IL Postcard

Only the Surfers are Happy: Freak Waves Do Some Damage in Mexico

Date: 06/14/2006

Dear Mexico First Alert Reader,

Here where I live in San Miguel de Allende, it's been life as normal the past few days. I say that least you worry that our piece of paradise has been affected by the storm surges you have, no doubt, seen reported on CNN and other television news networks.

San Miguel, you'll remember, is in the middle of Mexico, about eight hours from either the Atlantic or Pacific Coasts. The Pacific is where all the action was, and although San Miguel wasn't affected, some areas of Mexico were.

It seems that a particularly intense low-pressure system several hundred miles off New Zealand caused hurricane-force winds and rare snowfall at sea level. Masses of water were shoved eastward, creating unusually big waves when the swells hit the Americas.

The barrage began on Sunday as swells of up to 4.5 meters (15 feet) rolled some 3,200 kilometers (2,000 miles) across the South Pacific, across Ecuador's Galapagos Islands and up the coast of the Americas from Chile, Peru and Ecuador to Central America, Mexico and Southern California. By Tuesday, the worst was over and the swells subsided.

The affects of the storm in Mexico…

In the popular resort town of Acapulco, high waves shut down beaches, and knee-high water engulfed four kilometers (two miles) of the city's famous Costera Miguel Aleman Boulevard, which runs along the coastline. Beachfront restaurants and nightclubs were flooded. In neighboring Oaxaca state, waves flooded seaside restaurants and hotels along Zicatela Beach, a surfing hotspot in Puerto Escondido. Some 85 businesses were closed and 200 people were evacuated.

Please understand that this was not a tsunami and there have been no reports, thankfully, of any deaths or injuries…anywhere in the Americas.

As a point of reference, tsunamis are caused by seismic shifts along the ocean floor and storm surges tend to be much larger and fast-moving. According to meteorologists, these waves were simply the long-distance consequences of a particularly intense storm.

I am told that surfers are now out in full force at Zicatela Beach…they view this as bonus time, I guess, as the waves are still a bit larger than normal…but for all intents and purposes, the storm did little damage here outside those areas I mentioned.

Here is the report we've received about how this freak storm affected other areas of Pacific Coast of the Americas:

• Chile: High surf hit as far south as Antofagasta, Chile, some 870 miles north of the capital, Santiago.
• Peru: In a shantytown in Lima's port of Callao 15 homes were damaged about 100 were damaged in the northern coast city of Trujillo, 300 miles northwest of the capital.
• Nicaragua: In Puerto Cinto, in northwestern Nicaragua about 40 miles from the border with Honduras, 200 people were forced to evacuate their homes after 15-foot waves surged 100 yards up onto land. Reports are that about 20 small houses in Puerto Corinto were knocked down.
• Honduras: Giant swells damaged at least 300 houses along the Gulf of Fonseca.
• El Salvador: At least 30 people fled as waves damaged some 20 corrugated-metal homes in Playa El Mahajual, about 15 miles west of San Salvador.
• Guatemala: Waves destroyed the evacuated, 10-room Rancho Carrillo hotel frequented by surfers, a few restaurants and about 50 homes in Sipacate, 100 kilometers (60 miles) south of Guatemala City.
• Mexico: In Acapulco, high waves shut down beaches, and knee-high water engulfed four kilometers (two miles) of the city's famous Costera Miguel Aleman Boulevard, which runs along the coastline. Beachfront restaurants and nightclubs were flooded. In neighboring Oaxaca state, waves flooded seaside restaurants and hotels along Zicatela Beach, a surfing hotspot in Puerto Escondido. some 85 businesses were closed and 200 people were evacuated.
• California: The National Weather Service posted high surf advisories from north of Los Angeles to San Diego, and crowds watched in awe as 10-foot surf pounded Southern California's beaches Tuesday.

We send our best wishes for a speedy recovery to all who were negatively impacted by this storm.

Best Regards,

Marzena Romanowicz
International Living / Mexico

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