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Hurricane
Emily
July 17th,
2005
On July 17th, hurricane
Emily hit the island of Cozumel, Mexico.
This satelite photo was
taken late Sunday afternoon, July 17th. 
The northern eyewall of
the hurricane crossed Punta Sur (the southern tip of the island).The
storm hit us as a category 4 hurricane, with winds between 125
to 150mph. It was an intense, unforgettable experience. I can't
say what the winds we got here at the house were, but they were
enough for me.
My friend Brad was here on vacation.
It turned into a working vacation, and his help was much needed
and appreciated. We had four different buildings to board up,
as well as lend hands to others. Unfortunately, I have no photo
documentation of this phase, but I will say we both were having
to lean against something to remain standing at the end of two
days of preparations.
The winds started to pick
up in the afternoon on Sunday. The heighth of the wind was between
11pm Sunday and 2am Monday. At around 3am, it suddenly went still.
All you could hear was water dripping everywhere. My first thought
was we were in the eye, but it turns out that we weren't. The
storm had passed us. I finally fell asleep. We woke at 6am and
went out front first. The neighbors were all on the street looking
up at the corner. Going out front, this is what we found...
Hugo was already out front
cleaning up all the fallen banana trees, and on the corner...
Going back through the upstairs,
I had to remove (from the inside) some small plywood strips to
view outside. It was a moment of great suspense, as we have a
nice palapa out back that I was really hoping was still standing.
Fortunately, it was. The house and the palapas survived the storm
well. The trees in the back were a different story.
I spent the next week cleaning
up. I had a lot of help from Scott, Brad, Hugo, and Antonio. The
weapons of choice were muscle, machetes and a chain saw. I bought
the chain saw less than a year ago. It was still in it's box.
Very wise investment.
It was a lot of work. After
cutting, we carried it all out to the street and the city took
it away.
A week later, the garden
out back has a whole lot more sunshine than it did before, but
it'll all grow back, and before you know it, it'll look overgrown
again.
.
Cozumel survived the hurricane
well. There were lots of huge trees down, and a lot of electric
poles down as well. Funny thing is we never lost telephone service.
We got electric back in two days, although there are still some
without power seven days later. We were lucky that it was a relatively
dry hurricane. There was no flooding in Cozumel.
I would like to say, I was
very impressed by the local government in both their before and
after handling of the storm. They are cleaning up and restoring
everything much faster than I would have believed possible.
Here are a few photos by
Alejandro Moreno from around the island.
This is the "colonia
San Miguel". They had the most damage of anyone to the electric
system.
They still are without power,
but should have it soon.
Juarez and 30th
A baby whale that washed
up on the east side.
The east side. They say
it'll be a while before we're going over there. The road was washed
out in some areas, and all palapas are down on that side.
Well, we survived Emily.
Cozumel is fine, a little less shade than before, but fine.
Come on down!
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