by Primo Encarnación
Ixtapa. Acapulco. Manzanillo. Guadalajara. Puerto Vallarta. You might know some of these as ports-of-call on The Love Boat. In a few hours, however, Hurricane Patricia, the most powerful storm ever recorded in the history of the planet, is going to be making landfall there.
I’ve been to and loved all these places, at one time or another, during vacations that began when I was a kid, and that I carried on with my own children. 500-year-old Spanish architecture lies cheek-by-jowl with the most modern of hotels. Fishing fleets, commercial and vacation shipping, millions of tourists a year – all these are put at risk by a potential killer which sprang from a mild tropical storm to the most powerful category five ever in a 36-hour blink, thanks to a growing El Niño fueled by the warmest ocean temps on record.
The loss of life will probably be high, the loss of property enormous, the time to recover unforseeable, but in the meantime, the west coast in particular and all of Mexico in general will suffer a huge economic hit, as well. Which will inevitably, inexorably mean more refugees coming north to the US.
Climate change refugees.
Spare a thought or prayer for all the people about to suffer. Hunker down for the torrential rains that Patricia’s remnants will add to Texas’ woes.
Then fight to make sure every last jerkweed who contributed to this disaster enabled mass murder, pays. And pays. And pays.