Effects of Hurricane Kenna on Puerto Vallarta

Since the restaurant is on the rooftop we could see the whitecaps on Banderas Bay coming a little closer to the seawall each new wave until the violent waves started jumping the seawall. My car was parked next to the hotel opposite the beach under my balcony.

Hurricane Kenna 2002 Surf Scenes

When the waves started jumping the seawall the street I was parked on became awash. I rushed down to move the car and walked on the curb because there was 10 to 12 inches of water in the street. I entered the passenger side from the curb. The car started OK but in the rush I didn't get it in gear the first time. About that time a huge wave jumped the seawall and crashed on the drivers side of the car, with the shear force of forcing the car into the curb. I felt the car start to float but evidently the front was heavy enough so I was able to get traction and pull forward about 50 meters where an incline up into the underneath side of the hotel was. After I got out of the water on the incline I got out and looked around and my comrades at the restaurant railing told me not to stop but go to the top of the hill. Hotel personnel were watching since this was a private road up to the housekeeping and refrigeration equipment for the hotel. They let me pull inside.

When I returned to my room I walked out to my balcony and visited with some of the others who were on their balconies also and they said just as I moved the car a cast iron bench got caught by a wave and slammed into the door I went through to rescue the car. I looked down and the door frame and all were knocked out of the opening and the bench was resting where my car was parked. Our electricity went off and the hotel generator just supplied emergency lighting and elevator service.

My neighbor I was visiting with when we got the evacuation order.

The hotel called for an evacuation of the beach front building I was in and asked for us to report to the desk. I didn't rush and went back up to the restaurant railing to observe the chaos. We were getting very little rain and the wind was just moderate, nothing like you would expect in a hurricane. After about an hour the hotel sent a search party asking all the spectators what their room numbers were and presenting those who were in the beach front building a note requesting our presence at the front desk. I was assigned a suite on the same floor as the restaurant and the hotel staff did all the moving. My new room had a huge bedroom, huge living room, dining and kitchen and seating for thousands. I was flabbergasted.

The reason for the move was that it wasn't thought that power could be restored in the beach front building for several days where as the high rise should be restored in a few hours. After all of this excitement I felt my pillow calling even though was hot and humid without air conditioning. When the power was restored the ISP pvnet did not answer.

The parts of Puerto Vallarta hit hardest by the storm surge was the Old Town and the area around the Sheraton Buganvilias. The next morning, Saturday the skies cleared and things were beginning to dry out. The street next to the beach where I was parked before was full of debris and what was once cobblestone was not sand. I wanted to move my car from underneath the hotel to the street the main entrance is on but I would have to remove enough debris to clear a path. When I finished clearing a path about 100 meters long to the closest street corner I saw a couple of guys boarding up an Internet cafe. I asked them how bad it hit them and they said there business was a total loss but they had been downtown when it hit and a flash flood submerged their SUVs and totaled them.

I didn't know how well my front wheel drive car would do in the soft sand that covered the street but did quite well until I got to the corner to turn. Someone said a person had gotten stuck there. I was person number two but I saw a guy I met from San Francisco called Frank and I looked around and there where 5 guys pushing me until the sand turned back into cobblestone. I found parking on the street right by the main entrance.

Later in the morning I ventured back over to the ISP taking back roads and the tunnels across town since the water was still deep in Old Town. I found the ISP crew with buckets and squeegees trying to mop up the mud and moving their soaked furniture and computers out to the street. I pitched in to help. Water was about 4 foot deep inside the office and the only equipment salvageable was the rack mounted equipment above the water line. The power supplies for the telephone lines was fried also since it had been under the saltwater and mud.

I worked with them until about 2 PM about the time my pillow started calling me so I called it a day.

The next day,Sunday, the ISP still didn't have their dial-up equipment on line so I went back and found them still cleaning and the owner was just beginning to rewire the rack mounts and the telephone company had delivered some temporary batteries to power the phone lines. I cleaned the windows and made them shine.

Thank Goodness that the rack mounted equipment was above the waterline on the wall!

After leaving pvnet on Sunday I wanted to walk through the same malls I had visited Thursday since the hotel travel agent said he lived in a unit above the mall and the mall was devastated.

On Thursday I walked through several of the malls of shops near the ISP killing time and I had met a nice lady who had a restaurant in the hallway of the Genovese. I told her that I had heard a hurricane was coming but like many in Puerto Vallarta they didn't believe it would hit since so many had turned away. I was looking for the ISP then and she looked it up in the telephone directory and gave me a cup of wonderful coffee.

Her hopes and dreams for a successful restaurant....are on hold until...they can find some money.

A part of Puerto Vallarta heavily damaged was the area north of the Sheridan hotel, and behind and including the Genovese shopping area. The makeshift sea wall was breached and the force of the surge raced inland for 1/2 mile as evidenced by the final resting place of the jetskis.

The full force of the Mexican government, federal, state and local took part in the cleanup. Puerto Vallarta is just a destination that is tourist driven. Hurricane Kenna was just a hiccup in the life of a great destination.

When the storm surge breached the seawall it was instant flooding.

Federal Police inspecting the damaged seawall and truck caught in the wash.

At 4 AM Monday morning Pvnet dial-ups came alive once again.

A Walking Tour of the Malecon

Puerto Vallarta isn't a sleepy beach resort town anymore. It is a thriving city of commerce devoted to tourism. The cast of workers comprise of hundreds of thousands of honest, hardworking citizens. If you want a parking place you have to come early and park on the back streets.

I took the walking tour of the Malecom or the beachfront of Old Town. Traffic from the north generally routes by the front of the Malecom before crossing over the Cuale River. Since the storm surge of Hurricane Kenna came over the sea wall at the Malecom, an important traffic artery has been temporarily closed until the Army finishes cleaning up the debris. Today, the international media was present.

The Rosita Hotel was hit hard as well as the other properties within a couple blocks north of the Malecon but miraculously, the McDonalds is open for business. Cars still litter Mexico Avenue.

What effect has the storm had on Puerto Vallarta? Not very much in the long term. This storm brought out the best in the Mexican community when the Police, Army, Navy federal, state and city governments mobilized to cleanup. Hurricanes are not the norm here. Within a matter of days the cobblestone streets were cleared and all the favorite sights are still here.

Puerto Vallarta has Internet cafes all over and if you want to bring a laptop, Pvnet is available so you can keep up with your friends around the world online from your hotel room.

Want to do a cruise to Los Arcos or take a cruise on a sailing ship, or perhaps a safari on ATVs?

I've heard that Puerto Vallarta has a nightlife in the La Roja district. My next report will investigate that rumor.

Does Puerto Vallarta have a Red Light District?