BajaNomad

Been Through A Tropical Storm Or Hurricane In Mexico?

DavidE - 10-17-2013 at 01:33 PM

In graduating ordinal, mark the worst storm you have been through in Mexico. PS: Remnant Lows, Tropical Depressions, and Local Thunderstorms don't count...

monoloco - 10-17-2013 at 01:49 PM

We've been through almost every one that hit the cape area since 92, of those Fausto was probably the worst, we were living in a palapa open on 3 sides at the time. I don't remember what the category was but I can't even imagine what it would be like to go through a cat 4 or 5. Has there ever been one that strong that hit the peninsula?

bajagrouper - 10-17-2013 at 03:08 PM

2002, Hurricane Kenna Cat.5 .....was in Guayabitos,Nayarit when Kenna hit at 8:30 in the morning, hit land at San Blas 60 miles away......WOW

Osprey - 10-17-2013 at 03:19 PM

Don't know how strong John was when it went thru here but Los Barriles is just next door and they recorded 215 mph in the tornados in the eye wall.

DavidE - 10-18-2013 at 11:18 AM

You do not want to know what a category 5 is like. I had a 13-ton 10-wheel Crown converted bus facing hurricane Gilberto winds and the buffeting felt like I was doing 60 down a potholed road. The wind uprooted coconut palms and they disappeared. I found part of a canopy of a gasolinera near where I was parked. It had blown more than 2-miles in the wind. The velocity of the wind was incredible. Vochos were tipped over and blown hundreds of feet.

Gilberto removed all of the beach area at Xcalak where I had been parked. Mangroves, cocos, sand. It was scoured to bare rock.

The tornadoes in a hurricane can destroy a rebar reinforced concrete structure. Not level it, but blast the walls to the point where they have to be redone. Somebody said a full propane tanker truck had been overturned and found a ways off the Valladolid Cancun highway. Didn't see that for myself.

I don't like hurricanes. Some parts of the structure of a hurricane can be impressively more powerful than others. So a general description by the National Hurricane Center NWS can be deceptive as hell.

Barry A. - 10-18-2013 at 11:26 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by DavidE
You do not want to know what a category 5 is like. I had a 13-ton 10-wheel Crown converted bus facing hurricane Gilberto winds and the buffeting felt like I was doing 60 down a potholed road. The wind uprooted coconut palms and they disappeared. I found part of a canopy of a gasolinera near where I was parked. It had blown more than 2-miles in the wind. The velocity of the wind was incredible. Vochos were tipped over and blown hundreds of feet.

Gilberto removed all of the beach area at Xcalak where I had been parked. Mangroves, cocos, sand. It was scoured to bare rock.

The tornadoes in a hurricane can destroy a rebar reinforced concrete structure. Not level it, but blast the walls to the point where they have to be redone. Somebody said a full propane tanker truck had been overturned and found a ways off the Valladolid Cancun highway. Didn't see that for myself.

I don't like hurricanes. Some parts of the structure of a hurricane can be impressively more powerful than others. So a general description by the National Hurricane Center NWS can be deceptive as hell.


-------and some people bad-mouth California for it's earthquakes-----I will take "earthquakes" any day over a true Hurricane!! (typhoon)!!!! :light:

Barry

Ateo - 10-18-2013 at 11:33 AM

I drove thru a hurricane on the Mainland back in '95ish. I was on the road to the coast after leaving Hermosillo on my way to DF. I had no idea what was going on and later found out it was a large hurricane. When I stopped a few hundred miles later I found some sort of prawn/shellfish stuck in the grill of my Isuzu Rodeo. Blown thru the air????

taoswheat - 10-18-2013 at 11:45 AM

My wife and I were in Mazatlan for Hurricane John. It passed about 50 miles away so we had wind and mucho water. Blew all the avacados off the local tree.
We were in San Carlos for Jimena. The water washed out phone, electric and water lines along with floating boats out of the Marina Seca. Power was out for several days and water took over a week to restore.
Can't get my wife to go back in September- Don't understand why.

