Hurricane Dean

Nature's Bowl Games -- hurricanes, major floods, earthquakes, tsunami -- fascinate us.  Every news station covers them almost endlessly because our eyeballs seem stuck on images of disaster and devastation.  I am no different, with hurricanes in particular.  I love the patterns their tracks draw across the oceans, and the satellite images of swirling winds digitally coloured for our delight.

I have been through two hurricanes -- one in Jamaica and another in Miami; and even for me, safe and warm and dry in protected accommodation, the affair was little short of terrifying.

Hurricane Dean has made itself of particular interest to me because of the path it is taking.  Some years ago, I spent months working near Montego Bay in Jamaica, and it was troubling to see the damage caused there by just the leading and trailing edges of Dean.  The hurricane then moved west, its long powerful arms battering the Cayman Islands, where we have visited twice and thoroughly enjoyed in the last couple of years.

Continuing west, the hurricane has made landfall on the Yucatan.  And from the maps available from NOAA and news media, it seems that landfall was made almost directly at Majahual, the tiny village where cruise ships dock for the Costa Maya.  We have been there twice, it becoming one of our favourite places.  This image was taken on one of these trips:

I fear this tiny place will be horribly damaged.  Of more concern are the small farming villages inland, again directly in the path of Hurricane Dean.  A couple of years ago, we took a 90-minute bus trip from Majahual to the ruins at Chacchoben. 

I am sure the stones of the old Maya will survive well enough.  I am less sanguine about the small farming villages we passed through on our way to and from the coast.  Most of these places are made up of small shacks without much in the way of foundation beyond a concrete slab.  I sure hope the people will be OK.