Osprey
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 3694
Registered: 5-23-2004
Location: Baja Ca. Sur
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New Hurricane Season
Another Hurricane Season
(and the hits just keep on comin’)
The weather people keep very good track of cyclone systems near U.S. property. One can go online and find open data bases with archival statistics
about each named storm and even about those that fizzled out as Tropical Storms or Tropical Depressions. Reading that stuff won’t put you there like
reading Moby Dick did. You’ll know when it showed up, where it went, velocity of the rotation and even how many people were killed.
Those who have never been around when one made landfall know that they start with winds and sometimes rain, they grow stronger as they approach, the
eye passes, the wind shifts and the destruction begins again and continues until the storm has passed/diminished.
Those who have been on the ground when one made landfall see the storm that way but they have a better perspective and they think there is a lot more
to it. Most storms in the Eastern Pacific are spawned over the Pacific Ocean and grow in intensity as they pick up warm surface water. Ships that have
enough warning time can get out of the way while we on the Baja Peninsula can either button up and hunker down or button up and get out of Dodge. So
far my wife and I have survived by just staying put for the last 16 seasons. That could change. It isn’t a lot of fun.
We usually have plenty of time to button up as the storms are tracked for hundreds of miles as they pull away from the Mexican mainland near its
border with Guatemala. As the storm gets closer to Cabo San Lucas we all begin to wonder which direction it will take just before it becomes
somebody’s big killer problem:
Due west sends it out to sea and we are all saved.
Due north (if it’s south of the cape) with a direct hit on San Lucas will be very damaging because it is a big population center.
Northwest takes it on a course where it can do untold damage to places like Todos Santos and all points north along the Pacific coast.
Northeast takes it up the Gulf of California bringing more kinds of damage:
A. If the eye is east of the peninsula, the first storm winds will hit the land while whipping the seashore into a flooding, pounding frenzy of waves
and swells – literally pushing the ocean up onto the shore.
B. Then all of us will wonder if the storm will become a Beach Walker, that is, one that travels along the eastern shore of the peninsula wreaking
havoc at each beach community from San Jose del Cabo to Loreto and Mulege.
Millions of people live in the tropical hurricane zone – their lives are interrupted, changed, ended by storms in the summer that break things and
kill people. The survivors clean up, patch up and wait for the next round. Here in Baja Sur we lose city services with almost every storm that comes
close. Rain events cut us off from the world for days and weeks while we have been without power and water for more than a month. Each year storms
around the globe put as many as 800,000 people at risk of Dengue fever as they create mosquito spawning conditions leaving more water on the land than
it can readily absorb.
Even modern methods of prognostication can fail – several storms began, grew to hurricane strength very close to the Baja California peninsula and
quickly traveled close to shore in a fashion that defied computer forecasts based on a long track history and study of Eastern Pacific weather
conditions including the jet stream. Those storms were on us before the National Weather Center could make good predictions.
The people in the path, plan on every contingency but a few miles change in direction can make all the difference in the world; all the storms rotate
counter-clockwise so if the eye is east of your house (and travels on that track) you will get winds from the East, then Northeast, then North, then
Northwest as the storm passes and the winds abate. If the eye passes to the West then you will get winds from the South, then Southwest, West as the
storm passes. If you have a house on the beach it can mean the difference between total destruction and missing a few roof tiles.
There are four basic kinds of hurricanes – wind, rain, both and those with tornadoes in or near the eye. They are equal opportunity destroyers:
Wind events are the most famous but they are, for the most part, fast movers which destroy and move off.
Storms that have little devastating velocity but which carry millions of acre feet of sea water can ruin lives and whole villages with torrential
rains.
Wind and rain events can stall and hover for days wearing away the things in their path with double destruction.
Some storms with well defined eyes can carry tornadoes in the eyewall which touch down in crazy-quilt patterns of crushing power just like tornados do
in the U.S. Tornado Alley.
In 16 hurricane seasons here (we don’t travel and have never been back to the states) we are glad to report only about the same number of killer
storms that hit us. Hurricane Marty in 2003 destroyed 4000 homes in this area while Hurricane John in 2006 wreaked havoc with 219 MPH tornadoes in the
eyewall. The summer of 1997 saw us facing down all or parts of 19 hurricanes and tropical storms and depressions:
Andres
Blanca
Carlos
Delores
Barique
Felicia
Guillermo
Hilda
Ignacio
Jemina
Oliwa
Kevin
Linda
Marty
Nora
Olaf
Pauline
Rick
Paka
At least a dozen times that season we bore the stress of watching the storms form, watching their tracks while they grew stronger every day over
warmer waters, checking the weather systems which could alter their path. Then, finally going into full preparation mode again – batteries, canned
goods, water, food for the animals, things to board up with, mop up, swamp out. Then hunkered down for hours or days in the dark wondering what will
blow away next, the door, the palapa, the big trees; how about the boat, the cars? It is not something one can get used to. Every storm is a brand new
experience with new dangers to things worn down and weakened by the scores of wind and rain events of all the seasons of the past.
