Do the aftermath

The authorities and experts are still calling Jemina a tropical storm, but around here she's earned the title of hurricane, and then some. A hundred-year storm was what I heard yesterday. Fifty-knot winds average with gusts to 75, twenty-five inches of rain. How about tropicane?

Yesterday when the rain petered out we took a drive in the Capt's heavy-duty old Dodge truck to assess the damage, and found everyone else in town was doing the same. First we took a look at the Bahia, having heard that at least 11 boats had lost their moorings and lay beached along the shore of the anchorage.

The Abyss at Charlie's Rock

We found impassable roads, downed power and phone lines and bar signs, displaced cars and boats, a wrecked drydock (now don't panic, M! I hear Jack is OK) and finally came, literally, to the end of the road. The main access road, all four lanes of it, collapsed at Charlie's Rock, leaving a 15-foot-deep chasm full of debris and concrete. A crowd was lined up on each side, peering into the abyss with wide eyes and shrugging their shoulders at each other.

Three powerboats floated out of the roadside storage yard and beached themselves on the median strip, blocking the main road

The only access in and out of town is on the notoriously rocky and unstable, unpaved and unpredictable roads through the Ranchitos, but drivers found a way, and even a city bus from Guaymas was spotted later in the day.

The storage yard at Marina Seca

Our British friend John was aboard his boat at Marina Seca (the workyard) during the worst of it. His mast, awaiting new rigging, was sitting on sawhorses under the boat. When he woke up the mast had floated up to the drydock gate and was wedged sideways, and a big truck had landed on top of it, along with several tons of mud. His car, in the parking lot, was submerged up to the doorhandles and is probably a total loss. Other than one American who was preparing to leave, John was the only person at Marina Seca through the whole storm. He stopped by yesterday and helped the Capt connect up our old RV generator to our house so that now everything works, as long as we have gasoline. Muchas gracias, John!

The Captain's Club and Tequila's signs toppled, bringing down powerlines with them

There's no water and no cable for our Vonage phone and Internet, no cell phone service. We heard predictions of up to five days to get services running again, but que milagro! This morning on the VHF morning net we heard much of San Carlos and Guaymas already has electricity back, the gas stations are pumping gas again (yesterday all they had for sale was water) and the Marina Terra Hotel, a block from our house, has their Internet service restored and is opening their doors to anyone who needs to get online. Gringos are trickling in, using their Skype to report to Stateside friends and share horror stories. But everyone seems to be in good spirits, and there are also plenty of accounts of heroism (in particular the guys from the electric company, who worked around the clock to get power going again) and generosity.

Now if only I could get a shower...