From Camille to Gilberto and 5 lesser monsters I have had my fill. Henriette in 1995 in Cabo San Lucas while waiting a week for the ferry to Mazatlan. Stayed in a 33' Prowler trailer. Winds hit ends on after the eye passed. Only the grace of God made the winds come from the front then the rear.
Only a fool discounts the danger of a hurricane. The wind roars then screams then shrieks. Getting hit with 125 mph rain stings, and later the skin turns red. Snakes and bugs will do anything to escape including canvassing every nook and cranny trying to get in.
I don't give a **** what brand name of generator is used, if it is spark ignition it will have to be somewhere far removed from an inhabited structure. My gen room exhaust has a rain cap but I zip lock and cable tie it closed. The radiator exhaust gets a 4' x 5' slab of 1-1/8" sub floor and the entrance door is a hatch off a mine sweeper. No windows. No vents the generator fan draws in a ton of fresh air.
All buttoned up. Foam strips on the subfloor sheet.
Hurricane passes. I find the inside of the gen room wet. I take the orange CalTrans litter bag off the Trace inverter and the 3 mil sheet of plastic off the Kubota. The tops of the 2 volt cells are wet as is the concrete floor. I dare not start the bigger diesel so I crank up the Lombardini air-cooled to charge the 2-volt cells. To touch the near end of the batteries is to risk of a nasty burn.
I have given up trying to make the gen room water tight. When it gets blasted with 125 mph sheets of rain it is beyond my ability. I examined an almost new half million dollar bus conversion after a hurricane and guess what, all the windward windows had leaked.
I have seen a coconut palm trunk jammed part way through a cinder block concrete wall and a lot more scary evidence that should sober the most optimistic of the inexperienced.
From memory I believe our honored moderator should be safe from storm surge in Zihuatanejo and the bay as uncomfortable as may be in summer sheltered from breezes makes the surrounding high hills an effective blockade for the worst a hurricane would bring. The hillside access road though would cut off logistics for days. Stock up enough for 5 days autonomy.
Quicksilver is like an above ground bunker. Federal school bus regs demanded 2 layers of 16 gauge steel and now structural foam makes a heck of a wall. Specs have all windows being of laminated construction (like a windshield). And six 20 ton ratchet straps connect the frame to six buried 1000 x 20 tires. It might be enough to survive a tornado.
But no matter how bomb proof the structure, secure the area is from flooding and how comfortable a person remains with air conditioning and all the 5-star comforts, afterward, seeing the misery and destruction around you takes all the bloom off your rose. It really hurts a person's heart. Unforgettable.
