Minatitlan - August,2007

Preparing for Hurricane Dean

Minatitlan is a city on the southernmost point of the Gulf of Mexico. There is a refinery near the town, which was the reason for our being there. I was part of the team that Universal Oil Products (UOP) - now a Honeywell company - sent to check out the newly installed equipment and supervise the startup.

We stayed at the Terranova Hotel on the banks of the River Coatzacoalcos. The opposite bank was thick jungle. This was in the state of Veracruz, near to the border of the state of Tabasco. It was on the territory of the ancient Olmec nation. There were many ancient Olmec monuments in neighbouring Tabasco. I would have normally planned to visit some of them, but dengue fever was endemic in that state, which made me very hesitant. Also, my visit was to be short - scheduled for only a week, and the weather was becoming a serious problem.

The refinery authorities advised us that the following day (August 21, 2007) Hurricane Dean was expected to roll over the area, and the eye of the storm could pass close to Minatitlan. They advised that we should take the next day's afternoon off, and return to work when the weather had calmed down.

The next morning, the UOP team - about eight of us - gathered in the hotel lobby after breakfast. We discussed the impending hurricane and decided that we should form a contingency plan. The team had two SUVs for our use, but we dismissed using them because we didn't know the local terrain, nor where to find safer ground.

So we decided that the safest place would be in the hotel. However, the hotel was on the bank of the River Coatzacoalcos, protected by a low concrete wall. We determined that the greatest risk we faced was that the river could rise above the level of the wall and flood the hotel.

We then discussed the scope of the contingency plan. We all had rooms on the first floor and decided that should the water level rise that far then all bets were off - the entire region would be under water. So we decided to restrict the contingency planning to the ground floor of the hotel being under water, and that we would have to wait a maximum of two days for rescue.

The consequences of the flooding would be that electrical power would be off - no lighting; lifts not working; no tap water; no restaurant services. The flood water would most likely be polluted with sewage. Mobile phone services would most likely be overloaded for the first few hours, but would probably be the first service to be restored.

We each made a list of the items we would want to pack, or would need to purchase, and then went to the refinery. Very little was happening - the authorities had already put the plant into minimum running mode. The weather was starting to deteriorate, so at midday we decided to leave the refinery and go visit the supermarket to buy the things on our lists. Then, having completed our shopping, we returned to our hotel.

After a hefty lunch - could be the last hot meal for a while - we each retired to our rooms to pack and wait for Hurricane Dean to arrive.

First item on the list was to fully charge the cell phone.

I laid out all the items that I had on my checklist to pack in the company-issued backpack - the emergency supplies:

• Bottled water
• Small fruit drink packs
• High calorie snacks
• Change of clothing
• Assorted plastic bags
• Wallets and travel documents
• Prescription safety sun-glasses
• Medication
• Flashlight and spare batteries
• Cellphone
• Insect repellent spray
• Small toolkit - business-card size with scissors, knife, etc.
• Hygienic wet-wipes
• Notebooks and pens
• Small padlocks - not sure what for, but it seemed like a good idea
• Car keys
• Leather belt bag
• Water sterilising liquid

The company laptop, phone charger, toiletry bag, log book and such I packed into my briefcase. This would be left behind, if need be.

The company issued safety bag, containing flame-proof overalls, safety hat, safety boots, inspection tools, hi-viz vest, full-body safety harness, lanyards and the like would also stay behind. However, if the situation became dire, we would take the decision to don the safety harnesses at the time. I decided that I would wear the safety boots and hi-viz vest anyway.

My suitcase was packed with my clothes and travelling stuff, ready for an evacuation in the dark, but would be left behind if need be.

And so we settled down waiting for the storm to pass. The hotel management had closed the restaurant that evening and sent most of the staff home, but sandwiches and hot drinks were available. I ventured out to look at the river while the wind was still manageable - it was definitely rising.

As night fell the storm increased in intensity. I watched the TV that evening, but I kept the bathroom light on when I finally settled down to sleep. If the lights went out then that would be the first sign of trouble, and we had agreed to muster in the lobby on the first floor, and wake any heavy sleepers in our team.

But I awoke to daylight and the bathroom light was still on. Our team gathered in the restaurant for the limited breakfast the management had been able to put together. One of the staff told us that the peak of the storm had passed in the early hours of the morning, and the river had risen to within inches of overflowing the concrete barrier between the hotel and the river. The eye of Hurricane Dean had passed twenty or thirty miles north of the coast - had it been much closer to land then the hotel would most likely have been flooded. The town had suffered some minor flooding, but nothing serious.

We went to work later that morning, and things gradually returned to normal. I wrote up the incident in my regular report. Our head office in Chicago commended us for our forward thinking - UOP is a very safety-conscious company - and classified the event as a 'near-miss'.