No sooner had I walked through the door ~ Hurricane Jova was on it's way and would be here in 2 days ~ no stopping it ~ and we are all praying that the angle of dangle of the wind would be pushing the water out rather than in.
Some people were really smart and trimmed their coconut trees so that they presented less of a sail area to the wind. These great and majestic palm trees survived.
And somehow, by God's grace, La Manzanilla didn't fare too badly. The seas brought debris of all sorts up to and including the main avenue. Yes, those properties along the beach suffered material damage and people here suffered losses, but nothing compared to other towns along our bay where one family we know has no house, no clothing, no nothing; or Melaque which had about a meter - meter and a half of brown sea water . . . and people were literally swimming in the streets; or Cihuatlan, which had a mountain of earth and rain water combine to literally cover their lower streets (and the main throughways) in mud - dense, heavy, mud. Barra de Navidad suffered massive property damage to those structures balanced along the shore.
this is the main highway outside of Manzanillo
Here are a couple of links:
www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=CKZ1T9kx2VA - Lalo made this one of the road connecting the bridge at Rio Cihuatlan to the turn off to Marabasco - all part of the highway to the Manzanillo Airport.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VK2KGaDgeWM - Barra de Navidad - don't know this person.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZsPNtSM0ZQ&feature=related - this is Barra before the big seas hit
You can google more on utube. The losses are just too sad.
How did we fare? We ran away! We went north-east, slightly up in the hills, about 200km away. The town was called Las Abras and is the family home of our friend Salvino Brambilla. His wife is Luz, my friend and the woman who makes those wonderful chili rellenos! We stayed in the home of his sister and brother-in-law who were thankfully visiting in the US for the summer and had not yet returned. There we experienced only a small gale (30 knots) during the evening and a LOT of water. It started about 10 in the morning and rained for about 28 hours. The small river that forms every year from the water run-off ran it's course as usual this year. The first vehicle to try to cross got stuck and Dave gave him a tug out. He wasn`t stuck too badly - just not enough oomph as the rear tires hit solid ground and so mired himself. We stayed with the family for 2 nights and then gambled on whether or not we could get through.
The few kilometers to the highway wasn't too difficult, the trees and limbs that had been broken off by the wind had been chain-sawed, sorted and taken away by the time we got there. The coastal highway was strewn with windfall and several minor landslides, people working hard to clean up and clear out ~ not too trecherous but a little freeky. The real blow-out was just north of the new turn-off to Cihuatlan. Here the highway was completely undemined by the overflowing river beside it. This took a few days for the people to create a new way around this hole.
Shortly after this area we made our turn up the hill to La Manzanilla. We anticipated a large number of landslides and so were surprised at the relatively few there were, again everyone working to clean up and clear out. I guess what had us all worried was that there was no communication open all along the coast, so no one really knew what was going on. And so we made it home ~ and there wasn't a scratch on her! Nothing! Well, we lost a few plants in the front garden - they call it Hola Santa and it's a great spice for cooking and salads - and 2 trees next door were felled and they felled onto one of the Mango Trees which is the only thing between the trees and our back garden. We have dealt with the front area and our neighbour asked us to get someone to cut those trees so they no longer represent a risk.
We wandered into town and found some friends of ours trying to hold up in the building of their Spa business. They were going to try to sleep on concrete floor - and she is 7 months pregnant. We told them not to be silly and to come to our house (we have room for them upstairs) - bravely they said they would try and see what it would be like. We told them not to be silly, they could take over upstairs and have a kitchen and king size bed (that would have been the selling points for me) - bravely they said they would stay. When I saw them the next morning I only asked if they needed one key or two. Everything they had was wet from the hurricane and it has taken them this week to get things sort of back on an even keel. Their house is still not quite ready but they are eager to move into their brand new home - it will be lonely without them.
Some people were really smart and trimmed their coconut trees so that they presented less of a sail area to the wind. These great and majestic palm trees survived.
And somehow, by God's grace, La Manzanilla didn't fare too badly. The seas brought debris of all sorts up to and including the main avenue. Yes, those properties along the beach suffered material damage and people here suffered losses, but nothing compared to other towns along our bay where one family we know has no house, no clothing, no nothing; or Melaque which had about a meter - meter and a half of brown sea water . . . and people were literally swimming in the streets; or Cihuatlan, which had a mountain of earth and rain water combine to literally cover their lower streets (and the main throughways) in mud - dense, heavy, mud. Barra de Navidad suffered massive property damage to those structures balanced along the shore.
this is looking looking up our street from the beach
Here are a couple of links:
www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=CKZ1T9kx2VA - Lalo made this one of the road connecting the bridge at Rio Cihuatlan to the turn off to Marabasco - all part of the highway to the Manzanillo Airport.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VK2KGaDgeWM - Barra de Navidad - don't know this person.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZsPNtSM0ZQ&feature=related - this is Barra before the big seas hit
You can google more on utube. The losses are just too sad.
How did we fare? We ran away! We went north-east, slightly up in the hills, about 200km away. The town was called Las Abras and is the family home of our friend Salvino Brambilla. His wife is Luz, my friend and the woman who makes those wonderful chili rellenos! We stayed in the home of his sister and brother-in-law who were thankfully visiting in the US for the summer and had not yet returned. There we experienced only a small gale (30 knots) during the evening and a LOT of water. It started about 10 in the morning and rained for about 28 hours. The small river that forms every year from the water run-off ran it's course as usual this year. The first vehicle to try to cross got stuck and Dave gave him a tug out. He wasn`t stuck too badly - just not enough oomph as the rear tires hit solid ground and so mired himself. We stayed with the family for 2 nights and then gambled on whether or not we could get through.
The few kilometers to the highway wasn't too difficult, the trees and limbs that had been broken off by the wind had been chain-sawed, sorted and taken away by the time we got there. The coastal highway was strewn with windfall and several minor landslides, people working hard to clean up and clear out ~ not too trecherous but a little freeky. The real blow-out was just north of the new turn-off to Cihuatlan. Here the highway was completely undemined by the overflowing river beside it. This took a few days for the people to create a new way around this hole.
Shortly after this area we made our turn up the hill to La Manzanilla. We anticipated a large number of landslides and so were surprised at the relatively few there were, again everyone working to clean up and clear out. I guess what had us all worried was that there was no communication open all along the coast, so no one really knew what was going on. And so we made it home ~ and there wasn't a scratch on her! Nothing! Well, we lost a few plants in the front garden - they call it Hola Santa and it's a great spice for cooking and salads - and 2 trees next door were felled and they felled onto one of the Mango Trees which is the only thing between the trees and our back garden. We have dealt with the front area and our neighbour asked us to get someone to cut those trees so they no longer represent a risk.
We wandered into town and found some friends of ours trying to hold up in the building of their Spa business. They were going to try to sleep on concrete floor - and she is 7 months pregnant. We told them not to be silly and to come to our house (we have room for them upstairs) - bravely they said they would try and see what it would be like. We told them not to be silly, they could take over upstairs and have a kitchen and king size bed (that would have been the selling points for me) - bravely they said they would stay. When I saw them the next morning I only asked if they needed one key or two. Everything they had was wet from the hurricane and it has taken them this week to get things sort of back on an even keel. Their house is still not quite ready but they are eager to move into their brand new home - it will be lonely without them.
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