DavidE - 10-18-2013 at 12:34 PM

A "temblor" isn't a quake. A big earthquake is as bad as a big hurricane. Below is a link to images that threw me out of bed and across a bunkhouse floor in Ennis, Montana on my uncle's ranch.

http://www.seis.utah.edu/lqthreat/nehrp_htm/1959hebg/c1959he...

Barry A. - 10-18-2013 at 12:52 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by DavidE
A "temblor" isn't a quake. A big earthquake is as bad as a big hurricane. Below is a link to images that threw me out of bed and across a bunkhouse floor in Ennis, Montana on my uncle's ranch.

http://www.seis.utah.edu/lqthreat/nehrp_htm/1959hebg/c1959he...


That was a bad one. I have lived in CA for some 70 years and NEVER went thru anything like that. But yes, you have to pick a place to live that does not have obvious hazards lurking nearby, and hope for the best. People that live in 'hurricane alley' go thru Hurricanes all the time------never could understand why they stick around "the alley". (or 'flood plains', for that matter)

Barry

DavidE - 10-18-2013 at 02:29 PM

The old Yaqui stories tell of a 50' tsunami after an earthquake so bad they thought the gods were ending the earth. This had to have occurred before Spanish colonized the upper gulf. Beneath the Gulf of California is a massive fault. Every bit as ominous as the San Andreas fault. Take a look at the east coast of the peninsula - those are not mountains from "mountain building". It's a hundreds of miles long fault escarpment. Some idiot geologists will pout and say the fault in the gulf is a slip-strike type not a subductive fault. They fail the test. Scarping does not occur to a significant degree with a slip strike fault.

Folks have short memories added to "What Me Worry" disregard for history. Dozens of ex-pats laughed when I argued against their idiotic assumption that Zihuatanejo Bay was "Earthquake Proof" and "Not Here Buster!" They didn't laugh so hard after they saw yellowed images of what a 25' tsunami did to the entire town. And -that- event was paltry compared to events recorded by early Spanish emigres who reported a 12+ meter tsunami.

This is the basis of the entire "Climate Change Idiocy". All rhetoric, no facts. The climate would change and keep changing if there hadn't ever been a human being in existence. One drought die off of the Amazon rain forest produces (pay attention to the verb conjugation) more carbon dioxide than mankind has generated since the days of "Lucy". No one is paying attention to the "real" threat. That is, the climate will change, it is changing and no one is doing a damned thing to plan for it. The common sense attempts to reduce pollution are vital. But it's like doing you-know-what on a forest fire. Sampling Antarctic core ice does not lie. It is not politically motivated. It shows incredible peaks of CO2 concentration millions of years before Lucy ran to the nearest lightning strike to capture some of the magic to start her own fire. The difference is, 4-billion human beings to feed and clothe now.

Mexico is caught in the net. There are vast numbers of folks living in "vulnerable" areas now. The few thousand that perished in Tsunamis of old in Acapulco, would be magnified by a factor of 10, disease and starvation would amplify that to 20 or 30.

It's all hilarious until it happens.

Barry A. - 10-18-2013 at 03:09 PM

Yep-------I believe that the Gulf of CA fault system is a southern extension of the San Andreas fault, or vice-versa, and just as ominous, if not more so. As to the "type" of fault, it is a combination, like you say-----slip-strike fault/subductive, AND block-fault, the way I understand it------potentially a disaster awaiting to happen anytime-------or perhaps not for a long time-------who really knows? The quake in and around the Cocopahs a couple of years ago is a hint, tho. In THAT one the entire Imperial/Mexicali valleys containing the Colorado River sands (1000's of feet deep) partially liquified into a kind of quicksand------not a good sign. The Earth is not static!!!!

To me as a Geographer that is what makes life interesting------seldom a dull moment for long, and storms are part of the picture for sure. :spingrin:

Barry

chippy - 10-18-2013 at 03:51 PM

Why bother answering. David your one upsmanchit is so boring.

Barry A. - 10-18-2013 at 04:04 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by chippy
Why bother answering. David your one upsmanchit is so boring.


