September 15th hurricane Odile hit Cabo as a high category 3 or low 4 depending on who is counting causing widespread destruction to tourist facilities, local business and infrastructure.
At last count there were over 3,000 power poles knocked down, and most tourist hotels had their windows broken, some had structural damage and their white plastic pool furniture was returned to China.
The airport was shut down to all but emergency flights by the government and chartered planes ferrying tourists out of the region and emergency supplies and military police in. Most grocery stores were looted within a couple of days. The airport is expected to open to commercial flights by the 22nd of September. But don't expect to find an operating ATM there or a cold beer in the bar while awaiting your flight. The terminals were trashed by Odile.
And 30,000 tourists were stranded in hotels that compared favorably with accommodations in Gaza, Bagdad and Damascus. Better in fact - for tourists didn't have to endure rockets and car bombs.
The following updates below have been compiled from the Tribuna, Baja Insider, Gringo Gazette, Los Cabos News, the AP and Cabo Free Press:
September 19, 2014
- San Quintin - missed completely, no impact, no rain. San Quintin Fishing Tournament still on schedule.
- Hwy 1 flooded at Catavina.
- Hwy 1 flooded at Vizcaino.
- Mulege - Houses wiped away, no electricity or gas, roads are flooded and covered with mud. Two stores are open Pangueno and Ayluths.
- LA Bay - The Village is ok but the road is closed due to flooding.
- Loreto - Most power, water and phones are restored. Trees and power lines down. Military cleaning up. Driver made it from La Paz to Loreto yesterday. Road passable but one lane in places. They are bussing people from Cabo to Loreto to fly back to the US. And some are able to fly out of La Paz or take the ferry from La Paz to Mazatlan. Get a stateroom if possible.
- Ivan of Santa Rosalia Baja Sur - "We are OK, but the hurricane Odile passed over here Sept 15 all night, We won't have water until 2 weeks more, and some people lost their roofs. The hurricane was one of the most destructive over the last years on Baja."
- Los Barriles - Water across the Buenas Aires Arroyo has stopped flowing. Concrete road is passable with some cracks. Lots of downed trees and trash everywhere. Gas rationing at the local Pemex station.
- There is a collapsed bridge south of Los Barriles so the road to San Jose is impassable as of right now.
September 18, 2014
- So far we have confirmed only 3 people dead. 2 were high executives from El Boleo mine who tried to cross a road flooded by a river, another one died of a heart attack.
- Nearly 50,000 people moved from Los Cabos to La Paz. The road is one lane in places between Cabo and La Paz and Cabo is cut-off from Los Barriles due to a bridge washout.
- 1,000 are people waiting at the La Paz airport to leave, because they drove up there before the Cabo airports opened. VolarÃs and Interjet are sending planes to Cabo free of charge and there are some commercial flights available now out of Cabo. Also, in the past few days many hundreds of tourist were flown out on the military transports that brought federal soldiers in.
- Electricity is restored to 70% north of La Paz and 40% in La Paz. It is estimated it will take around 2 to 3 weeks to restore all power in Los Cabos, but barrio by barrio, the lights are twinkling back on. Almost 3,000 high tensión poles are down or damaged. Airport, hospitals and shelters have electricity with power plants.
- 300 CFE trucks and about 1,000 electricity company workers were brought here in addition to the 1,000 we already have.
- The heads of tourism, civil protection and Fonatur are here and they all say they will stay until everything is sorted out.
- More than 3,000 soldiers, sailors and federal gendarmerie are here as of yesterday.
- Neighbors have built barricades in some street for protection while convoys of armed cops and soldiers are patroling at night. The looting and roving gangs have been brought under control and a 10 pm curfew is being enforced.
- 7 people have jailed last night for looting, however, it was thousands of people who are responsibile for that behavior.
- Cabo Mil is up and running and doing a terrific job of putting out information in both Spanish and English.
- The highway to the border is mostly open, a little wet and washed out in spots, but doable by most vehicles.
Needless to say - the last place on earth you want to take a vacation right now is Cabo San Lucas. Or maybe Damascus.. -Ed
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