Hurricane Karl entered the Gulf of Mexico from the Yucatan peninsula and slammed into Veracruz just
north of Veracruz City at midday September 17th as a category 3 hurricane with 115 mph winds. The
aftermath produced one million victims, billions of property damage, 22 reported deaths and widespread
flooding.

Aside from heavy rain squalls, Catemaco was fortunately spared.
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Hurricane Matthew
Catemaco, September 2010
Hurricane Matthew was the fourth tropical cyclone to make landfall in Central America during the 2010 Atlantic hurricane
season. Matthew formed on September 23, but by September 25, it weakened to a strong tropical depression. However,
its remnants continued to produce life-threatening rainfalls over parts of southern Mexico.

The remnants of Tropical Storm Matthew officially dissipated completely over Mexico, late on September 28.

Early morning September 28th, Laguna Catemaco flooded and inundated the shores of the City of Catemaco plus parts of
all other communities surrounding the lake.

Heavy almost daily rains had inundated Los Tuxtlas since before the passing of Hurricane Karl and runoff, specifically
from the volcanic mountain massif of the Sierra Santa Marta, filled the lake to extreme levels.

The only outlet of the Laguna is the Rio Grande de Catemaco. In the late 1950's a sluice gate was installed at the exit of the
Laguna into the river, and several dams were constructed downstream as part of the construction of a hydroelectric
power plant operated by CFE (Comisión Federal de Electricidad).

CFE controls the dams and sluice gates and adjusts the water levels of the laguna within about a 5 foot range to
accommodate its energy requirements. Usually the waters of the Laguna are lowered  to an extreme before the advent of
the rainy season in July.

Apparently CFE miscalculated the amount of rain the laguna was receiving before the day of the flooding of Catemaco and
had its sluice gates only partially open. Another possible reason was insistence of political operators to reduce the flow of
water from retaining dams to mitigate the flooding in southern and central communities of Veracruz.

I am one of the few people that live on the Malecón. On Tuesday morning, 6 am I stepped off my porch into 10 inches of
water. 36 hours later the water had dissipated.

Within the city, the flood caused minimal damage. The only lake shore community that experienced serious flooding was
Las Margaritas which is an almost annual victim of floods and eager for its yearly share of government hand outs.

Catemaco City residents took the flood in stride and hundreds congregated along the Malecón in a party atmosphere.
The weather gods apparently disapproved of the local nonchalance and the day after the flood issued a wind
warning, which forced the evacuation of many boats onto the Malecón because the laguna waters were too high.
A day and a half after the onset of the flood, the Malecón was almost back to normal, with only patches around the
culverts crossing under the road still holding water, like this one on the side of my house. The gap at the red
structure shows the water level of the laguna on Wednesday, 10:30 am.
Carretera  near Lerdo de Tejado after Karl
The Malecon´s best known landmark