Green Alert – roadworks legacies become rivers

Heavy rains which followed a five-day “Green Alert” from Panama’s  Civil Protection System (Sinaproc) on Saturday, May 18  flooded multiple areas of Panama’s capitol.

Among the most affected were roads that were part of outgoing mayor Jose Isobel  Blandon’ s much-lampooned revitalization program, which has seen regular flooding and business failures in areas where behind schedule construction work is still ongoing.  including Via Argentina and  Calle Uruguay,

Political observers believe that the perceived failure of the multi-million dollar projects contributed to Blandon’ dismal performance in his recent bid for the presidency.

The  Sinaproc warning of bad weather coincided with high tide, which turned several streets into rivers bringing down trees and damaging vehicles. Among them were Via Espana, Argentina, Uruguay Aquilino de La Gaurdia, Calle 44 Bella Vista, became true rivers causing damage to some vehicles. Parque Urracá was totally underwater.

There were also reports of tree falls on the Via Venetto , leading to Argentina.

Earlier, the Emergency Operations Center of Sinaproc issued a “Green Alert”, from Saturday 18 to Wednesday 22 May, due to the phenomenon known as Deep Sea.