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Kelowna  

Surviving hurricane Odile

"We were so sad. We got to leave, they all had to stay there." 

That captures the emotional moment when a Kelowna couple, who survived hurricane Odile which ravaged the Mexican baja on Sunday, left their Mexican bus driver.

Kyle Cave, a realtor in Kelowna and his fiancée April Weslak were in Mexico for a vacation. They flew in Saturday, the day before the hurricane hit.

They were staying in the Secrets Puerto Los Cabos resort near San Jose del Cabos on the Baja peninsula.

"We started to get warnings Saturday afternoon that the storm was coming. It wasn't until the afternoon on Sunday that we got a notice that we were not supposed to be in our rooms," said Cave. "We were told to put our luggage in the bathtub and head to the ballroom. That was supposed to be the hurricane shelter."

The resort had set up lounge chairs as beds in the shelter area. Cave and Weslak took a bag with some clothes and water and set up to stay the night. 

Meanwhile, Secrets Resort was bussing in guests from affiliated resorts which were deemed not structurally adequate to stand the force of the category 4 storm. A category 5 is the strongest hurricane known.

"I would say it was about 10 p.m. or 10:30 p.m. when we were laying there, and we heard stuff hitting the roof," he said. Odile was ripping the red clay tiles off the roof and smashing them back down.

"Suddenly we heard a huge bang, and the roof caved in where a stage was set up in the ballroom."

Cave said tiles in the suspended ceiling began to float up into the ceiling cavity and at that point he and Weslak shared a look. 

"Holy sh**, it's coming through the roof," he said.

They jumped up, grabbed their bag and left their shoes and hoodies behind on the chairs. Taking shelter under a doorway, they watched as the roof broke apart and the hurricane forced its way into the shelter area.

Amid panicking guests, they moved to a cafeteria downstairs. However, water soon began to seep into that area as well, and they again heard the storm battering the roof. 

"We booted it out of there and down a hallway and found a big industrial laundry room. It had concrete above, concrete walls, and that's where we camped out for the night."

Around 11 a.m. Monday morning they emerged and realized that the whole roof of the ballroom had collapsed. (See video below)

"We would have been dead if we stayed in there," he said. 

Out of 500 rooms in the resort, about 175 of them were habitable after the storm had passed. Their room was one of them. There was no power, no communication and no water. 

Luckily, their resort was one of the few that had backup generators. They had power for two hours in the morning and two hours in the evening. 

"The resort staff was unbelievable, they all stuck around. We had warm meals for breakfast, lunch and dinner. These people, they lost their homes, they didn't even know if their families had survived," said Weslak.

The airport was ripped apart. The Mexican government had taken over and flights were no longer coming in or going out. The driver of the WestJet bus that had originally dropped them off, came back to the resort. He had lost his house, when he left he promised to return and bring them back to the airport. 

"I gave him a golf shirt I had in my bag and we did whatever we could for him," Cave said. "Sure enough, he came back at 7 a.m. the next morning and picked up a group of 12 of us."

The resort was a mess, but as they drove away to the airport, they were witness to widespread devastation. There had been mudslides and massive flooding in many areas. The gusting 150 km/h winds had flipped cars, blown out windows in buildings and flattened homes.

"We were swerving in and out of traffic, power lines had toppled over, everything was blown out. Every single building was damaged," said Weslak. "People were looting. We heard Wal Mart and Costco had been completely looted out. We heard people were killing each other for supplies."

"Cabo was gone. Everything was destroyed."

"We got to the airport and it was like a refugee lineup. There was thousands of people there. It was all dirt, and rubble. There was nothing. Nothing left."

The couple grouped together with about a dozen Canadian and American tourists and planned to stay together, no matter what. 

After a few hours at the airport, the group was lined up on the tarmac, waiting for a military plane to take them to Guadalajara. People were passing out in the lineup from heat exposure. 

The group boarded the plane, they finally felt safe. The feeling did not last long. As the plane was about to land in Guadalara, it suddenly had to pull back up into the sky. 

"We looked back and one of the guys from the Mexican army was taking out floorboards in the aisle and jumping into the bottom of the plane," said Cave. Apparently the landing gear wasn't functioning properly and had to be manually lowered. The plane successfully landed on the second attempt.

Upon arrival, they booked a flight to Los Angeles for Wednesday night. Thursday afternoon they booked another flight and flew directly to Kelowna. 

Looking forward, Cave said the couple will return to Mexico. 

"We definitely probably aren't going to go during hurricane season. But, to be honest, we will go back. That's the best thing we can do, is go back to Cabo one day. It makes you want to go back and try to help them rebuild."

"It was emotional when they dropped us off. A woman came out of the van and we all gave her money and food we had, and she started bawling," said Weslak. "Everything was lost."

On the airplane the couple heard stories from other tourists heading home. When the storm hit, staff at many other resorts left to check on their own homes and families. 

"The tourists will be fine, once they get to the airport. It's those locals - I don't think anyone has an idea of how bad it is," said Cave. 

According to the Canadian Press, 5,000 tourists were flown out of the region by Wednesday afternoon. Officials estimated 30,000 travellers were stranded by the storm.

In the Los Cabos area, tens of thousands of residents faced a fourth day without water or power as authorities tried to restore services.

Did you escape the hurricane? Tell us your story. Send information, photos and video to [email protected].

 



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