After enduring numerous near misses from being directly hit by tropical storms this summer, the Los Cabos Area was not nearly as fortunate with Hurricane Odile, which made a direct hit on Cabos San Lucas and San Jose del Cabo on Sunday, September 14. After developing slowly off of mainland Mexico, this system quickly changed course from a westerly motion and veered back towards the Southern Baja Peninsula while rapidly gaining strength at the same time, reaching category four strength, with the eye of the storm striking Sunday night. Packing sustained winds of 140 miles per hour, with tornado like gusts closer to 180 mph. Twelve to fifteen inches of rainfall in a matter of hours, though it was the twister like winds and huge storm swells that caused much of the damage.


This is said to be a once in fifty year storm and the wide spread property damage witnessed has been devastating, unprecedented for Southern Baja, this entire area has been shut down, without any utility services and people are just in survival mode. We have been without outside communication and have not posted any reports because of this. Some areas have reported now have limited water services, only certain areas have had their electricity restored, mainly in the downtown San Jose del Cabo, still no telephone, cellular or Internet.


Help has arrived from all local agencies and mainland resources and clean up has begun, we do expect to have utilities back up and running within another two weeks, some areas sooner than others. Many tourists resorts have been completely devastated, the International Airport has been shut down to foreign flights. Though we are seeing impressive progress and people are really exerting exceptional effort to start the rebuilding process as quickly as possible.


Businesses are expecting to reopen quickly, as services are restored, though no specific dates has been set yet. Local Sportfishing operations do expect to open within a couple of weeks. The La Playita Panga Area in Puerto Los Cabos Marina suffered overwhelming damage and will need to be completely rebuilt. In the mean time plans are in place for the fleet to work from a provisional temporary area during this rebuilding project.


Gasoline stations are now back in operation and lines are not much more than normally would be expected. Groceries are still very limited, without refrigeration, just basic supplies. We will be anxiously anticipating return of electricity, telephone and Internet, all things that we take for granted and when without, we are completely out of touch. Next report will be as soon as possible. As we try to normalize our daily lives, this natural disaster will take years to recover from. We will keep you posted on our reopening date...Eric Brictson, Gordo Banks Pangas