Thread: Hurricane Dean reports- Costa Maya / Majahual

It is but at least all that lived there are still alive!!

Yes. No one will be living there for the forseeable future, but they ARE living!

Barely recognizable as such, but this photo is the port area:

OMG, I can't believe the total destruction of the whole town.

I'm just so happy that everyone got out safely and there were no deaths.

Originally Posted by canarymoon

Barely recognizable as such, but this photo is the port area:

Is this a post hurricane picture? It almost looks like it was taken before the port was finished. I can't figure out why the frames of the huts would be there - I don't remember them looking super strong.

Originally Posted by canarymoon

Found THIS searching for info about Costa Maya. The entry on Mahahual (Majahual) stopped my breath. Let's hope this is hearsay and not a first hand account. Though all of it is possible. I think I recall seeing a couple of photos where at least the shells of some concrete buildings were still standing:

he latest information available is;

Xcalak
Concrete buidlings have survived. Most wooden buildings have survived.
Wooden and palapa roof are damaged.
Lots of trees have fallen, the beach road is damaged.

Mahahual
All buildings, wood or concrete, are completely destroyed. This includes the cruise ship terminal.
All electricity lines have been destroyed.
It is unclear how far out of Mahahual this destruction has taken place.
All trees are down, the beach road has disappeard.

Chetumal
Damage mainly on roofs.

Oh dear, how very sad for them My prayers for them all!!!

Hurricane Dean weakens over central Mexico

The hurricane becomes a tropical storm. Villages in the eastern Sierra Madre get heavy rain, but no deaths are reported.
By Sam Enriquez, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
August 22, 2007




MEXICO CITY -- Hurricane Dean moved onto Mexico's east coast Wednesday after flattening homes and crops on the Yucatan Peninsula. But the storm appeared to have spared lives as well as the country's signature beach resorts and key oil installations.
The threat of serious flooding and mudslides remained as the former Category 5 hurricane diminished to a tropical depression, dropping heavy rain on villages along the mountains of the eastern Sierra Madre.



An estimated 20,000 people along the coast were evacuated before the storm hit, and authorities have reported no deaths or serious injuries from Hurricane Dean. A man reportedly was electrocuted Wednesday by a power line while trying to secure his roof in advance of the storm.
The storm "continues moving west, and overnight it will reach the city of Queretaro and the central part of country, but it will be much weaker," said Martin Reyes of Mexico's National Weather Service.
As a precaution, government officials closed public schools in the states of Hidalgo, Puebla and Queretaro.
Authorities had prepared for the worst, evacuating thousands of tourists from Caribbean beaches and sending troops, medical personnel and even portable ATMs after Dean killed 20 people farther east and then headed toward Cancun and other resorts along Mexico's so-called Riviera Maya.
Two years ago, Hurricane Wilma smacked Cancun, stranding thousands of tourists, killing seven people and causing more than $2 billion in damage, mostly to the high-rise hotels built along miles of sugar-sand beach.
Dean landed early Tuesday about 150 miles south of Cancun, at Felipe Carrillo Puerto, where farmers, fishermen and villagers bore the brunt of the storm's force. The state capital of Quintana Roo, Chetumal, had widespread flooding and hundreds of fallen trees. State officials said 15,000 families were left homeless.
Heavy rain and winds reaching 165 mph wrecked an estimated 60,000 acres of crops -- mostly corn, but also papaya, watermelon and citrus, state officials said.
Many farmers will lose most of their income for the year, said Jorge Flores, an agronomist with the Central University of the Yucatan Peninsula.
"The state or federal government needs to create an emergency fund for farmers who lost this year's crop and get them help to start next year's," he said.
After battering the Yucatan Peninsula on Tuesday, the hurricane weakened as it moved west over land toward the oil-rich southern Gulf of Mexico. Mexican officials had evacuated oil rigs, halting production in a region that normally yields 2.6 million barrels of oil a day and 2.2 billion cubic feet of natural gas.
By the time it reached oil platforms in the Gulf, Dean had diminished to a Category 1 hurricane from a rare Category 5.
Officials of Pemex, Mexico's national oil company, said Wednesday that they hoped to resume operations by Friday in the southern Gulf, which provides 80% of Mexico's oil, the nation's leading source of revenue. Mexico is the third-largest U.S. oil supplier behind Canada and Saudi Arabia.
Dean regained some strength over the warm Gulf waters and packed 100-mph winds at mid-morning Wednesday when it made landfall on the east coast at Tecolutla, a tourist and fishing village between Tampico and the port city of Veracruz.
But as the hurricane moved inland and weakened, authorities, including President Felipe Calderon, expressed relief that the damage was not worse.
"Given the fury this hurricane presented, we've come out OK, and we've come out OK because we were prepared," Calderon said Wednesday after a tour of damaged regions. "Now, the challenge is to return to the regions hit by the hurricane to help the families that lost their homes."

