Time to talk about a constant companion in the city of Valdivia: the water. I find it somewhat amusing you’re never far from it. it comes from the sky, from the river, it seeps out of the ground, it’s always there.
Now we have officially started winter. the weather forecast just says rain and it’s likely to stay for several months. at least till mid September. we’ve already been besieged by rain and storms for like a month now.
streets are flooded, trees have fallen, the power has failed, there has been mudslides.
the usual.
Growing up, there a lot of blackouts. we’d usually all gather in one room, set up some candles, make some tea, and play board games. something like that.
this time of year you gotta be prepared for them. have torches,external batteries,a non-electric kettle. heating that doesn’t require electricity. that sort of thing
I think in general it is good that it is raining, it was a very hot summer, and the last few years have been rather dry. we’re still in a deficit, last year in december it was up to nearly -43%, now it’s down to like -16%.
It’s not just in Valdivia that it is raining, but in most of the south of the country. even santiago has gotten some. I’ve been looking at photos of places where waterfalls that had slowed down to a trickle or disappeared have come back. it’s a nice respite from the constant disaster we see.
Valdivia is a very wet city. it rains a lot, somewhere upwards of 2000mm. it sits criss-crossed by several rivers, in wetland country, only a few kilometers from the sea, and it receives approx over twice the average for its oceanic climate. I’ve been reading a lot about weather patterns and something about its location mixes with like clouds or something causes this wonderful microclimate.
due to this, it has some unique features such as the valdivian rainforest, home to ancient trees, great biodiversity, and many curious animals.
over here you can see the different wetlands under the city and some of the parks and urban reserves. I’ll write a full post about them and their importance later
I’ve been doing some research wonderful about cities with similar weather, and was surprised to see famously rainy cities such as Seattle or London get far less rain. I’m working on a post on rainy temperate cities. like, rainy tourism.
but what I actually want to share today is some features of life here.
one interesting aspect is how architecture is build for rain. just as all architechture is build to withstand earthquakes all around the country, in the south it is important that it can withstand water as well. there was a big scandal a while back about houses that started flooding at the first rain.
I find it interesting when architecture is made to work with the weather. I know some places have tornado-proof basements. while I don’t think I know any houses here with a basement. Buildings often do, for car parks and storage, and they’re a pain to build. you dig a little here and hit water, and then it starts raining.
One of the most notable things is that Valdivia has a lot of buildings with canopies to protect you from the rain. I don’t recall seeing anything like it in a rainy city like London.
the university has covered walkways between its buildings,
there are several purpose-built spaces for fairs with stalls and roofs.
schools have indoor patios for their students, I dont have a photo but the one I went to did. it was next to the gym which they often would open for us to play too. it often had leaks,too. a bucket here to there. we’d be running or playing and would easily slip.
in the classroom, we’d have to squish the desks together cause those by the window were drafty and usually got wet. the building was like a hundred years old so it was to be expected. it’s all new now, they teared it down and started over.
a lot of car parks are covered so you’ll have space to put your shopping or umbrella away and get into the car without getting too wet. some only have small roofs over the cars,
as a teen that’s often where we’d go to drink on like a friday night before going to a club. we’d sneak into a deserted lot that served as a car park. into boats,too . there was a particular one that had been sorta abandoned. or paused. it was easy to access and a lot of us would go there to hang out. one memorable night it was stormy as hell outside so we kicked the walls for some wood to make a fire.
thing is, you can’t exactly pause life simply cause it’s raining, or nothing would ever get done. so people still go out, go to work, to school, and partying,too.
when my mum’s house was rebuilt after a fire, what she wanted was a covered garage with an automatic door so she never again had to get wet while getting in and out of the car.
i remember in school there’d be hangers next to the heater so you could put your outerwear to dry. or you’d take your parkas and some chairs and put them in front of the stove to dry.
a lot of people who have balconies close them, put windows around them so they can be used in winter.
my aunt had a nice little terrace and she covered i up and made it part of the house, so it would be actually be usable. a lot of people do that. make a little extension of their houses. often so they can do laundry and set things out to dry.
everyone who plans an outdoor event has to have a plan for rain.
most stores leave an umbrella stand and space for people to shed their wet coats.
