News DetailFlash flooding, gusts to hurricane force experienced on the SE Baja Pen.
Posted At: September 2, 2006 @ 11:43 AM
Posted By: Reed Timmer
Related Categories: Hurricanes
Joel and I decided to ask around the hotel to see if we could find anyone to drive us east to intercept the Hurricane. Our friend Gabriel, who drives an explorer with massive tires, and who is very experienced off-roader, offered to chase the hurricane with us. We were told we needed a truck, because the roads east of San Jose along the coast are dirt/rock, and pass right along the edge of huge cliffs. We drove through several flash floods at a very high rate of speed, and were able to make it about 50 miles west of here before running low on gas. Also, the road curved inland to the northwest into the mountains away from the coast, so we travelled as far east as possible.
The conditions gradually deteriorated on our trip east, and we documented the peak of the storm from the beach at our furthest east point. Winds were gusting to hurricane force, and waves were massive. However, this was MUCH less than we thought we would experience from this hurricane. On the way back, near sunset, we encountered a large flash flood with muddy water racing across the road...We then were pulled through by a large bulldozer who was offering to pull vehicles across for a price. Our other option was to spend the night in Gabriel's truck, and potentially be stuck there for a few days. The rain was falling in the mountains to the north, so the mud flow was only getting larger.
We made it through the flood safely, and fortunately realized the little or no damage at our "home base" in Cabo San Lucas. Further east along the eastern tip of the Baja, however, the threat of flash floods/mud slides will continue for the next several days. As of now, the airport at San Jose is close, but it is expected to reopen later today, so that we will be able to arrive back in OKC Sunday night.
Many thanks to Gabriel, because without him, we would have come all this way for nothing. Because of Gabriel, we were able to at least experience some gusts to hurricane force and a mudslide. Displayed below are some still pictures from our trip, and beautiful from our friend and photographer Diego Guzman (local of Cabo) of waves crashing into a reef.
Shown below is a picture courtesy of photographer Diego Guzman, from a beach near Cabo San Lucas, which escaped the brunt of the storm:
**Also, congratulations to Chris and Jamie, who just got engaged the night before the hurricane!
The conditions gradually deteriorated on our trip east, and we documented the peak of the storm from the beach at our furthest east point. Winds were gusting to hurricane force, and waves were massive. However, this was MUCH less than we thought we would experience from this hurricane. On the way back, near sunset, we encountered a large flash flood with muddy water racing across the road...We then were pulled through by a large bulldozer who was offering to pull vehicles across for a price. Our other option was to spend the night in Gabriel's truck, and potentially be stuck there for a few days. The rain was falling in the mountains to the north, so the mud flow was only getting larger.
We made it through the flood safely, and fortunately realized the little or no damage at our "home base" in Cabo San Lucas. Further east along the eastern tip of the Baja, however, the threat of flash floods/mud slides will continue for the next several days. As of now, the airport at San Jose is close, but it is expected to reopen later today, so that we will be able to arrive back in OKC Sunday night.
Many thanks to Gabriel, because without him, we would have come all this way for nothing. Because of Gabriel, we were able to at least experience some gusts to hurricane force and a mudslide. Displayed below are some still pictures from our trip, and beautiful from our friend and photographer Diego Guzman (local of Cabo) of waves crashing into a reef.
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**Also, congratulations to Chris and Jamie, who just got engaged the night before the hurricane!
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Glad you guys made it thru ok. Awesome pictures. Well documented!
on a technical sidenote. I noticed tornadovideos.net intermittently down last 24 hours with the page only showing coldfusion "code" on a white background. This seemed to happen when the page was being updated. Let Jason know if he's not aware of this.
Also, for a time yesterday there was an error in posting comments. An error would generate saying illegal characters in the "comments field" when there wasn't anything but text in the comments field. Probably another bug to be worked out. Just FYI.
Either way... glad you guys got some cool footage!!!
Guys i like your video a lot, u guys did it pretty good.
Sorry that u could'int catch the storm. Suerte for next time. Welcome to come back.
Too bad you couldn't catch the eye of the storm as it looked like you would... it was going straight at you yesterday until it started to veer, although you got an adventurous trip out of it, congratulations again for the good work.
Have a safe trip back home.
Cheers.-
I like your website! I'm argentinian and I work in the AV company at Sheraton Hacienda del Mar. Unfortunatly for you the hurricane didn't hit Cabo, but unfortunatly for us (smile) maybe the nex months we will see you here again trying to document a new hurricane. Suerte!!!
Hey Paul, Diego, and Martin,
Thanks for everything...Even though we didn't get to get inside the eye...it's very good for your guys that it didn't hit here directly...so it's a win win situation. I'll definitely be back here as soon as the next hurricane approaches. You guys need to come to OK and do some stormchasing stat.
Diego,
Thanks for the picture!
If you ever take any more interesting weather-related pictures...please send them to me!
Good to meet you
Reed
I have not seem the video of Hurrican John, wanna know what´s the way to watch it, I was there with Paul and Gabriel. You guys are great chasing those, congratulations!
Hey!
Thanks for all you help down there!
The video is now under the "Chase Logs" link, which can be found on the menu along the top of the site. Here is the URL:
http://tornadovideos.net/index.cfm/do/logs.ChaseDetails/chaseid/64DFCCB3-3048-293E-9A1C481FAB352E98
Just scroll to near the bottom and you'll find the clip. I should be heading to Bermuda right now for Florence!
Take care and keep in touch,
Reed