In what might be today’s strangest headline, the Listin Diario reports that the abundant rains will be good for the electric situation and, later on, for agriculture. Ramon Perez Reyes reports that the members of the National Emergency Commission feel that the full hydroelectric dams will pay for the damages caused by the flooding, which, in their view, will actually benefit farmers as the waters go down. A further benefit is that all the water needed for next year’s crops is now in storage. Meanwhile, Army Chief of Staff Jorge Zorilla Ozuna told reporters that his men were handing out mosquito netting, food rations, mattresses, blankets and cots to the refugees from the flood waters. The Emergency Commission’s reports reveal that from the 1 October until yesterday, rainfall for the period was equal to that which fell during Hurricane David and Tropical Storm Frederick in 1979, when the country only had 6 million inhabitants. This means, according to the report, that there were fewer poor people living along the flood basins of the rivers and in the ravines that feed into the rivers. At the same time, the report says that there was more forest cover, which permitted less water to reach the rivers.