It just started raining. A delicate, light rain. It rarely rains at night here so you know it’s the hurricane rain starting. However, according to the latest path, it appears that Hurricane Dean, which is expected to touch land as a category 5 hurricane, has rerouted itself to well south of Mérida and through southern Quintana Roo and into Campeche. Perhaps completely missing Yucatán state with hurricane force winds.
From the very minimal hurricanes I have lived through (Category 3), no one wants to experience a hurricane. So I am not happy that it’s arriving at all as a category 5. I am personally concerned for people I know – in Felipe Carrillo Puerto and Santa Elena. The states on the peninsula are amazingly prepared. I have a feeling that much of this now has to do with the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. I can’t imagine anything like that happening here. On the state radio station there were updates in Maya and Spanish all day long. The front page of the Diario de Yucatán showed that they brought in 12 empty commercial jets + Federal Police jets to get tourists out of the peninsula. I heard that they evacuated all the consulate staff and the note on their site tells us to stay safe but we’re on our own–they’re not making plane reservations for anyone. Who can blame them? If you don’t now it’s hurricane season, well… And as my neighbors said–these are 12 inch thick mamposteria (Maya brick is the best way I can translate this) walls. We’re not going anywhere.
This morning, a good friend was telling me about having to secure his beehives/panels before the storm. I know these are worth at least US$3000. What do you do with beehives? You can’t bring them home. But, they’ve been through this before. And having been there, they know how devastating this can be. They don’t have office jobs or another source of income–everything is tied to nature. Cows, pigs, bees, vegetables. I feel for them. So, all of a sudden last night, it made a serious detour south and will now cut across their path. It may even cut further south and miss them totally, which is what I am hoping. Here, and I suppose everywhere, it’s both the short and long-term implications of a hurricane that one must consider. I hope that our honey and juice clients and their bees and oranges are safe, and that everyone is safe. And in case you were thinking of getting crazy, there’s a Ley Seca (no alchohol sales) thru Wednesday. It’s not a snow day kids….