Repairing The Street After Hurricane Henriette

Repairing The Street After Hurricane Henriette

We had been discussing the state of our street with our landlord the other day. When Hurricane Henriette came through, all the rain and water rushing down our street created a washout that you couldn't drive over. We actually didn't mind it; but then we don't do a lot of driving. To us it just meant that there was no traffic on the street; therefore it was quiet and there was very little dust. Apparently though our views were not held by everyone, so the city was called to come and repair the damage.

Yesterday they showed up with a grader, a water truck and a dump truck. They dumped several loads of gravel, and the grader began his repair job. After he had done a fair amount of work the water truck watered it all down and everyone left. We assumed they hadn't finished as there was still a pile of gravel in one spot. Sure enough, several hours later they all showed up again and finished the work. Our street is back in working order and is probably better than it was before the hurricane.

Flooding Near Empalme

Flooding Near Empalme

The effects of Hurricane Henriette continue. Yesterday there were lots of people evacuated from areas around Empalme because of a reservoir being breached. The people were taken to shelters and the Governor of the state was in the area surveying the damages.

The following photos are from the Periodico El Vigia, a local newspaper.


Military evacuating people.

This taken from El Imparcial newspaper.

On a lighter note.
In March of this year I had noticed a tree with the most beautiful blooms on it on a street near here. I spoke to the lady in the house closest to the tree, it is outside the house fence, beside the sidewalk. As a courtesy I asked her if it would be alright for me to come back and get some seeds from the tree when they were ready. She said, of course, come and get some, it doesn't matter if I am home or not. Before we left for the Baja I returned a couple of times checking on the seeds, finally right before we were ready to leave the seeds were ripe, so I collected some.
A week or so ago I came across the seeds and decided to plant some of them to see if they would germinate. They did and they are coming along nicely, so in 5 or 10 yrs. I may actually have a blooming tree. Ha Ha. I believe the tree is the Bauhinia Tree.
The mature tree.

A close up of the blooms.

My babies, they have a lot of growing to do.

Hurricane Henriette Update 4

Hurricane Henriette Update 4

I had read in the newspaper that the city water was off because of power outages, so I went down to ask the landlord about it. We have a tinaco, so hadn't had any water shortages; but if the city water is off we like to conserve as much as possible so that they don't have to buy a truckload of water. We do try and conserve water all the time, I might add as we do live in the desert.

Irene was outside so I asked her, she said that no, there was no city water and told me I should ask Ciro about it. Ciro told me that the water was off because there were quite a number of power poles down that supply the power to the water station and that it might be 3 days before the power was restored and the water back on. Later on in the evening he called us downstairs to show us that the water was back on. I don't know if it is on all over the city; but it is on here.

Ciro had gone out to San Carlos today to look around. He wanted to see what was going on out there, he said and had his movie camera all set to take some wave action video. When they returned he said that there were no big waves, very little damage, very few people around and not even much garbage lying around. He was surprised that even the souvenir salesmen that hang out at the Mirador scenic lookout were not even at their spot.

He also some had interesting information to impart. Two of their sons work for CFE (the electric company), one had been sent to Huatabampo before the storm to be in place for repairs afterwards. Apparently he is needed to work back here; but the highway is in need of repair before he can return home. The other son is working long hours and Ciro jokingly said he might see him in 2 or 3 days. He also told me that 2 people had died in Empalme because they had taken their generator into the house to use. I confirmed this with the newspaper this morning, which said that they (father and son) died of carbon monoxide poisoning.

I guess a lot of people in Empalme and south of there were displaced because of flooding and they are in need of supplies to help them out. If you are interested and in the area things can be dropped off in San Carlos at the Visitors and Convention Bureau on Beltrones. I believe that you could also take things to DIF; but I am not positive about this, so check first.

According to the newspaper online, people are complaining about their lack of power. People are also complaining that the residents of San Carlos, being privileged, are being looked after before the people of Guaymas.

The decision was made last night to evacuate people from the Valley of Guaymas and Empalme because of the large amounts of rain in the mountains and they are expecting more flooding.

Guaymas has been included in the disaster zone petition that the states governor made to the federal government.

The newspaper also stated that 1841 people in the local area (San Carlos, the urban zone, the valley, and the yaqui communities) took shelter in 14 shelters.

The above information was taken from the online version of El Vigia, a local Guaymas newspaper. The other local newspaper that is online, La Voz del Puerto, does not seem to have anything on their website today, it is totally blank.

More On Hurricane Henriette

More On Hurricane Henriette

Well, the storm is over and luckily there was little loss of life. Sadly there were 3 deaths I believe. One was a clammer who was swept out to sea (I think), one man was trying to do something to his roof and I think that the roof either collapsed or blew away and he fell and died instantly. Another man died of a heart attack attributed to the storm and there is one person in hospital in grave condition. My Spanish is not that good and the above I gleaned from the newspaper so it might not be totally accurate.

There are people without power and water; but our colonia seems to be in good shape. In other colonias there were some electric poles and trees that came down and also some homes lost their roofs.

According to the newspaper, by 8 PM last night we had had 120 millimeters of rain which is approximately 4.72 inches.

