Lightening may not strike twice, but hurricanes do.
Eighteen Hoopeston residents will be experiencing the aftermath of the downgraded Hurricane Beryl for the second time in less than a week. The vacationers found themselves trading sunny skies for crashing winds and flooded roads as Beryl passed by the Yucatán Peninsula on July 4.
“We all hang out and have a great time together,” said Megan Rieches, a member of the group. “We were not going to let any talk of a hurricane ruin our fun.”
Rieches, her husband Cory, and several of their friends were vacationing at Secrets Playa Blanca Costa Mujeres in Cancun over the Fourth of July holiday. As the group walked to the resort’s pool area to take photos on July 4, they noticed staff members “taking down anything that wasn’t secure all around the resort,” Megan said.
By lunchtime, Rieches said the group began to notice the wind picking up.
“It was welcomed because it had been so hot,” she said of the change in weather. “The breeze felt good; it was refreshing.” At that time, she said, no one was concerned, that was until the wind grew more intense.
“Somehow, Cory and I ended up on the other side of the resort away from our friends,” she said. “This wasn’t a big deal until the weather started picking up. You see, being with 18 people that you know gives you a sense of relief because you’re not in a foreign country all by yourself.”
The Rieches decided to walk across the resort to be near the rest of their group.
“The workers were busy taking off the cushions to all the lounging chairs,” Megan said. “At this point, the wind had not picked up much more than at lunchtime so we were all swimming in each other’s swim-outs.
“My friend Bre and I did a fake interview ‘Here from Coco Café reporting on Hurricane Beryl,’ laughing at ourselves for being on hurricane watch.”
By 4:30 p.m. on July 4, the group began to see the first dark clouds roll in.
“We couldn’t see a lot because the resort buildings were all around us,” Megan said. “We are Midwesterners; we stand on our front porch when a storm comes in at home, so what would you expect 18 grown adults to do other than walk to the beach to check it out?
“As we were walking the wind really picked up. It got chilly, not because we were wet from the pool, but because the sun was hiding behind the clouds. It’s the craziest feeling. I guess you could say it was an adrenaline rush because the weather had really picked up, but we were all excited to see what was coming.”
As the group approached the beach, they began to feel the sting of the sand pelting their skin from the velocity of the wind.
“I wrapped my towel around me a little tighter and walked further out,” Megan said. “You could see the angry waves up and down the coast. Palm trees were blowing over, and the straw on the beach huts was blowing frantically in the wind.
“We only stayed for a couple of minutes because we realized we needed to get back to our rooms. It was getting bad outside. We were all getting sandblasted by the sand as we were running up to the resort.”
As they made their way across the resort, staff members were yelling at guests to get back to their rooms.
“Cory and I have ditched our flip-flops at this point. We are sprinting back to our rooms,” she said. “We saw our villa and I was relieved to get inside. I could feel the sand through my hair and the grittiness in my teeth. I stood at the extra-large sliding glass door of our room and just watched the wind push the palm trees around. Employees of the resort were running and at this point, they were not helping the resort, they were running to save themselves.
A short time later the wind became tolerable.
“Cory and I look at each other like, ‘What did we just witness,’” Megan said. “It was crazy. The weather was so angry. We were lucky we were not directly hit by the hurricane, but it felt close.”
With flights home booked for the next morning, the group was eager to get back to their families.
“It was raining again,” Megan said. “The winds were not friendly. I called the front desk and asked if they could bring me a raincoat because Cory and I had to walk across the resort. The lady on the other end of the phone tells me I don’t need a rain jacket. The government will not let us leave our rooms. Nobody’s leaving. Planes are grounded.”
Luckily for Rieches, and other members of the group, their travel agent and friend, Josh Miller, was traveling with them.
Miller was able to get the group out of the country, but not before several delays and varied gate changes.
Leaving the resort, the group began to see the devastation facing the area.
“There’s flooding everywhere. Our driver drove slowly to get through the long areas of flooding,” Megan said. “We finally made it to the airport and it was an absolute disaster. There were hundreds of people trying to get through security.
“We all had a huge sigh of relief when we landed safely in Chicago.”
They may have escaped Hurricane Beryl once, but the National Weather Service (NWS) anticipates the group will experience round two of Beryl later this week.
Beryl made landfall in Texas on Monday as a Category 1 Hurricane. It was downgraded to a Tropical Storm a short time later. According to the NWS, wind speeds associated with Beryl will continue to weaken as it moves farther from the Gulf of Mexico, however, the storm will continue to be a prolific heavy rain producer as it pushes northeastward. A hazardous weather outlook is in effect for the area, including Champaign and Vermilion Counties today, July 9, through Sunday, July 13.
Tuesday into Wednesday post-tropical depression Beryl will track through the region, bringing the potential for heavy rainfall of 1 to 4 inches and wind gusts over 35 mph, according to the NWS.
Rieches says this time she welcomes Beryl.
“I can’t wait,” she said. “Here in Illinois my garden desperately needs rain. Who can say they get to see Hurricane Beryl twice in one week?”