Hi guys!
I'm still in California, it's almost worse just watching the weather channel and obsessing on it. The satellite/computer projections really have a long ways to go before they are any good for more than a day out. They've had Dean hitting the Yucatan up and down the whole coast. But now, he's there and he is hitting about 150 miles south of our condo.
It's a fairly isolated area with some beautiful, pristine beaches and one of the only true reefs in the Caribbean. I've dove on the Chinchorro Banks and they were amazing. They are about dead center of the eye tonight. The land along there is flat, flat, flat, sand and mangroves and isolated villages of very poor people who live in houses made of sticks and thatch. Difficult to reach on a good day and very difficult to get relief aid to these people.
It is also hitting very close to a good friend's land on Chetumal Bay, she is in the process of building 2 houses but I doubt anything but the foundation will be left. Luckily, she took off today with her RV heading west. My fear is she will stop too soon and not realize that Dean is right behind her and heading the same way. It's very tough to just sit and hope and watch the news.
Our condo will probably be just fine, there will be storm surge damage on the first floor but we are on top on the 3rd floor. After Wilma, there was 3' of sand inside the condos on the first floor and in one of them there was a huge chunk of brain coral in the middle of the floor. It was as big as a large coffee table, they had to break it into chunks to get it out. Storm surge causes a lot of damage, if the waves are as big as Wilma, they were breaking on the back side of our building, across the road. They rolled through the first floor on their way. This evening, they reported 30' waves at a buoy off the coast of Cancun and that is about 200 miles north of where Dean is coming ashore.
Mostly I'm concerned about the poor people living in Dean's path. They have so little, they work so very hard for even that. It breaks my heart to think of the inevitable devastation to their homes and their crops, I think deaths are very likely. I have so much respect for the Mayan people who live there, they are the hardest workers I've ever seen and they are upbeat and always ready for the next challenge. I think this will tax their ability to take everything in stride.
The Mexican army is deployed and ready in Cancun and will be on sight as soon as the hurricane passes. Still, as in most places, most of the assistance will go to the areas with more population and more money. Chetumal, the city mentioned on the news as the closest city to the eye of the storm, is the capitol of the state so it will get quick relief and help. How much will filter out into the jungle to the small villages with no roads is hard to guess. If I were there, I would set out as soon as the storm passed with water and as many bags of beans and corn meal as I could find. There will be death, hunger and disease out there.
I really should be more upbeat about this myself. I was incredibly impressed with the quick relief that arrived after Wilma. The Mexican army is deployed ahead of the storm in a safe area with heavy machinery, food, tools and supplies. They move in quickly and they work, they don't just stand around with a gun. They man shovels and machetes and they pitch in and work 12 hour days alongside the residents. They climb poles and rig electric lines, they dig trenches to drain water, they pull trees off of houses and help the residents clear out their homes. The scandal that was the US response in New Orleans would not happen in Mexico, no one down there could believe that they were still finding bodies in New Orleans a year after the hurricane. That kind of thing just would not happen in Mexico.
So, I sit and watch the news and I worry about my friends and I worry about people I don't even know. I think it would be easier to be there.