This place is full of irony – while we get all the seasonal winds from the north and northwest, enough to invite hordes of wind surfers and kite
boaders from November to March, unless we get rain from passing hurricanes, we are starved, like most deserts, for rain. While we fear hurricanes with
destructive rains, we long for brushes with them that will fill our drying wells. In this little village, for example, in any year we don’t get a
storm with rain, we get only 3.5 inches of moisture from the sky. Several of the summer seasons we have spent here have been missed by all the storms
– not one drop of rain fell on the village, in those years, for over 365 days!
So, for me, the times are full of fear and promise. I must balance all my quaking fearful moments spent in the clamorous dark waiting for salvation,
with the hours or days of joy when the storms visit upon us a little breeze and warm, sweet rain --- in those times I live on the outside patio
morning til night, soaking it up like a wise old cactus.
It’s not all good but it’s good enough for me. Like the cholleros, Mexicans who live in Baja California, I face the same choices. They don’t know how
to leave or where to go – they fear a move that would take them away from their usual routine. (such as it is)
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noproblemo2
Super Nomad
Posts: 1088
Registered: 4-14-2006
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Nice story, when one faces natures wrath from time to time we learn to be prepared for such things, such as always keeping emergency supplies on hand
during those seasons as there is little we can do except wait them out and pray for the best...
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DENNIS
Platinum Nomad
Posts: 29510
Registered: 9-2-2006
Location: Punta Banda
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| Quote: | Originally posted by Osprey
Felicia
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Jeeeezo, Jorge...This is a family site. Are you sure it's OK to say that word in public? 
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woody with a view
PITA Nomad
Posts: 15939
Registered: 11-8-2004
Location: Looking at the Coronado Islands
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Mood: Everchangin'
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pray4surf!
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vandenberg
Elite Nomad
Posts: 5118
Registered: 6-21-2005
Location: Nopolo
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Mood: mellow
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For anyone interested, here 2 excellent sites for Hurricane predictions, especially Baja Sur.
http://www.eebmike.com
http://www.stormpulse.com/pacific
[Edited on 5-31-2010 by vandenberg]
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Sharksbaja
Elite Nomad
Posts: 5814
Registered: 9-7-2004
Location: Newport, Mulege B.C.S.
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http://www.bajainsider.com/weather/2010easternpacifichurrica...
DON\'T SQUINT! Give yer eyes a break!
Try holding down [control] key and toggle the [+ and -] keys
Viva Mulege!
Nomads\' Sunsets
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fishabductor
Senior Nomad
Posts: 800
Registered: 5-29-2010
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Osprey....You forgot Juan!! cat 5...but i forgot the year 2005? we lost the majority of our house to Juan...I will never forget the destruction..The
house was in castilla de arena, our renters lost all their possessions as well.
Jimena barely brushed us here, but I drove through the destruction 4 days after the storm....it is devastated Puerto San carlos, muleje, loreto,
Costitucion, insurgentes, Santa rosalia as well as every other town in the region...
We came home to a burglarized house....almost everything gone...So the hurricane effected us too. there were 12 burglaries on the eastcape that I am
aware of that happened within days of Jimena...I will never forget jimena as well.
Hurricane season is a prime time for banditos as most gringos leave...the ones that stay hunker down and don't go outside much...Theifs basically have
open season on each boarded up house...So remember to have someone available to check on your home daily during the hurricane season, watch for
suspicious vehicles and people and take photos of them if possible. It will help in catching the crooks
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Osprey
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 3694
Registered: 5-23-2004
Location: Baja Ca. Sur
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Most insurance policies state the insured has an obligation to protect the property. If the wind blows the house open and the snowbird owner is in the
states, it creates problems for everyone. I encouraged our local gringo homeowners to take pictures, take those with contact info to the police -- for
example, could you expect police to know if the people seen in and around your house after a severe storm, were friends or thieves or squatters? I
don't think I convinced anyone since nobody trusts the police in these parts. Sooo who you gonna call when all the services are out including phones?
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bajajazz
Nomad
Posts: 386
Registered: 12-18-2006
Location: La Paz, BCS, Mexico
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Osprey's article is an exceptionally good piece of writing in its apt description of the hurricane experience.
The stress of hurricane season is the rent we pay for living here year 'round.
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Mulegena
Super Nomad
Posts: 2412
Registered: 11-7-2006
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seasonal storage of household goods
Those in Mulege who leave during the summer months
are now putting all their home's belongings into storage at their departure.
When they return in the fall/winter they bring their things back into the house.
We fulltimers here clear out a few days before an anticipated storm.
Not easy but Muleginos, as all Bajenos by birth or choice, are a resilient lot.
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