Hurricane Dean hits Veracruz state

Today is wet and wild as hurricane Dean slams into the East coast of Mexico up North around Tuxpan. The power has been out twice this morning (August 22), but only for brief periods. Last night I shut down my television, DVR, fax machine and computer and pulled the power cord from the wall because I was afraid of a power surge. I do have power strips that are supposed to trip if a surge hits my line, but recently I lost the motherboard in my desktop computer and that experience has made me more cautious. I suspect a power surge fried something but will never know, because repair shops do not troubleshoot to the component part. Replacing my motherboard cost about $200.

Last night around 11:00 the wind started to increase and just about the time I decided to stop reading and go to sleep I heard a loud explosion and simultaneously saw a bright flash in my bedroom window. Because there was no clap of thunder I ruled out lightening. looking out my window (I am on the fourth floor) at the houses behind my building I could not detect anything amiss. What could this be? The electricity seemed to be OK, because the houses behind me had lights. I finally decided it might have been a small propane tank that exploded, but I have no easy way of verifying what exploded. The tanks on most of the houses are so big that if one of those exploded it would surely level a house. No fire trucks or ambulances arrived so I still don't have an answer. It was hard to get to sleep and I spent a restless night listening to the howling wind and the driving rain pelting my window.

With daylight I was able to survey the houses behind my building and could not see any damages. I'll have to ask around to see if I can find out what exploded last night.

It is 12:54 now and the winds are at 39 MPH according to Accuweather.com. I occasionally hear crashing noises, but when I look out I cannot determine what is happening. I am checking around my windows for water entry and so far there is not a great deal of water seeping in. By 6:00 PM the forecast is for 69 MPH wind and I think seepage may start to be a problem then. I'll take some more video later. The avenue in front of my building is fairly full of water now.

As we approach 19:00 hours the winds are calm. The Accuweather forecast of 69 MPH did not materialize, so I think we should be in the clear.