Flash Flood Dakar

Before I came, I asked a friend who'd lived in Senegal before and who travels here quite frequently, if he thought I should bring rain gear since Senegal has basically two seasons rainy and dry. He told me I probably wouldn't need anything since the rain here never amounts to much. So imagine my surprise the first day I was here and the streets were flooded and cars were stalling from all the water back up. But my friend had reason for saying what he did since this is the first time in about 20 years (local sources say...) that Senegal has had this much rain. This weekend when we drove south to Toubab Dialaw we saw a lot of the devastation from this surprisingly wet rainy season. Since it's been so long since there's been this much rain a lot of people have built homes and businesses in areas where the water tables are pretty high. Now with all the rain the water just won't go down. It won't drain and it won't soak into the earth. Many people, poor and rich, have lost their homes and businesses to the water. And I don't think there's much for flood insurance.

This was taken one day a couple weeks ago on my way to school.

This the HLM fabric market in Dakar. Even with the flood most people were still buying and selling like usual.

This is one the route to Toubab Dialaw outside of Dakar (courtesy of Mike from "Holmes away from home."

This too.