miércoles, 18 de junio de 2008

Reading Comprehension Techniques

Texto de Lectura A para la sección 1 de ADM


Lasting effects

After the catastrophic event of December 1999 in Vargas it is of course of prime importance, in order to conceive prevention countermeasures, to asses the probability that a same event could occur again. It is especially crucial in the Vargas case because a similar event already affected the Vargas coast in February 1951. The fact that the 1999’s event could have been even more extreme than the 1951’s one (at least it has been undoubtedly much more murderous) reinforce the importance of the question: under which conditions is such an extreme event like the Vargas 99 floods repeatable?

The authors have only realized a one-week mission in Vargas in February 2000. Therefore they can of course not pretend to give a definitive answer to such a complex question. Nevertheless some tracks can probably be advanced that can maybe provide elements on this topic. After a short summary of the most remarkable characteristics of the 1999’s event, a list of possible investigations is drawn up, as they have been identified at the date of the mission.

The disaster caused estimated damages of USD $1.79 to $3.5 billion More that 8,000 homes were destroyed, displacing up to 75,000 people. The mudslides significantly altered more than 60 kilometers of the coastline in Vargas. Over 70% of the population of the state of Vargas was affected by the disaster. All public services, like water, electricity, phone lines, and land transportation (roads and bridges) disappeared. There were no supplies of food and water for months, so most of the population had to be evacuated. Looting and sacking sprouted up everywhere, forcing the military to implement Martial law for more than one year.
texto B para la sección 2 de ADM
The December 1999 flood

On December 15 and 16, 1999, exceptional rainfalls fell down on the northern coast of Venezuela, especially affecting the northern slope of the El Avila Mountain. Furthermore these rainfalls occurred after more than two months with rainfalls significantly higher than the mean values. The following data, recorded at the Maiquetia Airport, are mentioned in a report compiled by PNUD (2000): 122 mm in October 1999, compared to a mean inter-annual value of 56 mm, 290 mm in November 1999, against 54 mm, and of course 1204 mm in December 1999, against 54 mm. The rainfalls of December 15 and 16 occurred thus probably on saturated soils, or at least soils much more wet than usually at this season.
All the torrents of the northern slope of El Avila, more or less perpendicular to the coast, knew exceptional floods, burying almost all their alluvial fans under huge volumes of sediments.

The damages were considerable, both for what concerns human losses and on the material or economic plan. Many houses were swept, buried or filled by sediments. The road giving access to the littoral localities remained impracticable for a long time. The water supply and other networks were hard affected, as well as the La Guaira seaport. The torrential flows often pushed their sediment transport quite far in the sea (around 100 meters at some places).