BAINBRIDGE ISLAND - A couple from Bellingham saved for five years to finally go on a belated honeymoon to Mexico.
And they ran smack into Hurricane John.
A day after they got to Cabo San Lucas, all they wanted to do was come home.
Their family welcomed the couple home this weekend, after their vacation of a lifetime turned into the scare of their lives.
"We were on our own, everybody there was on their own, information was almost impossible," said Eric Von Forester.
The hurricane was headed right for them, and Eric and his wife Colleen had only each other.
"We felt out of touch, out of contact, didn't know what was going on," said Colleen. They rented laptops to stay on top of the forecast. "I know
Hurricane then Tropical Storm Ernesto was hard too, but that's all we heard about - we only heard a few seconds on Hurricane John - and barely any
satellite images." Then they lost power and any kind of communication with their families.
They hunkered down in their hotel room on what was supposed to be their belated honeymoon.
They e-mailed a sign the day before Hurricane John let loose, reading "We want to come home." The Hurricane was forecasted to hit at dusk last Friday.
It passed over the Southern Tip of Baja just missing the resort town - but unleashed its wrath 18 hours later than the Von Foresters expected.
"We're very much at the point of just get it over with," says Colleen.
The couple says the staff boarded up the hotel around the clock, but their only advise to the honeymooners? Don't leave your room or you'll be
arrested.
Colleen and Eric didn't know if they'd survive. "It was like we might be here and maybe we might not come home, we don't know," said Eric.
"Just sheets of rain, it was like a steady flow of water almost, the wind was howling," said Colleen.
When the worst passed they saw a giant landslide that spilled right into the ocean. "I wanted out bad," Eric said.
They really wondered if they would survive.
"Our son was here, we wanted to see him and thought about him the whole time," says Eric from his in-laws backyard on Bainbridge Island.
They say what got them through was knowing they had to come home for their 5-year-old son Dante. It'd take more than a Hurricane to keep them away.
Because the airport was closed and all the flights were booked, it took the couple four days and sky high prices to get out of Cabo. They say it will
probably be another five years before they can afford to try and take another belated honeymoon.
How they must have suffered
Dave - 9-5-2006 at 09:50 AM
Quote:
Originally posted by BajaNews
The couple says the staff boarded up the hotel around the clock, but their only advise to the honeymooners? Don't leave your room or you'll be
arrested.
