She lost her home in Vargas's Montesano neighborhood and her husband's lottery stand was destroyed by flooding. They live in a shelter. Cadera can't read and has never left Montesano in her life. It's so far away. The floods destroyed roads, hospitals, schools, beach resorts, businesses and electrical and water systems throughout Vargas.
Many residents depend on government food and military protection from crime.
Hidrocapital, a private company, says full water service won't be restored until 2002. In small, distant towns, water deliveries are disrupted by rains which close roads. That happened two weeks ago in tiny Anare, cut off for two days by flooding and mudslides. Scores of children picked up parasite-related diseases after drinking dirty river water, Leon said. In towns to the east, cars, homes and apartment buildings still lie half buried in the mud that engulfed them a year ago.