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| Boarding up for TS Nate. |
Normally
a bit of rough weather doesn’t bother us. We’re Canadian and have experienced snowy
blizzards and drenching rain storms. But I confess I’m not a fan of tropical
storms that are teetering on the edge of being classified as a hurricane.
I
don’t mind wind, but I really don’t like the high velocity winds of a tormenta. Sadly though, when this recent
storm, TS Nate, blasted over the mountainous countries of Costa Rica and Nicaragua
it was the excessive rainfall that caused the deaths of twenty-two people.
Since
we live at the edge of the ocean and TS Nate was forecast to pass directly over
this flat, little sandbar of an island we obsessively clicked on the NOAA site
and several internet weather channels checking predicted rainfall, storm surge,
and wind speeds.
On
Wednesday it became pretty clear we were going to get hit.
By Thursday morning we had dragged everything inside
our little casa; two sun loungers, a small sofa and two chairs, glass topped
tables, stacks of big cushions for the two larger sofas, and anything small
enough to become an airborne hazard.
We tied down garden hoses to prevent them
whipping around in the wind, and pushed plant pots into tight huddles.
I made
up a couple of dozen sandbags to block the rain from entering under our doors,
especially our bedroom door which has an outside entrance onto an open deck.
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| New house a bit north of ours boarded up. |
We had extra bottles of water, gas in the golf cart, easy
to prepare food for us and the pets, and cash in case the power was off for a few
days making ATM’s useless. (By now we are feeling like the characters in the
novel that I am writing, Tormenta Isla,
who had to do all the same prep work!)
Then,
exactly as our friends Tony Garcia and Isauro Martinez described many boat
owners prepared for the storm/hurricane by moving their vessels deep into
Laguna Makax. The Caribe line of passenger boats from Cozumel brought their three
good-sized vessels to Isla and docked them at the municipal wharf next to the
car ferry. Presumably that dock is more sheltered than the ones at Cozumel. Even
the car ferry and the Ultramar passenger ferries shut down early.
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| Caribe Ferry - normally located in Cozumel |
It
was an eerie feeling driving along the island’s shoreline which normally
bustles with boats, islanders and tourists. Every public or private wharf from
Velasquez Restaurante, near the north end of the island, to the car ferry were
empty and all of the oceanfront restaurants were closed. Every tour, pleasure,
or work boat had been moved to Laguna Makax, or dragged high up on the beach
and securely tied to nearby palm trees.
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| Hotel shuttered on main floor |
Many
businesses were closed so that their staff would be safely at home before the
predicted late-Friday afternoon arrival of the storm. Doors and windows were covered
by pieces of wood or cortinas, the
accordion-style hurricane shutters.
A
light rain damped the streets and we decided it was time to hunker down with
our pets and a good bottle of wine. We read, we sipped wine, we waited, and we
checked the internet. The predicted rainfall was for around 95mm or 4 inches although
TS Nate had dumped 510 mm or about 20 inches of rain on Central America. The
wind-speed was going to touch on a Category 1 Hurricane of 120 kilometers per
hour, about 74 miles an hour.
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| Wharf at Bally Hoo - empty, restaurant closed. |
The
afternoon turned into evening, and still no rain or wind.
Then, remarkably we
fell asleep for two hours. I usually lay awake during storms listening the
sounds of the house; the rattle of the screen on our windows, the creak of the
patio doors as the wind pushes against it, and the banging of something not
tightly secured.
At
ten in the evening both Lawrie and I woke up, to silence. No wind. No rain.
Nothing. We checked the internet again. It looked as if the storm now called Hurricane
Nate had moved about ten miles east, closer to Cuba. It had passed by us. That
was a big relief to everyone. Facebook pages were soon littered with jokes
about the over-reaction and the huge amount of prep work for a non-event.
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| M&J's buttoned up for TS Nate |
But
as one of our friends said:
“They just don’t understand what it feels like to
lose everything and to not have insurance. To have your only vehicle damaged,
whether it was a moto or an old car it was still your only transportation. To
worry about the lives of your family, your friends, and yourself. To step out
of your home and see the damage done to your community and know that it could
be days or weeks before everything is back to some type of normal. In the
meantime people scramble to make a living and to feed their children. It’s
difficult, very difficult. So what if we over-prepared, better that then homeless.”
We’d
happily do the same preparations again especially if it works as a lucky charm
and keeps the tormenta away.
Although
it seems that when our nearby neighbours Rob and Julie Goth board over their small
windows, the ones without the cortinas, we are guaranteed to get a pass from
the hurricane.
We’re
back to sunny and hot weather and waiting on the return of our various
Canadian, American and European neighbours for the busy October to April social
season.
There goes the diet!
Cheers from paradise
Lynda
& Lawrie
~
Yasmin and Jessica are back and the gold they found in Treasure
Isla is still haunting them, especially when Carlos, their boss at the Loco
Lobo, and Yasmin’s new lover, is kidnapped. No spoilers here, but his captivity
and the girls’ efforts to free him, with the help of Carlos’s pals—including
local Isla Mujeres fishermen and a Mexico City cop—are the crux of this
fast-paced story. Lock has created not only a compelling and authentic setting,
but a well-developed ensemble cast. The next Isla mystery can’t come fast
enough.
Book #2 in the Isla Mujeres Mystery Series
Available on Amazon e-books $2.99 USD
Available on Amazon e-books $2.99 USD
Treasure Isla
Book #1 Isla Mujeres Mystery Series
$2.99 USD on most e-book distribution systems.
Here are the links:
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