What we came home to......

Massive, massive flooding. Oshakati is basically underwater. The mayor of Oshakati has been quoted saying that this is the worst flooding in Oshakati's history. The main road in town is built up higher than the surrounding ground, so the main road is okay, except the bridges. René drove out of town the other day and one of the bridges has so much water moving under it that the water is flowing over the road. This is on a main road into Oshakati!
Fishing in Oshakati. Usually there isn't any water here.


Temporary housing for those displaced by the floods.
There is actually a car in this yard, only the very top of the car is visible.





Sand bags at the entrance to this bar.



We heard that it rained every day while we were gone. Also, it’s been raining in Angola, so the Oshanas are flowing. This means that many, many people are homeless. There are also people everywhere with all of their salvaged belongings--clothing, bedding, furniture. (And people out everywhere catching and selling fish.) The less permanent housing on the outskirts of town is all underwater and even some of the nice houses in town, in our neighborhood, are flooded. In fact, the two properties just next to the guesthouse where we stay are completely underwater. Yesterday they were trying to build a sand wall and pump out all the water that was already in the yard. It was nuts! We went for a drive on Saturday and the bridges into town have a ton of water flowing underneath them and as I mentioned, René saw that one of these bridges actually has water flowing over it! It’s really crazy for René to see because he was here during the dry season, and the difference is quite amazing. He told me that he remembered seeing ditches and canals on the side of the streets, but really couldn’t imagine why they were there since there was no water anywhere at that time. Since we’ve been here we haven’t seen any of those ditches or canals when they’ve been dry and right now they are overflowing.

There is a landing strip behind our guesthouse that is no longer used for airplanes, but it is used as the helicopter landing pad. We hear the helicopters take off every day, several times a day, to evacuate flood victims.