Hurricane Dean

[katiedobe]

Well a hurricane hits directly on my home in Bacalar and I am up here in the USA. What bad/good luck!
Bad because I want to be there to help my home and my community and good because, well, I was not there sitting terrified in the dark and the rain and the wind.

Help me out here, you folks know how to pull info off of the internet better than me. I would like to see links to photos of the devestation in Chetumal, Bacalar, costa maya, Xcalak, Mahahual or anything else in this area. Stories in spanish and english is acceptable.

Also I would love a very accurate track on a map of the coordinates of the path of the hurricane.
The GPS coordinates of my home is 18.67 Lat 88.39 Lon. So if anyone can get me an accurate on line map showing lat and lon accurately enough I would appreciate it.

Thanks very much.

The word we go so far is that the storm passed, and the devestation is extreme on the plants. The neighbor who got the email out has not left their yard. No word from my house sitters and I am concerned.
Thanks
Love and peace,
Jimmy

[Bruce Hooke]

Have you found these sorts of maps:

http://www.wunderground.com/tropical/tracking/at200704_cumwind.html#a_topad

You can get a rundown of the storm's positions here:

http://www.wunderground.com/tropical/at200704.track.html#a_topad

I'm afraid it looks like the eye passed about 8 miles north of Bacalar. It would have been weakening fast as it moved inland, but of course the rainfall amounts would still have been torrential.

Best of luck...

[Bruce Hooke]

This link to Google News should bring up lots of stories and pictures about Chetumal. You can try searching on other cities and terms. I tried "Bacalar" and just got two links from a blogger preparing for the storm...

http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ned=us&ie=UTF-8&q=Chetumal&btnG=Search

[Don Z.]

Best hurricane tracking I've found is at http://hurricane.terrapin.com/

[katiedobe]

Well the hurricane did pass about 8 miles north of my house. But luckily most of that area is jungle and farmland. Very few homes.
In my town of Bacalar if you did not have a concrete house you lost your home, it is that simple. If your concrete walls were poorly made with a skimping on the cement they fell down. If you had a metal roof it blew off.

For photos of Bacalar go to www.bacalarmosaico.com

Here is a first hand account of Mahaual and north to Rio Indio from a homeowner I built doors and cabinets for last week. The yellow house he refers to is a four bedroom, 2500 sq foot one story concrete/block structure that sat about 30 meters from the ocean.

I am leaving my truck and trailer in the Denver area and flying down to help out on Monday.


Send good thoughts my way.

Jimmy

First hand account of hurricane damage by a US citizen.

Dear Jimmy,

News is very bad. I walked yesterday from the Rio Indio entrance to our place. The devastation is such, that I do not have words to describe what I saw. I'll send photos this weekend when I get back to the the US. No way to download here. Mahahual is gone, half the pier is gone and there might be 10 structures in Rio Indio/Placer that are salvageable. Most are just rubble. The beaches are gone as is the jungle. Nothing!! It looked like Japan after the atomic bomb and I am very serious. Might even be an understatement.

Tell Ralph and JoAnn, their place is one of the few still standing and it has had very major damage. I did not go in, nothing looks safe, but I think what I saw was theirs. It was difficult to get my bearings as to where I was because there were no familiar reference points. The stairs fell and some of the doors blew out, so I'm sure the inside is gone. Even the stucco blew off. Let them know and tell them I'll send more info as I have it and the time. I've got a flight out Saturday.

Our yellow house is gone. Oddly, the little casitas are still standing and I think I can repair them. All the other houses around us were gone as well. Some, like ours collapsed because of undermining. Some, just blew and washed away. Our beach is about 4' lower.

Stopped in Bacalar but wasn't able to get to your place. It looked like all the houses along your road were still standing though. The town looked bad but nothing like Mahahual.

I'll send more later. Steve

[Thad]

Peace and good will! Thanks for the report!

[Bruce Hooke]

Thanks for the report. It is sad to hear about so much loss and destruction. Best of luck dealing with the aftermath...

[katiedobe]

More photos and an appeal for donations available at www.bacalarmosaico.com (http://www.bacalarmosaico.com)

Jimmy