Mérida, the capital of the Mexican state of Yucatán, is one of my favorite cities. So I am always particularly concerned when I hear of tropical storms hitting that region.
In the past week the Yucatán Peninsula has been hit by two storms. Last Saturday tropical storm Gamma came ashore near the resort town of Tulum with sustained winds of 55 mph. (This is only the second time in history that meteorologists have run through the entire alphabet with names for the tropical storms and hurricanes and have had to begin naming the storms for the letters of the Greek alphabet.) The storm dumped torrential rains across southeastern Mexico. Mérida, the capital of the state of Yucatán received around six inches of rainfall. There were six deaths in the states of Tabasco and Chiapas from landslides and flash floods.
Early this morning a stronger storm, Delta, a category 2 hurricane with winds of 110 mph, hit the coast of the peninsula between the resort cities of Cancún and Playa del Carmen.
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Alejandro told me last night that the low-lying island of Isla Mujeres off the shore of Cancún had already been evacuated. Hotels along the beach at Cancún had also been evacuated. Cancún recently reopened to tourism. After the heavy hit which the tourist industry has taken from the pandemic, this hurricane will be another blow for the region's fragile economy.
Downed trees and power outages have been reported in Cancún. Significant but not catastrophic damage is expected.
Fortunately for places such as Mérida to the west of Cancún, the hurricane has not crossed the peninsula, but has headed northward. As I write this, Delta is already heading out into the Gulf of Mexico. There it is expected to gain strength, and it will pose a threat to Louisiana.
My friend Wayne and his partner Bob, stayed in Isla in their house on the beach and did not evacuate. I sincerely hope to hear from them today. The storm was a Cat 4 by the time it hit them. I bet they will never stay again.........you only have to go through that once in your life, or never to know not to be there!
ReplyDeleteI hope that they are OK. From what I read, the storm was downgraded to a Category 2 before it hit the coast, so hopefully it was not too bad. Nevertheless, there is no way that I would want to go through even a Category 2 on a low-lying island.
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