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Damaged bridge strands thousands in Baja
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010/jan/25/damaged-bridg...
By Sandra Dibble
January 25, 2010
TIJUANA — Authorities worked Monday to restore areas south of Ensenada flooded by last week’s heavy rains, including a damaged bridge on the
Transpeninsular Highway about 120 miles south of Ensenada that has stranded thousands of residents.
The Santo Domingo bridge was expected to be at least partially restored by Tuesday, said Jaime Nieto, civil protection director for Ensenada. That
will re-establish a key link on the Transpeninsular Highway, the major artery connecting communities along the Baja California peninsula.
Because of the extensive damage, Baja California Gov. José Guadalupe Osuna Millán declared an emergency in the region, giving state authorities access
to federal funds to repair damaged roadways and bridges. Funds will be used to repair the Santo Domingo bridge and another in the community of Vicente
Guerrero.
Nieto said up to 70,000 people in the region were left stranded as a result of the rains, with 2,000 sent to shelters. As of Monday, some 500 remained
in the shelters, he said.
One community still struggling is Ejido Erendira, a coastal fishing village of 2,500 residents about 50 miles south of Ensenada, 12 miles by paved
road from the Transpeninsular Highway. The area is popular with surfers.
Adam Beecham, who operates a 52-bed hostel in the village, Coyote Cal’s, said stores have run out of drinking water, but residents are sharing their
supply. Five houses were washed away along the Cañon San Ysidro riverbed, he said in a phone interview. Nieto, the civil protection director, said one
lane of the road to the village was open Monday, but it will be closed tomorrow for repairs.
Baja California civil protection workers Monday rescued nine U.S. citizens stranded by snow in the Sierra de Juarez, in an area south of La Rumorosa.
The group had been riding off-road motorcycles when they became stranded and ran out of gasoline. Alfredo Escobedo, the state’s director of civil
protection, said that they used a satellite telephone to call out Sunday night to the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City.
Civil protection workers reached the group Monday, and pulled them out by helicopter. Escobedo said they were from California and Colorado.
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Photo: Gobierno de Baja California/Gonzalo Gonzalez.
The Baja California government yesterday identified the nine U.S. citizens riding off-road motorcycles who were airlifted by helicopter from the
Sierra de Juarez. They are: William Derroth, Don Emler, Robert Rosenberg, Lance Waddill, Don Waddill, Todd Kerbs, Danny Laforte, Paul Eody, Troy
Seysordh.
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BajaNews
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Crews Working To Repair Baja’s Transpeninsular Highway
http://www.kpbs.org/news/2010/jan/25/crews-working-repair-ba...
By Amy Isackson
January 25, 2010
Work crews are scrambling to reopen the main highway that connects Tijuana to to Cabo San Lucas at the tip of Baja California Sur. Last week's rains
washed out bridges and closed the road.
The highway is the only way for trucks, buses and cars to travel the length of the Baja California Peninsula.
The downed bridges have cut off thousands of people who live in small Baja California communities south of Ensenada.
Many people who were traveling south are stranded in Ensenada.
Johhny Friday runs a whale watching outfit in Laguna San Ignacio. He's stuck in San Diego. Friday's getting reports from bus and truck drivers and a
friend who ventured out in a four wheel drive. "He said he passed several hundred cars and semi-trailers and its just stacked up. I find that Baja is
probably the best place to ever get stuck. You find communities that'll really help out."
Friday says work crews are building bypass roads.
Meanwhile, Baja California's governor has declared an emergency in the area to free up funds for rebuilding.
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BajaNews
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Baja bridge damage stymies buses, large trucks
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010/jan/26/baja-bridge-d...
By Sandra Dibble
January 26, 2010
TIJUANA — With several bridges badly damaged by flooding, workers and volunteers worked Tuesday to restore traffic on the Transpeninsular Highway
south of Ensenada. But conditions remained difficult along several stretches, preventing passage of large trucks and buses, authorities said.
The roads are clear until San Quintin, said Nelson Pedrin, assistant civil protection director for the municipality of Ensenada. But driving south
toward the community of El Rosario, passage is difficult along several stretches of the highway, the main artery that links communities along the Baja
California peninsula.
Mexico’s federal Communications and Transportation Secretariat issued a statement saying that passenger buses from the area to Baja California Sur
remained suspended.
The statement said traffic has returned to normal on two bridges — Las Animas and San Vicente. But two badly damaged bridges, Santo Domingo and El
Rosario, were closed to all traffic.
The statement said vehicles are crossing at El Rosario through an alternate route. But Delice Valladolid, an employee at the Baja Cactus hotel, said
in a telephone interview Tuesday afternoon that trailers and smaller vehicles were being hauled across the soft soil of the riverbed. She said the
community was running low on supplies of gas and gasoline, as supply trucks were not able to reach the town.
Farther north, in the San Quintin Valley, growers volunteered their machinery to dig provisional roads so northbound goods can keep flowing. Gilberto
Paz, head of the Union Regional Agricola, a growers organization, said strawberry growers have been especially affected by the rains, which damaged
their product and blocked northbound trucks headed for the border.
“We are thinking that tomorrow, it will be possible for trucks carrying strawberries to head toward the United States,” he said.
At higher elevations, snowfall and rain have led to the closing of two parks, Parque Nacional Constitución de 1857 and Parque Nacional de San Pedro
Mártir.
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