Hurricane Jimena devastates Baja Sur

Mulege Photo courtesy of Jack at Baja Bush Pilots

As most of you know world famous Cabo San Lucas was spared serious damage from Hurricane Jimena, but most don't realize that the mid-section of Baja California Sur was directly hit by the hurricane and in fact it slowed over this section bring more devastation.

Mulege Photo courtesy of Carlos Milon

I received the following email from Jack at Baja Bush Pilots (a membership club of plane owners who love fly to Baja). Please contact him if you can help and check back on his website for updates.

Hurricane Jimene - 9/4/2009 We need relief Items…. We have aircraft ready to go and we need more things to put in them. I am going down to Ciudad Constitucion in the morning to meet with the Red Cross coordinator to determine the needs and where the supplies are most needed. We will be over flying the entire mid-Baja area to determine these needs. I will be spending one or two nights there. We have people lining up donations but we have the ability to take more. Critical right now is clothing, shelter, meds, food, and someway to purify water. The water supply and electricity is out in Mulege, Santa Rosalea, Loreto, and other villages. Major power substation are blown up and it will take weeks to rebuild them. The people in Baja are in trouble and need help. We need all the donations we can get. Regarding aircraft, we are set to transport relief supplies. They include: Two Citation Jets Three PC 12 One MU-2 10 +- piston twins 15+- singles 3 R44 1 Ranger I am good right now with aircraft. What I need is drop-off locations where people can take their donations. If you have space, preferably at an airport, please email me asp with your contact information, where the location is, and how people can leave items. I will be posting a list of drop-off places as soon as I can, indicate “Drop-off” in your subject line. Send to jack@bajabushpilots.com

Mulege Photo courtesy of Casa Christie

Then I received another update from Baja Bush Pilots people that reads as follows:

Mid-Baja has suffered major damage. We are getting “real time” reports from different sources including people on the ground in the damage areas as well as the Mexican Red Cross. It is not good. The reports that we have indicate:

Matancitas (Lopez Mateos) Almost 90% of the structures are down or severely damaged. All water, power, telephone, etc. out
Ciudad Constitucion: Most roofs are gone; sever damage to 70% of the buildings. Power, water, telephones are out
Loreto: All power / telephone are down, lines are down, trees and buildings blocking the streets, airport is closed at this time.
Mulege: All power, telephone, water, etc. is out. The water crested three feet above the bridge. Water was two feet deep in the fire station which would mean that almost of the entire town was flooded. There has been reports of loss of life.
Punta Chivato: One person indicates that the wind was over 100 mph before the indicator broke. Damage to almost everything. We should hear about the condition of the strip sometime today
Santa Rosalia: Wall of water came down the canyon and through the town, washed cars, etc. into the ocean.

The Red Cross has been in contact with us today, they are still in the process of determining their needs however, they indicate that they will need our help. We will be putting out another alert for donations as well as where they are needed. I have taken the position that we will not be bringing things down unless there is a structured means of distributing them. With Hurricane John, I have to estimate that about half of the donations ended up with people that really did not need them.

As you can see this is very serious and the people of Baja are in great need. Unfortunately, the news media of the world pretty much forgot about it since it didn't damage Cabo or the capital of La Paz. If you can help, please do......