Depends on the volume.

I shoot for 2ppm MOL in a 1000g cistern that is pumped to the tinaco which eventually gets to the tinaco. You can't smell 2ppm, but around 5ppm you can smell chlorine in the taps. Putting chlorine in the tinaco directly is a real hassle for us. We don't drink the water.

It's all math: volume of water, chlorine concentration, etc.

Volume of tank x (desired ppm/1,000,000) = amount of pure chlorine required.

That result x chlorine concentration (household is around 5.25%) = amount of household chlorine to use by % of gallon. Times 128 gives you how many oz. of household chlorine to use.

In our case the math is:

• 1000g cistern x (2/1,000,000-the desired PPM) = .002 gallons of pure chlorine to reach 2ppm
• .002g/.0525 = .038 gallons of 5.25% household chlorine
• .038 x 128oz in a gallon = 4.88 oz. of 5.25% chlorine in a 1000g cistern to achieve 2ppm

So I add around 2/3 cup MOL to the cistern.

 

[AlterEgo]

Bob, we buy 3" chlorine tablets, and put them in a floater so they dispense over time. Our holders take three tablets at a time, but we usually put one or two in. We use them in both the cistern and the tinaco (ours is 550 gallons).  I bought the tablets in DR and the dispensers on eBay