Sunday, July 31, 2005

Hurricane Recap

Jill's folks got an email from her Uncle David, who lives in Playa del Carmen, Mexico, today. The entire family stayed home for the recent hurricane. Boy did they pick a doozy to stay home for! Usually Jill's aunt and the kids go to stay with her family in Merida, but their daughter wanted to experience a hurricane, so they all stayed home this time. Home is about two blocks from the beach, so there's not much to protect their home.

Playa was on the dangerous north side of Hurricane Emily and very close to the eye of the storm, so they were battered. Their house is all concrete, inside and out, and was designed to withstand 300 mph winds. Still, most if not all of their windows were broken out by the storm, even though they had put up plywood. The storm simply removed the plywood and shattered the glass. David described previous storms as sounding like a freight train running through the house. This one sounded like a freight train and a jet airplane combined. The youngest kids slept through most of the storm, PTL, but Jill's aunt has vowed to never stay for another hurricane again.

The storm has now passed, and all are well in their family. Most of the trees around their home were destroyed. Fortunately there was no storm surge with Emily, so flooding wasn't an issue.

BTW, the link at the top of the page is David's business. If you're looking for a great vacation spot in the Caribbean, check it out. He set us up in a condo right on the beach a few years ago when went down for a family reunion.