After spending the day trying to let as many locals know that hurricane Odile was a serious and dangerous hurricane (as opposed to radio reports that
it was going to be a rain event), I had to run to La Paz to rescue a friend arriving from Tijuana. I picked him up at around 7pm and returned to my
place at around 8pm.
I am responsible for 4 properties as well as my own. I called the people in my house and recommended that they leave it for the night as the
additional part of my house is wood with aluminum roofing. Sadly none of that part survived the hurricane. I lost my kitchen, living room and dining
room. My bedroom and bathroom will survive.
I spent the night in a 3 story house 1 block from the beach with 3 dogs inside in the Las Tunas area of Todos Santos.
I had the hurricane screens installed earlier but could not get to all of the windows. One of those blew out early in the storm. The main screen which
protects the pool deck blew out about half way through the storm. Water was pouring in from under the upstairs door to a deck all the way down the
stairwell and was like a waterfall.
I had 135 mph winds screaming through the house as it shook under the onslaught of wind, sand and dirt from 2 very large planter plots which broke.
The 2 outside lights were found in the pool a few days later. The pool was full of dirt, sand and palm fronds. It had to be drained.
I was supremely scared as the bed shook in the basement. The entire house was being assaulted from within and without. I was terrified of trying to go
up the stairs to see the damage being done.
In the early hours, about 3 am, I actually knelt and prayed, begging for the wind to abate. I hear from many others that they did the same at various
times of the night and early morning. The wind was horrendous - the noise like a thousand ghosts in the house.
I did sleep for about maybe an hour. I was beyond exhausted.
In the morning as the sun rose I was up with a flashlight and trying to see the damage. The wind was still up but not as bad. I was shocked at every
turn of the flashlight.
The main floor hurricane screen was gone, one of the huge picture windows had exploded and most of the kitchen cabinets were open. I was shocked at
the amount of mud and sand in the house on the floor, the walls and the roof.
Then as I looked outside I saw that the perimeter fence was knocked down, a new wall just installed was history, many of the palm trees were
destroyed. The front gate was open but turned out to be okay.
I HAD to get to one of the other properties I am responsible for as well as my house. THAT was a trip! Most of the electrical poles were down and it
was a trip of dodging lines and poles, driving under, over and around downed lines. It seemed like everyone was trying to get to downtown but the
callejon was flooded (Topete). I actually tried to drive through that and after pulling out a Toyota 4wd truck, I decided that I did not want to go
that way. I eventually found a way to the highway north of town. I was beyond heartbroken to see my house. I do have my bedroom and bathroom but I
lost everything else. UGG!!
I had lots of damage at the other property I am responsible for.
I am EXTREMELY PROUD of the Mexican government for stepping up and getting our electricity up and running so soon. It seemed that at literally every
corner there was a CFE truck. They worked through the day and night and did not give up until we had our electricity, whether from 18wheelers with
generators or back online, they were our heroes.
We still have lines down and poles down but we are getting there. Today there were lots of Marinos working to help clean up our streets. We lost so
many trees!! So many locals lost everything. I mean everything. I know of several who have nothing left. A single mother with 2 children lost
everything. She is so humble. She is an amazing woman. She lived in a trailer which was literally flipped over - her and her children left the trailer
just before it flipped, crawling in the mud, rain and wind to get to her mothers house close by. I don't know how they made it. The kids are
traumatized but they are okay. I hear of so many who lost so much. I feel for them.
Odile, no matter how much trouble you have trying to say the name, will go down in history here.
We will survive. We're a tough lot here.Nancy Drew - 10-3-2014 at 07:30 PM
Thank you for sharing your experience with us, I am very glad you and your dogs, and the neighbour and her children survived.
I am sorry to hear that you folks have lost so much.micah202 - 10-3-2014 at 07:37 PM
.
....WOW Katiejay99 - 10-3-2014 at 07:43 PM
Thank you Nancy Drew.
Everyone always talked of Hurricane Fausto before this.
I had to laugh as trying to get to downtown as there were many locals carrying armfulls of Coconuts that had fallen.
