Ida has emerged over water again. She's a Tropical Depression now, expected to become a Tropical Storm again soon. She's expected to be on top of us on Sunday afternoon.
Ok time for a question from a person coming who has never lived through a storm like this. I am scheduled to come in on Wednesday and just want to have an idea of what kind of impact a storm like this (presumably 55mph winds) has on a place like Cancun. Is damage typically localized flooding, some downed trees etc. or more severe? Having grown up on the prairies of Western Canada I admit that tropical storms are something that I am not familiar with. Any commentary on the kinds of effects of Ida would be appreciated. Also, presuming my trip goes on as scheduled I always like to give something to the maids who keep the rooms up and any idea of something simple that I can bring down for them or their kids would be also greatly appreciated.
take an umbrella ... The forecast for Ida Ida will dump another 1 - 2 inches of rain over northeastern Honduras today. The Cayman Islands, Belize, and the rest of the Honduras coast can expect occasional heavy rains of 1 - 4 inches over the next two days as spiral bands from Ida bring squally weather. Much heavier rains of 4 - 8 inches are likely to affect Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula and Western Cuba beginning Saturday, as Ida heads north towards the Yucatan Channel. Higher rain amounts may occur if Ida intensifies more than forecast.
Canadian Dos Equis fan - A friend with a boat here just told me she's not taking it out of the water. This storm is likely not going to be a big deal. This storm will probably dump a lot of rain on us...but then we've already been getting a lot of rain lately. And it will bring some wind with it, but our buildings are all concrete here. By Wednesday you might see some evidence of beach erosion...and maybe some evidence of stuff having blown around a bit. But I don't think this storm is going to do much damage here. I think the worst it will do is to reverse the beach restoration effort that's underway. We are going to prepare for our street to flood, so we will take measures to keep water out of the house. But other than that we won't do much. We are not going to bring in all the flowerpots or the patio furniture the way we would if it was a strong hurricane. We aren't even going to buy tuna fish.
I agree with Kim, not taking my boat out or bringing my pots in, maybe we will close our patio umbrella :wink:
Could any of you locals give this midwesterner a little insight as to the weather in the days following a storm like this? I am supposed to be diving tues and wed and am wondering if that will be possible. I know that there are lots of variables..Thanks..
Well if you guys aren't buying tuna or bringing in the patio furniture then I feel better! Keep dry everyone!
Things can get back to normal weather wise pretty quickly once the last bands of the storm have passed, the sea surge will drop just as fast too. The ocean is going to be messed up for a few days after though and I expect the visibility wont be very good for a while. Wind speeds are now up to 70 mph, so it only needs to increase by another 4 mph and it will officially be a Cat 1 hurricane again. As for preparations, we havent really made any either yet. Might go and put a few of the garden things away if the rain ever stops.
Down here on the southside beach, we've buttoned up. All our cyclone shutters are deployed and locked, the cats are in and there's extra bottles of water and some additional ice. Then we had the bright idea of gassing the car and zipping into Walmart to stock up and while we're there, naturally, get some more cat food. I was getting antsy because I felt we were near to getting one of those soaking, incredibly drenching cloudburst that invariably flood the streets. One of the things that drives me nuts is when a cashier swipes each and every identical item, be it 12 bottles of Coke or some astronomical number of cat food cans. The register computers are programmed to take 1 swiped item and multiply it by whatever number entered. So while I listened to the increasing volume of rain assaulting the Walmart roof, the little woman behind the register swiped each and every frickin' can of cat food. By the time she was done, Noah had set sail. We waited for a slackening of the rain and bumped into a CancunCare regular, so time passed quickly, as quickly as the streets began to fill. We managed to navigate away from Walmart, but a couple of clicks later my BMW, recalling its German heritage, decided to make like a U-Boat. Okay, I'll confess, I drove it into Lago Majiorre de Cancun. No torpedos, no periscope, lousy boat. The water rolled over the hood and the engine packed up. Fortunately, for those of you who are mechanically inclined, BMW's have a vacuum break which will not let water into the engine. Since water, unlike gasoline vapor and air, will not compress, a cylinder of water will break the engine in fine fashion, leaving you with a 5 or 6 thousand dollar, really big paperweight. Relying on my incredible knowledge of a few things BMW, I calmed the wife, nodded to the son, and voiced the opinion that if we sat here for 15 minutes the residual heat of the engine would dry the coils and we would be able to start and inch our way out of the puddle. And so we did. Leaving behind my front licence plate and the bracket that holds it on. Amazingly, we got very little water inside even though the puddle was above the bottom of the door. Because the ambient air sensor got soaked, the car assumed it was -40 degrees and wouldn't make air-conditioning so for the first 15 km we did the towel on the window routine. The sensor dried out and voila, blessed cool, dry air. Naturally, I've got a bunch of computer errors that are lighting the Check Engine Soon lamp. I interrogated the computer (in the rain) and the codes are all about wet wires and coils. I'll clear them when I can stand next to the car and stay dry. The moral of the long, tiresome story: Keep more cat food in the house and don't drive a fancy car. While we were stewing in the fetid puddle, Tsuru after Tsuru sailed by. Goes to show ya.
