While the US faced major droughts this summer, Hatai and the Dominican Republic was drowning in rainfall, almost literally. Two major lakes that are along the border of Haiti and the D.R. have been consistantly rising for some time. The Idaho Statesman brings us a report of the slow moving event in their article, "Slow-Motion Disaster: Villages vanish as Large Carribean lakes grow even bigger."
Lake Enriquillo and Lake Azuei both of which are fed by the same rivers and streams have been slowly swelling in size. These lakes are not just eveloping beaches or 'unimportant' recreation areas, but they are flooding out farms and peoples homes.
The article states,
"The spread of Enriquillo has flooded 16 communities in two provinces, more than 46,500 acres of agriculture land and 1,000 properties, according to a July study authored by the Technological Institute of Santo Domingo and the NOAA CREST Center of the City College of New York. In all, some 10,000 families have lost cattle, farmland or their homes."
The rivers and streams filling these lakes are bringing in record levels with the heavy rains that the region has recieved in the past months (and years). However the lakes and rivers should be adequate at draining them normally. Some hypothesize that there is a buildup of debris and trash clogging some outlets that would keep the lakes at normal levels. I find it hard to belive that a build up of trash and debris could hold back that much water though.
I decided to look at some historical images on Google earth and the contrast between the Lakes in 2003, 2006 and current images was pretty interesting to see, definitely worth a gander.
http://www.idahostatesman.com/2012/09/18/2275882/slow-motion-disaster.html
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