Panama Canal Closed Due to Rain
The Panama Canal Authority has temporarily suspended traffic through the interoceanic waterway due to heavy rains.
Both the Gatun and Alajuela lakes have reached the highest water levels ever recorded, and the canal authority feared that transit could be affected by the currents of the Chagres River.
“We are taking steps to normalize the transit operation in the coming hours,” said Manuel Benitez, Executive Vice President of Operations for the canal.
Meanwhile, about 50 residents were evacuated from communities at the base of Madden Dam, and other canal basin communities put on alert as spill prevention measures are taken.
This is the third time the Panama Canal is closed in its 96-year history. The first time was in 1915 to mid-1916 due to landslides and the second was in 1989 due to U.S. invasion of Panama.
The canal should be moved to Nicaragua. The Panama Canal isn’t equipped to deal with forthcoming changes in weather patterns, drier summers, wetter winters.
@Burt: I’m a bit confused; how would the development of a canal in Nicaragua guarantee an improvement in transit up-time for the future?
Every position in Central America provides its own set of issues (please refer the book “The Path Between The Seas”, it does a good job discussing this). Nicaragua happens to receive more annual rainfall (http://www.r-hydronet.sr.unh.edu/grids/precipitation/ca.html), more tropical storms & hurricanes, and more seismic activity when compared with Panama. One might argue that the presence of the still active Volcán Concepción on Isla Ometepe in Lake Nicarague and the equally volatile and unpredictable current president, Daniel Ortega is enough to put the concept of a Nicaraguan canal to rest. It does, however, continue to be considered a viable option to some – something I could only begin to entertain if there was never a canal built or Panama was unwilling to update it locks, channels, etc.
As this article states the canal has been closed only once before since it was open due to meteorological events. While I agree its design is more susceptible to climatic changes compared with a the ocean level canal that theoretically would be built in Nicaragua I have yet to agree that there is any BETTER option than the current canal in Panama when looking at all the elements involved.
[...] the Gatun and Alajuela lakes have reached the highest water levels ever recorded… — Panama Canal closed due to rain, Panama Digest, December 8, [...]
Justin, time will tell.
Justin,
https://thepanamadigest.com/2010/12/wikileaks-panama-canal-expansion-a-disaster/