HUGE Storm passes through Cuenca

A couple days ago, we exeprienced the 'Mother of all Storms' here in Cuenca.
It beat the heck out of the City.  About an hour and a half (maybe 2 hours) of non-stop heavy rains, thunder/lightening, howling winds, pea-sized HAIL!  You could hardly see the bulding construction next door, almost a total white-out.  (Rich says the winds felt like about 50mph...)

Streets were flooded and we could hear sirens, non-stop, lots of flashing lights of emergency vehicles ( we think it was related to traffic accidents).  We heard a few trees were down, too.

No long-term damage here (or at our other places), but we heard from friends that outside plants took a real beating and a lot of roofs/windows leaked and some windows and skylights were trashed...

Our porch flooded, big time!  About 2 inches of water, that then traveled into the kitchen...where have we seen that before??  But, I was home and could mop it up fairly quickly.  Just a tad of rain leaked through around some windows, not a big deal.  (In normal rains, our porch is just fine.)

By the time I realized we had windows OPEN upstairs, and rushed up to close them (had to struggle against the winds!), there was a bit of rain inside...  That was just an annoyance...and I was drenched while trying to close them.  Not a pretty sight!

So -- to future visitors here.......be sure to pack a hood on that jacket!  Umbrellas would have been no help in the high winds.  And, if you have construction going on here (and you're not here to supervise), be sure to ask your builder about the roof.  If it didn't leak in this storm, it's probably ok........This storm could be the real test.....it was a doozie!

Not sure if we'll get another storm of this intensity any time soon........  it sprinkled a little yesterday afternoon (which is more the normal pattern, a little rain in the afternoons.).

Today the river is still up (which is good!) and the sun is out and shining with a few puffy clouds...  perfect Spring-like weather in the Andes.

==N