Noah, Where are You When We Need You?

The hard rains have come once again to Bolivia. And again, as last year, they have not been kind.

Flooding at the hand of the storm formations known as "La Niña" have put some parts of Bolivia completely under water. As of this morning at least 29 people have been reported killed by the floods, and town after small town has been inundated with water. Those that have survived have had their simple homes destroyed, their animals drowned, and their lives on the economic margins made even more difficult.

In the Chapare region near Cochabamba, the town of Villarroel has been essentially submerged.

The government and nonprofit groups are doing the best they can to get aid to those affected. But infrastructure is weak here and it isn't always possible to reach people swiftly. Fears now turn to the risk of disease, as clean water supplies diminish and contamination spreads in the wake of the flood.

Readers here are free to offer their suggestions of who to contact to help in those efforts.

A note to readers: We, and apparently thousands of others, have had serious problems with Blogger of late, which has prevented us from posting for days and caused problems with comment posts as well. We think the problem is now solved and we promise to update more often in the days aheead.