# Hurricanes



## Longford (May 25, 2012)

It might be a long hurricane season in Mexico, this year. The first I'm recalling this season is set to make landfall near Salina Cruz, Oaxaca - Puerto Arista, Chiapas or elsewhere along the Oaxaca/Chiapas state line this afternoon. Not hugely powerful winds at this point, est. 75 mph, but the rains which are produced often do the most damage. Areas which might also be impacted are the entire Istmus, and the states of Tabasco and Veracruz.
School classes have been cancelled as far north as Acapulco.

Hurricane BARBARA

El Universal - Los Estados - Bárbara se acerca a costas mexicanas ya como huracán


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## Isla Verde (Oct 19, 2011)

Longford said:


> It might be a long hurricane season in Mexico, this year. The first I'm recalling this season is set to make landfall near Salina Cruz, Oaxaca - Puerto Arista, Chiapas or elsewhere along the Oaxaca/Chiapas state line this afternoon. Not hugely powerful winds at this point, est. 75 mph, but the rains which are produced often do the most damage. Areas which might also be impacted are the entire Istmus, and the states of Tabasco and Veracruz.
> School classes have been cancelled as far north as Acapulco.
> 
> Hurricane BARBARA
> ...


From _El Universal_ as of 14:55 horas: " . . . la dependencia [el Sistema Meteorológico Nacional] recomendó extremar precauciones a la población en general de Oaxaca, Guerrero, Chiapas, Veracruz, Tabasco y Campeche por lluvias intensas a torrenciales, vientos fuertes, inundaciones, deslaves e incremento en el nivel de los ríos."


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## Longford (May 25, 2012)

Isla Verde said:


> From _El Universal_ as of 14:55 horas: " . . . la dependencia [el Sistema Meteorológico Nacional] recomendó extremar precauciones a la población en general de Oaxaca, Guerrero, Chiapas, Veracruz, Tabasco y Campeche por lluvias intensas a torrenciales, vientos fuertes, inundaciones, deslaves e incremento en el nivel de los ríos."


:sorry:, Rule #6.



> dependence [National Meteorological System] extreme precautions recommended to the general population of Oaxaca, Guerrero, Chiapas, Veracruz, Tabasco and Campeche to torrential rains, high winds, floods, landslides and increase in the level of the rivers. "


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## Lorij (Jul 8, 2012)

I can report torrential rain is falling now in Puerto Angel and phone service is intermittent.


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## Longford (May 25, 2012)

Lorij said:


> I can report torrential rain is falling now in Puerto Angel and phone service is intermittent.


Thanks for the first-hand report, Lorij! :clap2:


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## Isla Verde (Oct 19, 2011)

Lorij said:


> I can report torrential rain is falling now in Puerto Angel and phone service is intermittent.


Take care of yourself, Lori.


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## Hound Dog (Jan 18, 2009)

[_QUOTE=Lorij;1185953]I can report torrential rain is falling now in Puerto Angel and phone service is intermittent.[/QUOTE]_

Well, Lorij, as a fellow Alabamian I must classify this as a squall. The house my darlin´ bride and I spent our honeymoon year in on Mobile Bay just up the coast from Dauphin Island off of Mon Louis Island in 1971 no longer even exists thanks to Hurricane Frederick in 1979. Now, that was a hurricane. 

Not one brick remains, all swept out to sea, but there is a fine satsuma tree still there. God spares the things he loves. Humans and their dwellings are expendable.


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## mickisue1 (Mar 10, 2012)

Even though this is a thread about a serious subject, hurricanes, I must confess my heart melts a little when I read someone who's been married for 42 years refer to his wife as his "darlin' bride."

Thumbs up, Hound.


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## Isla Verde (Oct 19, 2011)

Hurricane Bárbara is turning out to be a dangerous storm - two deaths reported already in Oaxaca: El Universal - Los Estados - Bárbara deja 2 muertos en Oaxaca; edil urge ayuda.


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## Lorij (Jul 8, 2012)

Thanks guys, still just lots of rain some gusty wind. Still have power and phones for now! I can recall when I lived in Virginia beach years ago we used to have hurricane parties!!


