Last year, a hurricane called Emily was supposed to hit Merida but never did. This taught us something. Go and buy your provisions early or there won't be any. As of yesterday, the shelves were emptied of bread, tortillas, and powdered beans. And they won't be restocked before tonight when we are due to get hit. Looks like landfall on the peninsula is expected late tonight well south of Cancun on the east coast. We are closer to the west coast and well north of where it is due to hit. Also we are about 300km inland from Cancun. The beaches have been evacuated from Holbox Island close to Cancun all the way across the north part of the peninsula and down the Riveria Maya to Tulum and points south.
It's an odd feeling to have done what you feel you can, but to have no real control. For some reason, I felt it necessary to be sure all the laundry was done including the sheets on the beds and so have been taking care of that.
Eva made a delicious meatloaf yesterday that we enjoyed hot and know we can enjoy cold for a day or so. We have a supply of towels in order to keep any groundwater at bay, at least for awhile!! The back of our home is up about 8 inches off the ground, but the front is closer to the street level, so we worry about flooding through the front door. We have picked up electrical cords and unplugged unnecessary electronics (answering machine, toaster oven, etc.) that won't be working soon any way.
Marilla and my dear friend, Angela, have called to be sure we know what we are doing. Our best friend Marlene has sent YouTube videos of stoned spiders (see Stoned Spiders link on blog, but not in this message) and preppie rappers to entertain us. While we don't necessarily know what we are doing, we are praying that what we think makes sense is close enough to what we should have done to be sensible. Our cell phones won't work, we have heard, but our hard line telephone should so we will be back in contact as soon as we can.
NOON, still blue skies, more clouds than usual, but after a nice swim and some lunch, all seems well. The projections are that the eye of the storm is still far enough south of us that we should only feel wind and rain but not be too affected by Dean. Just in case, I took some plates off the walls and put away a few other things that seemed at risk and are valuable to us inside the house. We are watching Moulin Rouge (the show must go on) to bear up, but really are not too scared at the moment. Seeing that large orange and purple mass headed our way is not comforting, by any means, but apparently, we won't begin to feel this for almost another day.
10pm Monday -- more clouds and the winds have picked up, but still relatively calm and we are heading to bed, perchance to sleep. Still predicting landfall for the eye significantly south of us, near Mahahual and Belize and Chetumal and a path across to Campeche (which the Weather Channel announcers insist on pronouncing incorrectly as Campeechee). And Dean's a category 5 storm now which means winds of 160+++ yikes.
There is kind of an odd calm here in Merida. Little traffic or noise, but still electricity is on and there's only wind on and off. Although most of the albanile types did not leave their villages today to come to work, our Jose did come here for a half day to finish up putting away some pots and heavier things that were out front and outside and to give the kitchen a quick cleaning. He may or may not show up tomorrow, depending on what is actually happening here.
There is kind of an odd calm here in Merida. Little traffic or noise, but still electricity is on and there's only wind on and off. Although most of the albanile types did not leave their villages today to come to work, our Jose did come here for a half day to finish up putting away some pots and heavier things that were out front and outside and to give the kitchen a quick cleaning. He may or may not show up tomorrow, depending on what is actually happening here. 
There has been an orangey sky beginning around 7pm amidst the clouds, looking almost like the orangey color of the graphic above, but far less virulent and kinda pretty (see left photo taken from the roof terrace of our home). And music was playing loudly today from the PRI headquarters, the current political party that holds all the major political offices here in Yucatan, and is nearby our house. For decades, the PRI party controlled ALL of Mexico's politics until the PAN party broke through on a federal level with Vicente Fox and then Calderon (by a nose hair). The Yucatan had been one of the first states to elect local PAN officials from governors to mayors and on down, even before Fox was elected. Then this last election, the PRI got back in because of a spoiler candidate whose party did not nominate her, but who ran anyway as an independent thinking that because she'd been mayor of Merida, she'd have name recognition and popularity. Unfortunately, the folks here have a long enough memory to know that Ana Rosa had made promises she didn't keep (something the voting public here is rather sensitive about) and so didn't vote for her in droves enough to elect, but just enough to ruin the chances for the other PAN candidate (whom we called Dr. Phil because of his resemblance to the man). However, in the small world of stories category, the current governor of Yucatan, named Ivonne, has purchased the couch that I'd had made and could not use because it was not comfortable to sit on -- apparently, she didn't sit on it before buying it, because it was a beautiful piece of furniture to look at, just not to use for sitting!!
