The Storm After The Calm - July 17th

Wednesday afternoon, Desirae, Judy and I had plans to walk up the beach towards Punta Mala.  We met about 3 pm by the Shake Bar and headed out.  It was clouded - rain threatening, but most afternoons look like this these days.  No problem, off we went with the Oscarina and Billy leading the way.  We were a little bit past the half way point when the rain began.  At first it was light so we just crowded under trees hoping it would stop.  Bottom line - it did not stop and it was a very wet walk back. Billy, who is a schnauzer looked like a drowned rat and was way beyond pissed.  Oscarine just put her head down and marched on.  All 3 of us girls just sucked it up and walked quickly back to town.

When we finally got to paved road, Des headed up the hill and Judy and I walked to Brett's.  About half way, the rain was getting much heavier but it was the lightening that made us anxious!  Within a minute or two of walking into Soda Mary's, the rain began to pour.  Within another 5 minutes of standing there talking to Brett and his new guests - John and his 18 year old son also John from Houston, the water began to pour into the kitchen and surrounding bedrooms, etc....Judy and I just stood there in ankle deep water as the whole place was being flooded and there was nothing that could be done.

This went on for about 40 minutes.  As soon as the rain died down, we got in the truck and headed out - hoping to get up to Anna's house to see if there was damage.  Within a few minutes, fallen trees made it impossible to get up the hill.  As I was outside the truck in the now more rain, trying to help her turn around since the truck had no back up lights, Adam came up behind us and helped find a space wide enough we could maneuver the truck around.  As we were leaving he told us to check out Vago's.......

I have lived in EO for almost 7 years.  I have never in my life seen a storm like this.  Trees down, debris everywhere, but Vago's.....the whole place looked like a bomb had gone off!  The huge tree that used to be on the corner came down and took the main roof with it.  Electrical lines, support beams, all of it in a huge pile.  When we got there Steve and his son Steven Jr. were there.  There was nothing that could be done but just put the hands up.

The next morning, Judy and I again tried to get up the street to Anna's.  In the middle of the street was half a surf board set up indicating the street was closed.  So.....we went back thru town, out on the highway, came back in on the main road where the trees were apparently down.  I told her to park the truck by the guard station to Anna's development and suggested we walk the road back into town and see what had happened.   The first thing we saw was the house for sale that used to be office for the development.  A tree had hit it but despite how much debris there was, apparently there was little damage to the inside.  After checking that out - we continued the trek.  As it turned out, there were 3 places trees had fallen across the road. Attempts to start cutting the branches had been started but there was still a long ways to go.  It did not get cleared that day but by the following afternoon, the road was open again.

Fortunately no one that I know of was hurt in this storm.  All over town, branches were strewn everywhere, but nothing significant other than Vago's which was a  major disaster area.  

Considering we are now into a very early rainy season with a lot of rain already, everyone is hoping this was the worse, but we still have Sept and Oct which typically get the most rain of the year......we shall see :)

Pura Vida