Monday

Yesterday I noted that a lightening storm had amassed moments before I'd gone to bed, and that it had rained here the entire time I was asleep. Throughout the day I ran across tell-tale signs of this having been more than your normal storm: outside plants were battered-looking (and were, indeed, under standing water), there was a large puddle in the dining room, and Sunshine was telling me over and over again that it was more than just your normal storm. The Monterrey papers report that yesterday's storm dumped about half the volume of water as last year's big hurricane (Emily), and that a whole lot of the river valley had flooded. It must have been more than a normal storm after all. Here are some pictures. This comes about week after Hurricane Lane broke up over southern Pacific México, flooding that area (here are those pictures). While the Atlantic and Gulf coasts of North America are having a fairly mild tropical storm season, México is suffering a western deluge complete with roads washed away, landslides,* and loss of housing and electricity. The US State Department has renewed their travel warning (of August 24th*) regarding the volatile state of Oaxaca. This just in time for violence to break out there yesterday after the first glimpse of embattled governor Ulises Ruiz in that city in three months. Protestors gathered in front of his luxury hotel in a demonstration that escalated into a daylight gunfight,* ending with one man shot, fleeing journalists, the Hotel Camino Real plundered, and Ruiz run out of town. He will be meeting with Vicente Fox soon to plead again for federal troop assistance, something the president has so far been reluctant to authorize. Fox, for his part, made several statements about resolving the issue today.* [Cavin]