Hurricane Jimena hit on the 2nd of September, 2009.
I have never been acquainted with a hurricane in my life and I didn’t feel like having my first ¨getting to know¨ experience so I decided to head north for a little over week until the hurricane fizzled out. 
There was no damage to any of the homes of Laguna San Ignacio. However, there was considerable damage to the Northbound and Southbound roads due to the massive rains in the arroyos. The roads were literally wiped away in some sections, creating major problems. Since the majority of the locals are fishermen, they were not able to transport their fish to the local markets. Fishing ceased for about 20 days until the roads were fixed. Drinking water became a problem and the people of one of the some fishing towns became ill because of the poor conditions of the water (they import water from the city).
The
government did respond accordingly, working on the roads almost instantly. The problem….. they did not give enough money to finish the job. The town was able to raise over 10,000 pesos (under 1000 dollars), which was used to feed the workers and keep the tractors in motion. On top of that, the locals opened a route which took 3 times as long and was very brutal on even the toughest vehicles but it was an available option. They cleaned the temporary road by moving rocks and cutting trees back to make it passable.
The people here have really impressed me with the actions that they have taken. For example: writing an “OFICIO” to each community asking for money (they went door to door and raised 800 pesos in a matter of hours). Keep in mind that everyone already has economic issues.
On September 20th they finished one section of the road, which has created movement once again (with a slight detour). The next project will be to finish the second half of the road, but that will probably take months.
Submitted by Jordan Bailey, Baja Community Liaison
