TUESDAY, 01-SEP-09: Hurricane Jimena has been a very strong Category 4 storm for more than a day now and predictions about its path and intensity have been all over the map! (No pun intended) The current forecast is for the storm to continue to weaken as it moves north and west along southern Baja California’s Pacific coast. Most populated areas are now expected to see no more than tropical storm force winds, but heavy rain (5″ to 10″) will be a big problem for low-lying areas. I’m observing the storm’s progress from downtown La Paz and we’ve already seen local flooding from two pretty intense thunderstorms that have passed through – one Monday night and one Tuesday morning. Since there are numerous places on the Web to find updates on Jimena (my favorite is http://www.stormpulse.com/pacific/) I’m going to use this space to upload photos as I take them here in La Paz. Thanks for stopping by and I’ll see you on the other side of the storm.
THURSDAY, 3-SEP-2009 UPDATE: While we were spared by Jimena, towns to our immediate north were not so lucky. Puerto San Carlos is on the Pacific and was very close to the storm’s initial landfall as a Category 2 hurricane. As Jimena continued north, it crossed back over the peninsula and did a lot of damage in Loreto and then in Mulege (pronounced mu-la-hey) before finally crossing the Sea of Cortez towards Mexico’s mainland. This last link is an animated GIF file, so give it enouugh time to load and begin the “slide show.”
“North of Puerto San Carlos, the Insurgentes electric sub stacion was destroyed and hundreds of cell phone towers, power, light and telephone poles are down. Power is out in many areas and the main highway between Santa Rosalia and Loreto is cut. The new large bridge south of Santa Rosalia is down. Loreto may be without power for several days due to 30 toppled electrical transmission towers. Many thousands of people have been left homeless.” – from the Baja Western Onion, 9/4/2009
Back “home” in Todos Santos the only real damage was to a brand new highway sign on the south end of town. This large metal structure used to straddle the highway and is no more than a month old!
