San Juan Cosala, One Day after the Waterspout: Digging Out, Drying Out

Kelly and I walked to the plaza in San Juan Cosala a couple of hours ago, to see how things were looking since the waterspout dumped huge amounts of water on the hills above the town, before dawn yesterday. He has gone on to the Raquet Club to take pictures there... many of the photos on this blog, and all from yesterday, were taken by him.

We noticed that everything is drying out in the warm sunshine. Yesterday I splashed around in mud over the tops of my walking shoes; today, my plastic sandals are barely dirty.

The carretera has a few private cars but mostly dump trucks full of mud, heavy equipment, and emergency personnel. No buses are running. It's not officially opened yet, and I have heard conflicting stories about whether it is even physically passable by the entrance to the Raquet Club. Letitia had come over from Ajijic very early this morning to work at AMSIF, the women's organization that she is very active in, located in the Cultural Center in Ajijic. Maybe she got through before the heavy equipment started up, as someone from here who tried to go TO Ajijic later in the morning said that he couldn't even turn around to go back home for half an hour because of all the mud and heavy equipment at the main entrance to the Raquet Club.

The Raquet Club, an older development of dozens of home owned mostly by foreigners but also by Mexicans, goes up into the hills very high (spectacular views of the lake) on the eastern side of San Juan Cosala. We've heard that many of the houses there were damaged, and friends from there whom we just saw at the plaza in San Juan Cosala confirmed that quite a few were. One figure I heard (note this is not fact, just someone's guesstimate) is that maybe half the houses sustained some damage, including exterior free-standing walls.

We did hear from people who live there that they were told it would be a week or two roughly until the streets are restored, and nobody seems to know how long till electricity or water come back. If you have been trying to phone someone in the Raquet Club and they only have phones which require electricity, you may not reach them even if they are there and fine.

The plaza is the control center for all the help that has been amassed. There are boxes by the city hall, and numerous canopied tables with labels as to what they are. Lots of workers. I didn't see many people there who needed help, but I was told that the church housed about 150 people in a building by its side and that a school had housed 120. Plus there were two shelters in Jocotepec last night, where people from here were taken.

People who should know told me just now that no deaths have been confirmed, but there have been various injuries.

On my walk home, a 12-year-old girl I know begged me to teach her English, I bought dry cat food in a grocery store, said hi to various people I know by sight, and got a royal welcome from our 8-month-old Rottweiler who's still uncertain whenever we leave her. Life is getting back to normal.

Kelly or I will add photos and any more news later today.