one thing that has not been adapted to the weather is the bridges, though we’ve been asking for ages. crossing a bridge in the rain and wind is always a risk. as a kid I remember my classmates’ skirts would fly. there’s always an umbrella or two in the bins of people who either didnt know better or were too optimistical. umbrellas are far more likely to fly off than they are to protect anyone.
because while it’s not a terribly windy city, we do get regular storms with strong winds.
and in a bridge, with no protection, the wind can be really strong. and supper foggy, which makes for some great views.
this is why I usually don’t go out in my bike when it’s so windy. I’ve been caught in a storm in my bike and it’s incredibly dangerous. it can push you off. you can hit someone or thing.
metal or zinc planks have a tendency to fly off, imagine getting hit with one of those while riding your bike.
terrifying.
I don’t mind the rain so much, I’ve got boots, dry pants, a good jacket, a winter helmet, a waterproof backpack and so on, I can protect myself, but I can’t do that from the wind.
In all my life though, I think I only had classes cancelled due to rain once. for a day or two I can’t really remember. other than that, some services may be cancelled but it’s rare to see life shut down. if streets are flooded they can be diverted. at most an specific thing may be moved, like if a roof flies off. I remember a few years ago a school roof flew off. just a bit of the gym room. didn’t affect clases terribly,though. stuff like that happens. once the door to our patio got blown open and it was half window, the window part broke. it made lunches a bit uncomfortable but we mostly used the small sitting room rather than the the main living room where this door was.
In the entrance to Isla Teja Campus of Austral University there’s a inner road and it was only recently (around 2013?) renovated, they put a roof on, the mud road got gravel put on, cause in the winter passing through there was a sure way of losing shoe. I nearly did once. the ground would suck them and you’d be standing there, hopping in one shoe, or falling over.
Any rain can show shoddy work, like an office building where, a week after opening, they got the first big rain and there was a waterfall inside. similar in a supermarket.
My dad’s always concerned about his buildings when it rains, goes to check on them.
and so are people whose houses are in desrepair. I worked building emergency housing and I worked in what we call ‘campamentos’, and it was rather terrible in the winter. the roads are all mud, the water gets in the houses, it gets very cold, people get sick, it’s a whole thing. One of the actions we did that put cement in the street of one such campamento. middle of the winter, knee-deep in water, there we were with spades and yellow raincoats. other times we’d be trying to build something and it would so rainy the wood would soak it up and nothing would fit anymore. or we’d be trying to make a hole for the foundation and everything had to be balanced but it’d be so fucking wet it moved from one minute to another. it makes life much harder.
So,I wanted to end this with a call to action, asking for your help.
You can help by going to chilecomparte2020.cl, reading how to help in techo.org (which accepts international donations), or simply by finding ways to help in your own comunity. many these days post calls for help in social media, you just gotta listen. help with money,products, or volunteer your time.
You can also help through a place like Unicef.org,savethechildren.org, or rescue.org. they’ve got plenty of causes in need.
sources:
climate info:
https://climatologia.meteochile.gob.cl/application/diario/boletinClimatologicoDiario/actual
https://www.meteored.cl/tiempo-en_Valdivia-America+Sur-Chile-Los+Lagos–sactual-18266.html
https://es.climate-data.org/america-del-sur/chile/xiv-region-de-los-rios/valdivia-5063/
http://www.munivaldivia.cl/web2018/index.php/la-comuna/clima-y-vegetacion
https://www.agromet.cl/datos-historicos
valdivian rainforest:
http://cronicasdefauna.blogspot.com/2018/10/bosques-gondwanicos-i-la-fauna-del.html
fotos:
1-https://www.soychile.cl/Valdivia/Sociedad/2012/12/24/143558/Temporal-causo-cortes-de-luz-caida-de-arboles-y-desprendimiento-de-terreno-en-Valdivia.aspx
2- https://www.soychile.cl/Valdivia/Sociedad/2011/06/07/19731/Temporal-de-viento-y-lluvia-dejo-diversos-danos-en-Valdivia.aspx
3- https://www.rioenlinea.cl/deslizamientos-de-tierra-y-caidas-de-arboles-en-los-rios-han-precipitado-cerca-de-100-milimetros-de-agua/
http://www.elnaveghable.cl/noticia/sociedad/quien-mas-no-durmio-cortes-de-luz-y-caidas-de-arboles-en-valdivia-por-temporal-foto