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## Hound Dog (Jan 18, 2009)

[_QUOTE=Lorij;1186003]Thanks guys, still just lots of rain some gusty wind. Still have power and phones for now! I can recall when I lived in Virginia beach years ago we used to have hurricane parties!![/QUOTE]_

I already wrote to you guys about how the home my new wife and I lived in on Mobile Bay at the mouth of the Fowl River in 1971 disappeared without a trace in 1979 when Hurricane Frederick blew through there. We were living in Taos, New Mexico at the time so no problem for us. Since Lorij mentioned hurricane parties in her post, I must recall the most famous hurricane party I remember in the 1960s when I was living in Tuscaloosa. That was at an apartment building in Pass Christian. Mississippi when Hurricane Camille visited the Mississippi Coast . A group of residents in a Pass Christian beachfront apartment building decided to stick out Camille and hold a hurricane party into the night. The next morning, after Camille had passed, that entire apartment building and everyone in it had disappeared without a trace. Several hundred people gone and no point of reference that an apartment building had ever been there except for the outline of what used to be a foundation. 

The devastation in Chiapas where we were living when Hurricane Paul visited there a few years ago is immeasurable. Countless people died and whole villages were swept away into the muck. The railroad tracks from Tapachula to Arriaga were destroyed and still have not been rebuilt.

Hurricanes are not amusing and should be respected. We will not know what the minor hurricane Barbara did to the Chiapas/Oaxaca Coasts until, perhaps, tomorrow but many poor people live in vulnerable arroyos and upon unstable hillsides there. After hurricanes wipe them out and assuming they are still alive, they don´t just pick up the phone and call the insurance company. No phone and no insurance. The hillside is gone. Forget rebuilding the exclusive beach house with insurance proceeds or even finding a place to flush your fecal matter.


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## mickisue1 (Mar 10, 2012)

Hound, that last post sent shivers down my spine. We get nasty thunderstorms, and more frequent and more severe, in the past few years. But hurricanes are non-existent, and even a small tornado is rare in the TC. We've had bad tornados in the outer suburbs, but the one that touched down in a residential part of Mpls last spring was an anomaly.

Hurricanes? Wow. We will get a few seconds of 100 mph wind as the front bangs into the hot humid air and is whipped around. But not hours and hours!


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## citlali (Mar 4, 2013)

Camille happened in 69, I arrived in the States in 70 and went to New Orleans in September 70 the coast still was a mess they were large fishing boats in trees, steps without houses hangars torn up and a rough road, the Mississipi coast had been really badly damaged, that was my first sight at what hurricanes can do and they can be horrible.


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## Hound Dog (Jan 18, 2009)

Since we are all discussing hurricanes and we happen to live in Chiapas part of each year but are currently at Lake Chapala where the weather is almost always benign, I thought some remarks on the damage caused by the minor (Category 1) Hurricane Barbara was in order.

Barbara hit the Chiapas Coast just outside of Tonalá (just southeast of the Oaxaca State line) at a wind speed of 75MPH and proceeded across that area to the Yucatan Peninsula causing damage in several southern states. Preliminary reports are that two people have died as a result of the storm including one American surfing off of Salina Cruz when the hurricane hit. The initilal news reports are that there are 5,000 victims which can mean anything from property damage to injuries. Of course, many back country indigenous folks are not on the radar down there so there is no telling what the real damage is among the rural poor. Torrential rains brought serious damage to the terrain and small villages and possible loss of life or of whole villages so the actual cost in property, habitat and economic suffering is incalculable. Keep in mind that was a Category 1 storm. 

Hurricane party anyone?


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## Hound Dog (Jan 18, 2009)

I had edited my above post to add another thought about hurricanes but the administrator wouldn´t allow an editing as I had passed my time for that so here goes in a following post:

When hurricanes hit the southern coasts of the United States, the big problem is usually limited to what is known there as coastal surge which is a phenomenon that causes the most damage the hurricane can render although wind and rain are also problematic as the hurricane continues its journey up the coastal plain until it reaches the Appalachian Plateau hundreds of miles away. In Chiapas in places such as Tonalá, Tapachula and points in between, the hurricane force winds land on the beach and are immediately confronted by the massive Sierra Madre de Chiapas where, beyond coastal surge, terrible destruction takes place among tall mountain slopes - many denuded by legal and illegal logging and, as a result, entire mountainside and valley settlements are wiped off the face of the earth. The destruction is unimaginable and these poor subsistence farmers lose everything when they had little to start with in the first place but now destroyed shacks and milpas.

When I compare the hurricane losses of the wealthy beachfront landowners in Palm Beach with the losses of the poor in Chiapas, I have no problem deciding the best place for a hurricane to make landfall.


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