HURRICANE DEAN IN VERACRUZ

We were at the receiving end of a great miracle last week. It was the second time in two years that we were spared from being hit by a hurricane.

The first, Hurricane Stan, was coming straight at us and in the last moment turned away and hit a few hours away from us.

This year it looked even more desperate. Hurricane Dean, which had already hit the Yucatan peninsula at the force of a #5, was heading straight for us. A day before it was to make its second landing after having been weakened by its first land fall different meteorologists predicted that there was no way it would change its targeted course. As a matter of fact its strength was estimated to clime severely after touching water on the Golf coast. Everyone expected it to land with unrelenting furry, and straight for our town of Veracruz!

We got together in desperate supplication wondering what we should do. Should we evacuate or wait it out?

Surprisingly most of us received an amazing amount of peace; we would wait it out! A few of our neighbors were not so sure and promptly boarded up their houses and left the city.

Our faith was tested a bit in the face of all the panic all around. We live right in an estuary where two rivers meet and enter the Atlantic ocean. There were rumored to be waves of between 3-8 meters, flooding was a real concern. The back of our garden touches a branch of the river, one of the three flowing through our neighborhood. Veracruz’s geological location makes it privy to strong northern winds reaching a speed of around 120 kph on a regular basis. Dean was predicted to double that power and bring with it an unprecedented amount of water, for which the city was not ready.

As we were preparing for the worst, readying the house as much as we could, “just in case”, Hana decided to walk in the yard and look at the river which was slowly raising in level. The sky was a dark angry gray with low rumbling clouds, to her amazement, she became aware of something else as well. Even though, at that point, there was no rain or rays of sunshine, there was a full rainbow arching across the sky. "I will never flood the world again" were the words that came to mind. We knew we had no need to worry or fret. It would all be ok!

And it was. The next morning we checked the intensity of the hurricane and found out, that the strength had diminished and amazingly even its path, in which it was proceeding had changed. It had moved so far north that we were 32 kms outside its 112 km wind reaching radius. We didn’t even feel a full fledged “Norte” wind that we had expected at least!

His Promises came to pass, there was no need to have worried.

Praise God!!