Oaxaca has been trapped in a low pressure trough that, according to Conagua, stretches from Chihuahua to Oaxaca and is bringing moisture from both the Pacific Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico. It’s made for dramatic sunsets!
And, for the past three nights it’s brought spectacular sound and light shows… lightning streaking across the night sky in a 360 degree circle around the city; the rumbling of thunder in the distance and loud cracks when it hits close to home; torrential downpours and hail, even though it’s 80 degrees F (what’s up with that?); and hurricane force winds.
It was all too much for one of the massive 130+ year old Indian Laurel trees on the Alameda…
El Instituto Estatal de Protección Civil was on the job, roping off the surrounding area with yellow and red caution tape.
Workers gathered to receive their instructions,
environmentalist and artist Francisco Verástegui was interviewed by TV Azteca Oaxaca,
a rope was placed around one of the limbs,
chain saws revved-up, as scavengers went about their work gathering twigs and small branches…
and a truckload of the precious firewood departed the Alameda with a youthful escort.
According to today’s news, this laurel tree wasn’t the only victim of these storms; other fallen trees crushed cars, power went out, and flooding occurred. However, as they say, “ojala,” no human casualties have been reported.
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View From Casita Colibrí 
I remember that one or two other laurels fell down in the past two or three years. That changes the look of the Zocalo.
Yes, one fell a year or two ago… miss the shade it provided the southwest corner of zócalo.
[…] in the Zócalo fell a few years ago, damaging a nearby building, and most recently in May 2011, I wrote about a laurel on the Alameda that toppled. Resurrection was attempted and guy-wires remain to this day […]