The newspaper says that Governor Bours has asked that the south part of the State of Sonora, that was affected by the hurricane be declared a disaster zone.

In Obregon/Cajeme there are 40 thousand people without electricity and other areas such as the municipality of Navajoa, Yavaros, Etchojoa, municipality of Alamos, Huatabampo all have damages to them. All in all it has created a mess for many people that will take some time to recover from.

I haven't been out to San Carlos; but from reading their bulletin boards/forums this morning there doesn't appear to be much damage. I have no idea how the boats fared in the Marina Seca so if anyone has information you can let me know. The links for the bulletin boards are on the side of the blog, there are some pictures and videos on them that you can go and look at if you are interested.

This video was taken yesterday at Charlys Rock in San Carlos at 11 AM, it got worse after that though.


We have gotten everything put back outside and things are pretty much back to normal for us, I wish it could be that easy for everyone.

Hurricane Henriette Update 3

Hurricane Henriette Update 3

We seem to have made it through the worst part of the hurricane, hopefully. All the sites showed the hurricane hitting land south of us; but apparently just before it came ashore it veered north and came right at us.

According to various sites that I looked at we had 120 km. winds with up to 140 km. gusts. It didn't seem that bad; but we are surrounded by mountains here so perhaps we are more protected than other areas around us. It poured rain also and the wind drove it up and around our windows so we spent the afternoon mopping up water. There appears to be no damage around our street that we can see.

When the eye of the hurricane passed over us, the winds calmed right down and the rain slowed down to a drizzle. So, we along with a lot of the neighbors, did just what you are told not to do. We all went outside. We discussed the hurricane and the kids ran around looking at the mini arroyo that the rushing water has cut into our street. Everyone made sure that they didn't stay out too long though and in less than an hour the wind and rain picked up again; although not to the extent that they were before.
This picture shows the hurricane right on top of us. The red mark is not something that I put there, it is the site marking the hurricane.

Here is a video I took before it got too bad. Roy very nicely held the door open so that I could stand inside the house and take it. Go figure, today in the middle of a hurricane Blogger finally allowed me to upload a video.


We had power throughout the storm with only a couple of flickers and at one point before we had to start seriously mopping water I was verbally chatting with my sister in Canada. Technology works even in a hurricane.

I have no idea what it was like over in San Carlos or in Empalme; but I hope that everyone and everything is alright.

Hurricane Henriette Update 1

Hurricane Henriette Update 1

Well, so far, so good. There is nothing unusual going on here at the moment. It has clouded over; but is not raining and there is very little wind, just a small breeze. It has cooled down to 30 C./89 F., so we have shut off the air conditioners and opened the windows and it feels nice.

This is the latest that I have read from AccuWeather.com.

AT 8 PM PDT...0300 UTC...THE GOVERNMENT OF MEXICO HAS REPLACED THE
HURRICANE WATCH AND TROPICAL STORM WARNING WITH A HURRICANE WARNING
ALONG THE COAST OF MAINLAND MEXICO FROM TOPOLOBAMPO NORTHWARD TO
BAHIA KINO. A HURRICANE WARNING MEANS THAT HURRICANE CONDITIONS ARE
EXPECTED WITHIN THE WARNING AREA WITHIN THE NEXT 24 HOURS.
PREPARATIONS TO PROTECT LIFE AND PROPERTY SHOULD BE RUSHED TO
COMPLETION.

We are the little white star.

So I guess that they are still expecting it to remain a hurricane. They expect it to move off of the Baja and over the Sea of Cortez in the next couple of hours.

So we will wait and see what happens tomorrow.

Hurricane Henriette

Hurricane Henriette

Henriette has been upgraded from a tropical storm to a hurricane and we are now under a hurricane watch. A hurricane watch means that we could expect to experience hurricane conditions within the next 36 hrs.

The following is taken from Accu Weather.com.
A HURRICANE WATCH REMAINS IN EFFECT FOR THE EAST COAST OF THE BAJA
PENINSULA FROM LORETO NORTHWARD TO MULEGE. A HURRICANE WATCH IS
ALSO IN EFFECT FOR THE COAST OF MAINLAND MEXICO FROM ALTATA
NORTHWARD TO GUAYMAS. A HURRICANE WATCH MEANS THAT HURRICANE
CONDITIONS ARE POSSIBLE WITHIN THE WATCH AREA...GENERALLY WITHIN 36
HOURS

This is a current picture of the projected track, we are approximately where the little white star is.

Today we will be bringing in all the things/plants off of the patio. We were going to wait until tomorrow; but decided to do it while everything is still dry and it is not so windy. We will also be putting masking tape on our windows.
We asked our landlord and he said that no one here covers up their windows. They just put masking tape on them. He said that the way the mountains surround us that we are quite protected and the winds are not as bad here as they are in San Carlos. I am not sure if the people in San Carlos board up their windows, have or use hurricane shutters or not. I would be more concerned if we lived out there. He told us that the last time a storm came through here they did not even lose their electricity. It went off and on momentarily because of trees hitting the lines; but did not go out completely. That sounded good.
Well time to get busy and do some stuff.