It was so sad and so many people looked so shocked at the devastation to not only to their own homes but those of their neighbors. There were so many
trees with aluminum roofs wrapped around them.
I would say that 1 out of 5 cars here have lost a window or were crushed in one form or another from the storm. I was lucky, mine made it through
untouched.gnukid - 10-3-2014 at 08:09 PM
thank you for sharing so much detailtiotomasbcs - 10-3-2014 at 08:11 PM
Bless you, Lady. Your Spirit will be strengthened from the experience. I was around for Fausto and others. A true test of our Life experience.
Sorry for your losses. Stay strong. Tomasshari - 10-3-2014 at 08:55 PM
wow....that was a powerful experienced you survived. thank you so much for sharing the nightmare. It is a good thing for everyone to hear so we can be
better prepared and safer when it happens again. A very important lesson is to get to a safe place before the storm hits...let what will happen to
your place...happen without hurting you or your loved ones.
now for the rebound!jbcoug - 10-3-2014 at 10:57 PM
Thank you for bravely sharing your experience. It provides us with a tiny idea of what a horrible experience you and your neighbors went through.
Hopefully readers will learn from your experience and maybe be better prepared if they have to face this situation.Katiejay99 - 10-4-2014 at 06:09 AM
Thank you all for your kind words.
Shari, I thought of you often during the time after we were hit. I kept wondering how you fared and hoping your place survived. I just got internet
last night so I haven't had time to look at all of the posts yet. About 10 minutes after my last post the electricity went out until around 1am.
The government has a special program to replace the tin roofs that blew away and most everyone is saying the same thing: NO THANKS!!!! Give us
cement!! There is a program where they are selling cement for like $110 pesos a bag (normal is like $170).
I asked CFE if they had anything in place to help people pay for electric poles at homes that were broken. I was told that they do not. I asked
because mine broke in 2 places. I had it rebuilt yesterday but it will be awhile before I can hook up any electricity to what is left.
I have one very good piece of advice: The time to buy a generator is not when you need it.Mexitron - 10-4-2014 at 06:56 AM
Thanks for sharing your experience. Hard to imagine 135mph winds, especially in Todos Santos which always seems so dreamy and peaceful. Wow.BajaBlanca - 10-4-2014 at 07:18 AM
Oh my gosh- the firsthand account makes it so real.
so sorry you were so scared.
I am going to get my husband to read this, he has never been in a hurricane and just doesn't get the strength and devastation. Having grown up in
Miami where we had hurricanes often, I know them all too well.
again, thanks for taking the time to write.pauldavidmena - 10-4-2014 at 07:49 AM
What a harrowing night - followed by weeks of struggle to get things back to almost normal. Your detail makes this far more personal and heartbreaking
than all of the photos we've all seen. Thank you for sharing this.mulegemichael - 10-4-2014 at 07:56 AM
those of us who have been through multiple hurricanes REALLY sympathize with you!....not an experience i want to go through again...EVER!!BajaGringo - 10-4-2014 at 08:13 AM
Thank you so much for sharing that. Very powerful words describing what was a terrifying and traumatic experience, leaving so much destruction behind
to have to deal with. I am truly humbled by the strong faces and resilient attitudes of the people on this peninsula.
So glad you were able to find a safe refuge from Odile. Everything else can be rebuilt and replaced...Udo - 10-4-2014 at 08:49 AM
Mil Gracias for sharing your powerful and well written experience.David K - 10-4-2014 at 09:52 AM
Thank you Katiejay for sharing this with us!shari - 10-4-2014 at 09:55 AM
I would also like to share another eye witness account that an amiga living in Mulege shared with me and told me I could share it with
you....whew...that's alot of sharing right? these are such powerful stories....Here is hers....
"Having faced down my first hurricane, I have been given a Baja Brownie Point by another single woman who has faced many of these storms and their
aftermath. It wasn't a badge I ever set out to acquire. The learning curve has been pretty steep. But my love of camping has been a good foundation
for facing life with no utilities and no roads. The steep driveway washed out from my house to the main road to town, which was also destroyed. We
were cut off from any outside help for 3 days. Locals got together and carved out a “road” passable by donkey cart, lol. A five minute trip from my
house to town is now a journey I can not do in my car.
