Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Gone with the Wind


That is half the City's electricity, about 1/3 of homes water service and a lot of trees and panoramic ads, such as this one that fell almost into one of the main avenues.

Yesterday we had wind gusts of up to 120 km/hr (80 mi/hr) for around 15 hours. Aside of all the destruction (traffic lights, power cables, street signs, among others) a lot of dust was carried by the wind, leaving about a 10 meter visibility on the streets and making that day the most polluted in City's history. Its estimated that 450-500 imecas (pollution unit used in Mexico) were in the air, which is about double of a bad day at Mexico City, one of the most polluted cities in the world. The previous high in the City was about 270.

There are about a quarter of the 450,000 homes and offices left without electricity (nearly 1.5 million people originally affected), that haven't been reconnected leaving them 36 hours, and counting, in the dark.

Fortunately, most of the damage was material.

Will write a brighter post tomorrow...


El viento se llevó la mitad de la electricidad en la Ciudad, cerca de la tercera parte del servicio de agua aparte de árboles y anuncios, como éste que casi cae enmedio de una de las avenidas principales.

Ayer tuvimos rachas de viento de hasta 120 km/hr durante casi 15 horas. Aparte de la destrucción (semáforos, cables de corriente, señalamientos, etc) se levantó bastante polvo por el viento, dejando una visibilidad de 10 metros en las calles y haciendo de este el día más contaminado en la historia de la Ciudad. Se estiman 450-500 imecas (unidad para medir la contaminación en México) en el aire, lo que es aproximadamente el doble de un mal día en la Ciudad de México, una de las ciudades más contaminadas del mundo. El máximo anterior era de 270.

Aún hay una cuarta parte de los 450,000 hogares y oficinas sin electricidad (cerca de 1.5 millones originalmente afectados) dejándolos 36 horas, y contando, en la oscuridad.

Afortunadamente, la mayor parte de los daños fueron materiales.

Mañana les escribo de algo más positivo.

4 comments:

Chris said...

Hola, Rafa! I'm so sorry about the wind. It was pretty windy here yesterday, also, although we didn't have quite the damage that you did. Today we got a lot of rain. . .and I do mean a lot.

I hope all is well soon!

rc said...

Its getting better.

Still, there are some zones that still don't have electricity (55 hours and counting). These things make you appreciate how important it is, and most of the time we take it for granted.

Gerald (SK14) said...

lot of storms all over the world it seems - losing power is a big fear for us as it would affect our health.

Fénix - Bostonscapes said...

Rafa, sí esta imágen, cuando la cliqueo para agrandar se ve fantástica. Gracias! :)

Disculpa que no he visitado en todos estos días pero desde hace unas semanas que ya me queda muy poco tiempo para este hobby del photo blog. Y mayo viene peor... Saludos.