Hurricane Dean slams Mexico's Gulf coast

By Tomas Bravo POZA RICA, Mexico (Reuters) - Hurricane Dean ripped into Mexico's Gulf coast on Wednesday with screaming winds and torrential rain that killed two people, flooded towns and forced thousands into shelters, but then weakened rapidly.
Large trees felled by wind were blocking main roads in the oil town of Poza Rica as Dean, packing winds of up to 100 mph (160 kph), made landfall in Mexico for the second time.
"It's spectacular, it's very powerful," said hotel manager Felipe Torres near where the center of the storm hit land.
One man was killed during Dean's two-day rampage in Mexico when howling winds -- at one stage the hurricane was at the fiercest Category 5 level -- blew down a wall on top of him in his house in Puebla state, authorities said.
Another died in Veracruz state when he touched a power cable as he was on the roof of his house trying to carry out repairs during the storm.
Haiti on Wednesday also increased its death toll to nine, taking the total number of killed in Haiti, Jamaica, Mexico and other parts of the Caribbean region to 19.
It finally weakened to a tropical depression on Wednesday afternoon and was not expected to threaten the U.S. coastline.
Dean lost strength soon after landing near Poza Rica but its rains fell in Mexico City more than 125 miles away. The U.S. National Hurricane Center said it would fizzle out overnight.
"Dean is expected to dissipate over the mountains of central Mexico tonight or early Thursday," it said.
But the state government of Veracruz warned of heavy rains, which often cause mudslides in poor mountain villages after hurricanes pass.
"It's raining and it's going to keep raining intensely in the coming days," said Gov. Fidel Herrera.

Dean pounded Mayan villages and beach resorts in a run across the Yucatan Peninsula on Tuesday and then passed through the Campeche Sound where the vast majority of Mexico's crude for export to the United States is produced.
OIL PRODUCTION
Mexico's state oil monopoly, Pemex, said oil production, 80 percent of which was cut due to the storm, would begin to return to normal on Friday.
Dean was the first hurricane in the Atlantic basin to strike land as a Category 5 since Hurricane Andrew in 1992.
The storm surge left large parts of the Ciudad del Carmen oil port underwater. There was flooding throughout Veracruz state, including Poza Rica, which is home to oil storage facilities and energy pipelines, although it is not a major producing area.
Rains also battered the old city of Veracruz, a major Gulf port with a tropical feel and often compared to Cuba's Havana.
"There has been panic buying of food in supermarkets," said Gabriela Navarrete, 35, who runs a bar in the city, near where Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortes landed in Mexico in 1519 on his way to conquer the Aztec empire.
Dean hammered Mexico's Caribbean resort of Tulum and swallowed sand from the famous beach at Cancun on Tuesday. A cruise pier in the up-start resort of Majahual was badly damaged and could be out of use for months.
But the majestic coral reefs on Mexico's Caribbean island of Cozumel, considered one of the world's top diving spots, appeared to have been unscathed by the storm.
Mexico is one of the top three suppliers of U.S. crude imports and Pemex evacuated more than 18,000 oil workers, shut down 2.65 million barrels a day of production -- slightly more than Venezuela's total output -- and closed ports as Dean approached.
Insured losses from the hurricane were likely to reach up to $400 million in Mexico, said AIR Worldwide Corp, risk modeling consultants.
The government did not expect Dean to cause substantial damage or hurt production of coffee and sugar crops in Veracruz state, an Agriculture Ministry spokesman said.
(Additional reporting by Tomas Sarmiento in Veracruz, Adriana Barrera, Chris Aspin, Anahi Rama and Noel Randewich in Mexico City)

Tropical Depression DEAN Public Advisory

000
WTNT34 KNHC 230221
TCPAT4
BULLETIN
TROPICAL DEPRESSION DEAN ADVISORY NUMBER 40
NWS TPC/NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL AL042007
1000 PM CDT WED AUG 22 2007

...DEAN WEAKENING OVER THE HIGH MOUNTAINS OF MEXICO...

AT 1000 PM CDT...0300Z...THE CENTER OF TROPICAL DEPRESSION DEAN WAS
LOCATED NEAR LATITUDE 20.5 NORTH...LONGITUDE 100.0 WEST OR ABOUT
95 MILES...150 KM...NORTHWEST OF MEXICO CITY.

THE DEPRESSION IS MOVING TOWARD THE WEST NEAR 21 MPH AND THIS
GENERAL MOTION ACROSS MEXICO IS EXPECEDT TO CONTINUE UNTIL
DISSIPATION.

MAXIMUM SUSTAINED WINDS ARE NEAR 35 MPH...55 KM/HR...WITH HIGHER
GUSTS. DEAN IS FORECAST TO DISSIPATE ON THURSDAY.

ESTIMATED MINIMUM CENTRAL PRESSURE IS 1000 MB...29.53 INCHES.

DEAN IS EXPECTED TO PRODUCE STORM TOTAL RAINFALL OF 5 TO 10 INCHES
OVER PARTS OF SOUTHERN AND CENTRAL MEXICO...WITH MAXIMUM AMOUNTS OF
UP TO 20 INCHES. THESE RAINS COULD CAUSE LIFE-THREATENING FLASH
FLOODS AND MUDSLIDES.

REPEATING THE 1000 PM CDT POSITION...20.5 N...100.0 W. MOVEMENT
TOWARD...WEST NEAR 21 MPH. MAXIMUM SUSTAINED WINDS...35 MPH.
MINIMUM CENTRAL PRESSURE...1000 MB.

THIS IS THE LAST PUBLIC ADVISORY ISSUED BY THE NATIONAL HURRICANE
CENTER ON THIS SYSTEM.

$$
FORECASTER AVILA

Those poor people! I hope relief finds them fast. Our tour guide told us they relied heavily on tourism there.