Hurricane Patricia 2015 Part Three

Hurricane Patricia Part Three: the aftermath

The hotel and grounds suffered a lot of damage from fallen trees

and flying roof tiles. Some windows were broken. The tennis courts took a particularly bad hit with several night lights laying broken on the ground.

 But the structure of the hotel is fine and by the time we finished breakfast a lot of it was already cleaned up. The big beautiful fig tree by the pool fell into the pool. That was sad to see. So no pool for a week or so.

The marina itself also fared quite well. Power had been turned off but some of the electrical meters were ripped out. Several of the caps on the pilings blew off, to where, one can only guess as there were none to be found. A few cleats were ripped out. A lot of trees and coconuts lying around but again pretty minimal stuff. No water on the dock and no power. That may take a couple of days. Water was pretty muddy due to the runoff from the mountains. Looked like chocolate milk.

Some minor damage to the docks.

A freighter broke loose from its anchorage and was wedged between the rocks on the other side of Punta Gordon, right behind us. The salvage crew is here from Florida.

We lossed the cover on our radar. David has tried the radar and it does not seem to be working. Good news today - after talking to our insurance company - we can get it replaced for $250 deductable. Phew! He will go up the mast on Tuesday to check it out but we may have lost the radar also. Otherwise the boat was dry and in order. Within a couple of hours we had the tarps and awnings back on and everything in its place. It was as if it did not happen.

By Sunday the hotel was back to normal despite no power. The road was closed for a day due to flooding so they could not get any more fuel for the generator. And the regular power comes from Barra which will be down til Monday or Tuesday. In order to conserve the fuel that they had, they only ran the generator a couple of hours a day. Most of the debris has been cleaned up, floors mopped up and cleaned. The tree has been cut up and removed from the pool - we are talking a big tree! 

I was talking to the manager and he was apologizing that it was taking them a bit longer as some of their staff could not get to work as they needed to deal with things at their homes. He only felt sorry that the hotel could not help them out more. During the last hurricane the hotel did not suffer any damage but put together teams to go to their staff's homes and help them. But this time there was too much to deal with at the hotel. 

They are amazing people. Some of the staff have lost their homes and one day later they are back at work! They are happy that their families are safe and that is all that is important. The rest is just stuff and can be replaced and rebuilt. By Saturday the rebuilding had already started. But you could see the sadness in their eyes when they greeted you. You just know that some of them lost a lot.

I went over to Barra on Sunday to check on Armon's house. A little water got in and so some of the small mats are wet but that was it. The beautiful flower bed of Bird of Paradise on the street side was lying flat out. And the huge tree across the street looked like it was the dead of winter. Two days ago it was green and loaded with beautiful flowers. On Sunday not a leaf to be found!

We usually cannot see the lady across the street when she is on the roof balcony for trees and things. Her roof was completely bare. But she had already cleaned up and had a pile of branches and debris 8 feet across and 5 feet high on the road. And she did that all herself. Oh - and did I mention that she is probably 75 years old! I asked if she needed help and she said no thank you. She was done and just waiting for the shredding truck to show up - which it did one hour later. She was low on water so I did give her one of our 20 liter water jugs.So you would think she would be ready to sit down and take a rest. No, she was across the street helping her neighbors. Incredible.

The army was also in town already giving out bags of food and water to anyone who needed it. The look on people's faces - they were excited as if it was Christmas!

But at one point I was coming over on the water taxi and I thought - should have brought my iPad so I could take some pictures. Then I looked up and the water taxi dock and palapa were no longer there. A couple of restaurants were more than half destroyed. These were people that we know. And I thought - I can't take pictures of this! These are people's homes and livelihood. This is not entertainment. I had a really hard time keeping the tears in check. And the only reason why I did not cry is that I did not see any one else crying, or upset, or angry. They were just quietly cleaning up and helping each other out and grateful that their families were okay. But I tell you - Sunday mass was standing room only! Even the pea hens showed up - trying to peck at the women's nail polish and shoes!

I have an incredible amount of respect for the people in this little town of 7000. The main part of tourist season starts next week and their main drive is to get these businesses opened and ready. The sad part was most of them had just finished painting and tidying up their businesses in preparation for the season. 

So we survived Hurricane Patricia. It was humbling if nothing else. But nothing compared to the people in some of the surrounding towns that lost much more.

Tomorrow we are hoping the road is opened to Puerto Vallarta. It has been closed due to mudslides.

But the bus company tells us they should be back in business. We will be returning to Victoria for a couple of weeks to pick up some much needed parts for our boat. Most importantly we want to see family and friends.

I understand that Hurricane Patricia, or the remnants of her, have now reached Toronto and southern Ontario, bringing lots of rain and winds gusting at 75!kpm.

Her path has crossed three countries!

In conclusion, I know that we were extremely lucky. We had some things working to our advantage. The fact that Patricia was moving so fast, the storm surge was less than it could have been, her path was quite narrow and the rain was a lot less as she did not have enough time to pick up as much water as she could have. But do not assume that this was anything less than a horrendous hurricane. People have lost their homes, and plantation after plantation has been destroyed. Businesses have been destroyed which means people's livelihood.

But the people are incredible and I can't help but continue to emphasize this. Today is a beautiful day in paradise. People are laughing and working hard. The sun is shining and all is good.

For all of you that contacted us - we thank you for thinking of us.