During the winter of 1997 we had such a rainstorm. The river swelled and caused extensive damage. This bridge normally is used by several large trains a day, which bring iron ore from the Romeral mine to the Guayacán port. Romeral had a pretty hard time minimizing impact on operations while an emergency repair was applied to the bridge. The river also flooded many areas, took away roads, and even ate some heavy machinery that was being used to keep it at bay. All this damage refreshed an old idea: To build a dam that would avoid such floods, while storing water for irrigation during the frequent dry years.