En Breve "Los Cabos Is Destroyed"

Can be another 5 or 10 days without tap water. As soon as roads are fixed, 5-gallon "garafones" with purified water can be delivered. I think to start carrying my manual desalinator from "abandon the ship" kit. Was about to sell it, but it takes so little space. Probably, won't have to use it anyway. 2 weeks worth of drinking water for one person is mere 3 garafones, easy enough to stock up.

Suerte!

Estimado Señor, flooding blowing rain did hundreds of millions of dollars in damage I am in Baja California Sur and I got whacked with 160 kPh wind. Ripped the side loose from the house. it matters little whether it was flood water wind or a combination of both that destroyed your life. BTW Day FIVE with zero tap water. Day FIVE without purified water, here.

Saludos!

PS: A few lessons here for snowbirds.

Keep your solar up and functional, even if there is power on the camp.

Keep enough dryfoods and fresh water for at least a few days, and increase this to 7-10 days supply when something like Odile or Jimena is in forecasts. You can live without shower, but you can't live without drinking water.

There can be no gas stations running because of power outage, so you won't be able to refill your generator or even get to gas station or grocery store - because there can be no road. Many small towns are now "incommunicado" - no roads to get in and out, and there won't be running water for at least a week.

The last and most important lesson: don't go there in September :)... What all those tourists - stranded in SJD airport or on the road without gas - were thinking? This is exactly the month when hurricanes come, and it's also hot and humid like hell. If you're expat living there fulltime, this I can understand, you got no choice then.

Mex, Cabo is on the tip, so it's got mostly wind damage. Whichever way hurricane turns, it hits Cabo anyway. This time there was more wind than ever, weak structures were affected. You can repair and build better, and power poles will be fixed in a short time. I think they have power by now. Palm trees have no roots, duh.

It was a lot worse where they had floods. The force of flood stream is tremendous, and its direction in sand soil is unpredictable. Here is the area of Highway 1 near turn-off to Bahia de Los Angeles at Punta Prieta: https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=IVW3swJQojc

See this "river"? There wasn't any river there before, it's all desert.

Odile hit Cabo and La Paz, then went North along the Pacific coast to big laguna near Guerrero Negro. Then it turned North-East, destroying the village Bahia de Los Angeles on the way. Then it crossed the sea, hitting Sinaloa coast and weakening as it was heading into AZ.

Desert towns like Bay of LA sometimes don't get any rain for YEARS, so they were not prepared. Homes built on sand without a foundation simply disappeared, see about 1.33 min into the video http://tlmdo.co/1sqWolB . All that was left was a nice level spot, like there was no home there at all. Gringo homes on cement foundation moved/leaned some, fridges, boats and garbage floating around. First minute of video with cars half-buried in sand shows Cabo area, not only it was destroyed but also looted.

Area from Loreto to Sta Rosalia was not affected more than "usual". Mulege of course got its almost-annual floods, it doesn't take much to flood it, considering location. In Loreto it rained maybe a little more than usual, waterfront was flooded but it's all clean now.

East coast of Sea of Cortez up to Mazatlan just got rain. A lot of it though. Enough to flood some streets.

Winds itself were not a problem in all those areas. Some toppled palms here and there, though they were likely toppled by flood waters, same as power line poles.

NAAAA!!! you are not getting old!

You are ageing with time and mellowing as a good wine.

navegator

I'm getting too old for this crap...

Hi Mex,

I'm glad you are safe!