There is no way possible to actually give you a true experience of all of this. But this I will say first: Electricity is a false sense of personal
power. And water is the most precious thing on earth. I'll throw some words at the page and hopefully it will give you some sense of it.
Hurricane Odile: We had been monitoring a low off the Yucatan for some time...the town doesn't not take lightly any such disturbance south of us. The
pueblo comes together and the talk is about preparing. So, days before, it looked as if it was going to be another Norbert...which had us going and
preparing on Sept 5th. Norbert traveled off the coast hitting here as a Tropical Storm with light winds and rain...we felt spared. But Odile ten days
later delivered the blow. She moved on land, hitting Los Cabos with a terrifying Catagory 4 force. We were stunned to see it would take a land track.
By the time she reached us we were all on hyper-alert having been given hurricane warning status as a Category 1. What was ugly about this system was
its 200 mile wind radius circling out from the eye, so it tore a path up both side of the peninsula. We were in big trouble.
Monday the 15th Odile hit like a freight train. The video was just the beginning front edge and the last time I could safely go outside. You can also
see that the river is already over its banks. Winds intensified all day. We lost power, phones both land-line and cell at 3pm. I sat alone in this
little house, knowing it was going to be a very long night. I wondered at my decision to stay in the house, rather than go into town to a hotel. Later
I would know it had been a good decision. NOAA projected that we would be hit hardest at 11pm. Why does it always have to be at night? Facing this,
completely cut off from any outside help, I listened to the howling winds. The bushes swirling like Sufi dancers. Rain driven from the East slammed
into the sliding glass doors forcing water into the kitchen/living room with an inch of rain, but did not break the windows. And the roof stayed on!
How lucky! Nearly 30 foot wall of water roared down the Mulege River basin into the gulf of California. The morning after we saw that the road washed
away to El Faro lighthouse. A lone cow mooed pathetically from the river bank, somehow miraculously alive after having been swept away by the flooding
from one of the Ranchos in the hills. A huge pig was not so lucky. It lay dead where the receding water dropped dropped it.
Life became figuring out ways to stay less hot. The locals fisherman and towns people pretty much live this way all the time, but even they are
suffering. Now with the fan going and AC this morning, I walked outside to bring in a bucket of toilet water and was really surprised that I had
actually endured the intensity for eight days and nights.
The first three days we saw no one from the outside world could get here. All resources, the rumor had it, went to Los Cabos which I understand is a
terrifying mess. Neighbors share pieces of information. I can't tell you what it felt like to hear the sound of the first airplane; being truly
stranded and in survival mode, it is the sweetest of sounds. For the next couple of days we just watched them fly over on their way to Cabo, or making
passes to check out the town. And we waited...well, the men were out working on the road and beginning an overwhelming clean up. The Women shoveled
mud from their homes. We all hauled lots of water for bucket bathing and toilets and changed sweaty clothing a half dozen times every day. Can you
imagine a whole Mexican town without tortillas for a week?
7 days after the hurricane the Governer of Baja landed by helicopter. We had had no Government assistance and he was giving us the bad news. We were
not going to get any, because most of Baja Sur was devastated and help was going elsewhere. These were hard words to hear. As luck would have it, I
think some politics played a part in the restoration of electric lines as the governor was followed by the county of Mulege's Deligato. He promised we
would have electricity on Monday the 22nd. He was good to his word, on the 8th day the lights came on and so did the fans! I was told that when it
came on in the town, voices from all over raised up in a hallelujah. The running water is another issue as we are an out lying area and the pipes were
torn completely apart by the flood. The bomberos came with an ancient water-tender on day 10 and filled the pilas. Mexican Immigration made its way
out here, checking on foreign residents. They were helping anyone that might need assistance in contacting the American Consulate. They were very kind
and foreign visitors are being given a free pass on their Tourist Visas.