Am reading the novel, Mayflower, at the moment which surely puts an interesting perspective on all of this. As we whine about maybe losing our AC and power for several days, I read about those Pilgrims losing half their population and slogging through icy water up to their hips to get into a small boat to explore and hopefully not get killed by Indians along the way. Of course, they could wade into the bay in summer and just pick up lobsters, so it was not ALL bad!!
tuesday
2am A gentle rain has begun but not enough to disturb the frogs in our pond who continue to sing/court (shout??) loudly.8am Still raining gently, cloud cover of gray, but nothing untoward.
10am The winds have started up now. There’s almost NO traffic down the street so we’ve opened up the front and back and kitchen doors and windows to let the breezes flow right through the house. The bamboo is being pushed around pretty strongly but so far no rain and a sun behind all the grey clouds. The sun peeks in and out through the greyness and is radiant when it does come out. NOT a big deal ... this time. And we are very very greatful!!! The chocolate cake made the time go much faster as we waited, in vain. We worry about our neighbors to the south and worry even more about that next hunk of orange on the satellite -- what IS that???
1pm Hurricanes are funny things. Here this giant category 5 storm hits this peninsula with a bang south and east of us maybe 150 miles and we are actually enjoying one of the nicest days in a long time. The temperature has cooled to low 80s and there is quite a breeze, well maybe not breeze but more like wind, so we’ve opened our front and back doors, turned off the AC (yes, Eva has sanctioned this), and are reading in our giant purple chairs enjoying the day. We even have a dinner date tonight to go to the house of some friends!!
The big deal on our street however is that just recently, there
have been 5 police cars filled with two persons each in front of our house. They spotted a tree on the land across the street from us that was problematic. It had caused some damage in all this "hurricane wind" by hitting the wall in front of it and causing some of the wall to actually fall into the street. And so they took fast action. (A note about scale, that window is about a meter wide and about a meter off the sidewalk. The debris has fallen maybe as much as 6 feet into the street but it's concrete dust, no big deal even if someone drove right over it!!!) Within 10 minutes, a crew of 8 men arrived to take the offending tree branches down. The damage caused? see photo >>>>>>>>>>
And by 1:25, all police, tree folks, and tree are gone. They cut down the tree instead of dealing with each pesky branch that might be hitting the wall, left it in the yard, and apparently, now it’s the owner’s problem. Did they clean up the street from all this debris? No, but while they were cutting the tree and worrying about people who might drive or walk down calle 56, we had plenty of police protection.
The big deal on our street however is that just recently, there
have been 5 police cars filled with two persons each in front of our house. They spotted a tree on the land across the street from us that was problematic. It had caused some damage in all this "hurricane wind" by hitting the wall in front of it and causing some of the wall to actually fall into the street. And so they took fast action. (A note about scale, that window is about a meter wide and about a meter off the sidewalk. The debris has fallen maybe as much as 6 feet into the street but it's concrete dust, no big deal even if someone drove right over it!!!) Within 10 minutes, a crew of 8 men arrived to take the offending tree branches down. The damage caused? see photo >>>>>>>>>>And by 1:25, all police, tree folks, and tree are gone. They cut down the tree instead of dealing with each pesky branch that might be hitting the wall, left it in the yard, and apparently, now it’s the owner’s problem. Did they clean up the street from all this debris? No, but while they were cutting the tree and worrying about people who might drive or walk down calle 56, we had plenty of police protection.
Ah Mexico!! We hope that all our hurricanes this season are as easy and breezy (for us!!) as Dean has been, even while we are so sorry for those south of us who were hit hard. And we are so greatful to the media and mother nature for letting everyone know just where the Yucatan peninsula actually is!!
Update four days later -- more of the wall fell, having nothing whatsoever to do with the hurricane, but now we have yellow tape and cement blocks holding it up in the street. And boy do we have rain, every day a downpour, but nothing like the problems the Midwest is having at this very moment, so again, we feel blessed.
