D-Day

Tomorrow is D-Day... as in Departure Day.  My friend Frank will drive me tomorrow morning to Cleveland Airport where my flight to Houston leaves around 11 A.M.  I have a three-hour layover there, and then my flight to Mexico City arrives around 6 P.M.  For this one-way ticket I splurged and purchased a first-class fare.  That, combined with my Silver Premier Status with United, allows me to check three suitcases weighing up to 70 pounds each without charge.  I am taking advantage of that opportunity.  I am taking three suitcases (plus two carry-on items), although none of them weighs 70 pounds.  

Fortunately, I am not flying into Acapulco.  That city has been devastated by Hurricane Otis which in less than 24 hours escalated from a tropical storm to a category 5 hurricane.  There is not a lot of information as of yet since the city remains isolated.  I read that the highway into the city is impassable due to landslides.  Hopefully there will not be many casualties, but since this is the strongest storm to ever hit Mexico's Pacific coast, I fear that the news will not be good.

As the storm moved inland over the rugged mountains, it quickly lost strength.  In Mexico City there is rain today, but, according to the weather forecast, the showers will end this evening.  When I arrive in Mexico City tomorrow, there is a probability of scattered thunderstorms, but most likely those are not the remnants of the dying hurricane, but just the typical late afternoon rain.