Some of you are familiar with Mulege and so I'll mention a few place that were really hit hard. Saul's, the market that many foreign visitors like,
because Saul caters to our taste buds and wine selection. His store and home were filled with mud and the water reached a 6 foot level inside. Las
Casitas Hotel, a favorite is just sad to see. Javier holds a special garden spot. He was also threatened by a recent fire. But he is, as all the town
folks, busy cleaning up. Hotel Hacienda had the same fate, being just down the street. Only 2 grocery stores remained to supply the whole area. For
many days no delivery trucks could get through. Nor could the armored car with money for the ATM; luckily they are farther up the hill so it was not
flooded. All the lower streets were filled with foul smelling mud which had to be cleared away first. Military are here helping this along.
The picture of the bridge shows the depth of the water that reached just under the roadway. Note that the newly finished road under the bridge washed
completely away. Still no phone or internet service to the Colonia where I live. No running city water. Have been hauling it by bucket fulls from the
neighbor's pila. Cell phone service was restored on day 7. It was an odd feeling to reconnect. I understand some of how the war vets feel when they
return home. People can not know, unless they have experienced it. Living in the heat without benefit of fan or breeze, has been the most difficult
for me. Without frig, I used up the last of my fresh food and fed the rest to a friendly dog named Sissi. Finally the last of the ice...gone. Two
women have been dedicated helpers through this, may we praise their names! We get together and talk about how we are surviving. The Marine Corp says,
“Strangers become brothers in foxholds”....it is kind of like that, neighbors become sisters in the eye of the storm.
It took 7 days for the government to respond with a food drop. There is no faulting the response time, as the whole southern state is a disaster area.
Very basic masa, canned tuna, rice, beans, cleaning products, ect. I am the proudest of my bright orange broom, a gift from the Mexican government. It
is like The Wand of Odile given for bravery. I am thinking of beading it. I have great admiration for the Mexican people. Well, for now, I am writing
this off line. Hope to get this to the internet in town, but as I have said....it is a journey that one has to consider making. I appreciate all who
left me messages of concern. It means a lot to know you were thinking of me. My definition of bravery is simply, “facing an ordeal and not dying.”
There is a whole town full of brave people.Katiejay99 - 10-4-2014 at 10:40 AM
Thank you again to everyone.
Shari, what your friend wrote is very powerful as well.
I did not go into what many people had to do to get water. Once the callejon was opened up trucks lined the road beside the canal with tinacos in the
bed and they were filling them with bucket brigades. Their were children washing themselves and many walking in with buckets or anything to put water
in.
I was better off because I was able to use the water in the pool for the first few days and then it fouled and began to stink. I went to my house and
removed my tinacos and brought them to 2 of the properties which have inground cisterns. I used a 12 volt water pump that I have and pumped the water
from the cisterns into the tinacos and then just used buckets to get to that water for bathing and flushing toilets, etc.
On Monday morning Movistar had service and Telcel did not. Movistar quit about 5pm and it wasn't until about 3 days ago that Movistar actually had
service again. I absolutely had to be in contact with property owners so I drove to La Paz and bought a Telcel phone as Telcel had 3g service
beginning Tuesday after the storm.
If there is any good to have come out of this is that the President of Mexico promised Todos Santos our very own REAL hospital. We have a clinic right
now. YAY.
"They" say life is an adventure - I would just as soon pass on future adventures of this type.Bajahowodd - 10-4-2014 at 05:05 PM
I want to chime in also to thank you for sharing your experience. Jonathan Roldan, who operates Tailhunter in La Paz said that although he grew up in
Hawaii, he never experienced such a fierce storm. You have probably been through one of the most harrowing experiences known to man, inasmuch as the
location and direction of that super storm brought its highest winds to your area.Bob H - 10-4-2014 at 06:44 PM
Quote:
Originally posted by BajaBlanca
Having grown up in Miami where we had hurricanes often, I know them all too well.
Blanca, I also grew up in Miami. My first hurricane was Hurricane Donna. Betsy was the worst for me.
Moved to San Diego in 1984.
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These stories are very touching! Wow....
