The end of a tough and arduous few days.

Just a quick note to say that ‘normal’ service will be resumed in the morning, local time here in Mexico.

Jimena struck San Carlos, where we are presently living, late afternoon on the 1st September.  Electricity was restored a couple of hours ago.  (I write these few words at 6.30 pm on Sunday, 6th.)

Jean and I are very tired!

Lots to report….

Regular readers of this Blog will know that the pattern is to publish two Posts each day at 09:00 (MT)/16:00 UTC/17:00 British Summer Time.

What readers may not appreciate is that the Posts are queued up for a number of days in advance. This removes the pressure from having to write something, a dead-ringer for writer’s block if ever there was one, and meant that Learning from Dogs automagically published Posts during the many days of the storm.

So it will be a while before that pattern is restored as the list of tasks around the home is endless despite electricity being back on.  The Blog will have to be a lower priority for a while.

Back to Jimena.

The facts are as follows (all times local – US Mountain Time):

06:00 Sept 1st – Sun becomes obscured by leading edge of storm clouds.

12:00 – wind strength starts to pick up, gusts to 25 mph

16:00 – light rain commences

16:30 – electricity fails

23:00 – I am woken by sound of water dripping through ceiling in bedroom.  The living room upstairs has an inch of water on the floor.  The dining room and out bedroom likewise.  Mopping begins.

02:00 Sept 2nd – I wake Jean as I can no longer keep pace with the incoming water.

06:30 – a grey dawn reveals a massive torrent of water flooding down from the hills behind San Carlos and washing out to sea, where our beach used to be.

All day is spent dealing with the incoming water.  At one point, the roadway to the front of the house floods into our lot and tons of water are now washing around the foot of the building and being dammed by our back wall (the back of the house faces the beach).  I manage to open the rear gate and narrowly avoid being swept out as a metre deep of water escapes out of the rear yard.

18:00 – the house is getting dark. Water, water everywhere but not a drop to drink!  We find the only bedroom in the house that isn’t damp and collapse.

06:30 Sept 3rd – it is still raining.

11:00 – The rain shows signs of abating.

06:00 Sept 4th – we awake to a partially sunny, dry sky!  There is no electricity, mains water or mains sewage service.

12:00 – we finally have all the floors dry and start to review the damage to the area – it is massive.

Known details:

28 inches of rain fell.  The average wind speed was about 45 mph but there were gusts to 60 mph or higher.

There is so much substantial damage in San Carlos that it is difficult to know where to start describing things.

Thousands are homeless in Guaymas, the local city.  Our gardener who turned up this morning described his sister’s house simply being washed away.  His own home is still under a metre of water.  Three people are reported as being killed.  That number is sure to rise as hard facts continue to surface.  Many people are living in Churches and schools.

Mains water in San Carlos make be a couple of weeks away.  The area was attributed national disaster status 3 days ago, on the personal command of the President, who was rumoured to have visited San Carlos and Guaymas on Friday.

And on and on.  Photos have been uploaded to Picasa web albums and hopefully may be viewed here.

By Paul Handover

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