Huh????? What brought that on??? I love David's answers and posts. We each trigger the other's mind--------that is not "one upsmanchit" in my book-----it's a conversation.

Barry

chippy - 10-18-2013 at 04:11 PM

I guess you havenīt noticed who wins every time. Tedious at best. Downright lame and boring normally.

Barry A. - 10-18-2013 at 04:13 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by chippy
I guess you havenīt noticed who wins every time. Tedious at best. Downright lame and boring normally.


It's not a contest, Chippy-------no "winners or losers" that I can see. But I appologize if it is boring-------not our intention, I am sure.

Barry

comitan - 10-18-2013 at 04:19 PM

Many!!!!!!!!!!!!!!in the last 31 years!!!!!!!!!!!!Just part of living in BCS!!!!!!!!!!!!

BajaBlanca - 10-18-2013 at 04:23 PM

I love the conversation.

lizard lips - 10-18-2013 at 04:29 PM

Been in four hurricanes, Cabo, Philippines, Guam, and Cancun. The worst was in the Philippines where 1400 people died. The Philippine's get 40 hurricanes per year and are generally use to getting hit but this one was so bad in that there had been a volcano eruption and when the rain hit the ash the ash came towards the small town like a wave killing many. I stayed there for 5 days helping the locals. I saw way to many body bags.....I also would take a earthquake over a hurricane any day.

lizard lips - 10-18-2013 at 04:37 PM

Before someone posts my mistake there are NO hurricanes in Guam or the Philippines. They are called TYPHOONS.

willardguy - 10-18-2013 at 05:36 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by chippy
Why bother answering. David your one upsmanchit is so boring.
you should know by now, you can't stop him, only hope to contain him :lol:

Barry A. - 10-18-2013 at 05:49 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by lizard lips
Before someone posts my mistake there are NO hurricanes in Guam or the Philippines. They are called TYPHOONS.


------actually they are all "tropical cyclones" the world over. :lol:

Barry

Hurricane Liza - Cat 4 1976

elskel - 10-18-2013 at 07:38 PM

I have been through a few, the year was Sept. 1976, Hurricane Liza it was the most in most intense. The winds were about 135mph. I was was with a couple of buddies on a surf trip. We were fresh out of high school and it was our first trip to Southern Baja. At that time their was not much information about the storm. we were camping and surfing Zippers area of San Jose, (10 - 15 foot sets) when we were told of the arriving storm. The few people on the beach left for town, we had truck problems and barely got the truck to run. We ended up hunkering down in the truck for a couple of days on the hillside across from the surf break
until the storm passed. Quite a ride ! Unfortunately the loss of life was great, many people lost their lives up in La Paz, most died when a dam broke. bk

CaboMagic - 10-19-2013 at 09:42 AM

We also have also experienced numerous hurricanes (Cabo) and earthquakes (SoCal) - it's possible to prepare for the hurricane/storms arrival, but not the ones that form quickly of course.

DavidE - 10-19-2013 at 11:24 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by chippy
Why bother answering. David your one upsmanchit is so boring.


Gawd in heaven! Three syllables!

mulegemichael - 10-19-2013 at 12:22 PM

juan, jimena, henrietta?, and 2 others i don't recall their names but they kicked the crap out of us...have lost a couple homes and had others almost trashed.....my honey says, "it weeds out the weak!".....i'm getting weaker every year!

DavidE - 10-19-2013 at 12:46 PM

Henrietta? 1995 near my birthday. Never forget getting on the VHF and asking "Where is Henriette?" "Uh, sixty miles south of Cabo, and headed due north". Rode that one out in a 30' travel trailer, a couple miles from the water. I drove up to the top of "Hurricane Hill" the day before, perhaps in hopes of asking the weather station people about the approaching storm. The place was locked up. Sign in window "Gone to La Paz".

One area in downtown San Lucas took it hard. Blew down telephone poles - a lot of damage to buildings. Too much to be caused by the wind. So a tornado blew through there I figured.

The National Weather Service released a statement a couple days ago claiming summer 2013 was the most "event-free" summer in the history of the NWS. Includes the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico.