That's My Story

Published in Western Outdoor News week of Sept. 10, 2006

PHOTO: The “calm” just before the storm. Rain starts falling and skies grow ominous, but within hours 115 mile-an- hour-wind and the eye of Hurricane John will pass over…

HURRICANE DOUBLE WHAMMY!

Wow! OK…so in the last column I was a bit flip about hurricane watching and there’s a point where you do have to take it seriously especially if you live down here and you’re directly in harm’s way.

Well, it looks like most of us survived Hurricane John that rampaged and ravaged the Baja this past week. It was interesting in that once it passed Cabo, there seemed to be very little coverage about it. Many folks in the states, judging by my e-mails, think the chubasco simply breezed through (no pun intended). Funny how that is. If a storm isn’t battering Cabo or Acapulco or Miami or New Orleans, like the proverbial tree that fall in the woods and no one hears it, the storm never happened.

On the contrary, much of Baja took a Hulk Hogan body slam to the mat. Cabo got a bye this time in many respects. John was supposed to beat Cabo like many other previous storms in it’s nether regions then bounce outside west to the Pacific and away. Instead, it came right up the gut of the Sea of Cortez.

Folks who had left Cabo to find refuge in the East Cape and La Paz suddenly found themselves in a Category 3 chubasco with the eye rolling directly over head Saturday night. We’re talking winds in the 110-120 pound class and anything in that wind, wood, rocks, parts of houses, pieces of tin roof are also moving that fast!

Let me tell you what it’s like being in total darkness with no electricity and a howl that resembles being in a jet turbine. It’s deafening. I heard windows shattering and huge trees falling over. Rain came sideways. Door were torn off hinges and roofs ceased to exist. Electric transformers were blowing up. Then nothing…dead silence.

Some people came outside thinking it was over. Others shouted at them that it was only the “eye” passing over. Half an hour later, round two clobbered us again. I saw part of a tree go through a window and saw the wind peel paint off the side of our building.

Cabo got it to a degree. The East Cape and La Paz got pummeled so bad that even President Fox had to come by to visit. But, up the coast in Constitution, Mulege and Santa Rosalia, they are still looking for people who were swept away in the torrents of water and mud. I saw photos of municipal buses stood on their ends and holes punched in concrete walls by winds over 100 miles hurling objects like battering rams.

Funny thing about hurricanes though. Even though the winds eventually go tranquillo and the rain moves off, these storms continue to be sinister.

Washes (arroyos) can continue to roil often trapping unwary motorists who try to cross and either stall or get stuck in unsuspecting mud. Many post-hurricane deaths are attributed to this every season. As I write this there are reports of tourists in a camper who were washed out to sea and a local mom and children who tried to ford a seemingly shallow runoff.

As well, there’s a problem with disease and pollution. Mexico doesn’t get a lot of rain ,but it can get a lot of rain at one time. Drains, ditches, canals and sewers, which are often not exactly state-of-the-art to begin with, suddenly get sluiced out or overflow into homes, streets, marinas and other waterways. You can imagine what kind of a biologically toxic brew that is. You couldn’t pay me to swim in the ocean anywhere near a city or pueblo within a week or more after a storm. That “brown” water is not always because of mud flow.

Additionally, that same water turns to mud and dries. It turns to dust and now becomes airborne to be inhaled and also land on food. That’s why cities often close outdoor restaurants and taco stands for several days after storms. Right now, city workers wear face masks to avoid breathing the potentially hazardous dust.

The water that does not dry sits in puddles. It breeds mosquitoes in that same water that flowed out’ve the drains. Mosquitoes bite people and folks start coming down with things like Dengue Fever which is a really painful flu and can be deadly (like any flu) especially to the very old and young.

Should you cancel your upcoming trip down here? Nah. I wouldn’t. But forewarned is forearmed if you know what to avoid.

That’s my story. If you ever want to reach me, my e-mail is riplipboy@aol.com.