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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | October 2005 
In Mexico, Tourists Try to Find a Way Home
 Ricardo Sandoval & Susan Ferriss - statesman.com
| | A tourist crosses a flooded street on a surfboard after Hurricane Wilma hit the resort town of Cancun in Mexico's state of Quintana Roo October 23, 2005. (Daniel Aguilar/Reuters) |
Mérida, Yucatán - Exhausted and confused American tourists were trickling into to this graceful old city Sunday, looking for any way off the Yucatán peninsula, which for two days has been battered by Hurricane Wilma.
Mérida's airport, about 150 miles across the peninsula from Cancún, Quintana Roo, was the region's only working airport Sunday. The Cancún airport remained closed and will not open until at least Wednesday.
Meanwhile, Mexican military officials commandeered the airport in Chetumal, Quintana Roo, south of Cancún near the Belize border, to set up headquarters for what probably will be a massive relief effort.
Rain and strong winds were bending trees along the runway at Mérida's airport Sunday, but that did not stop American and European tourists from arriving in search of flights.
U.S. officials put up information tables inside the airport, anticipating a flood of people who had spent a couple of nights hunkered down while Wilma delivered strong winds and as much as 60 inches of rain.
For Peter and Susan Bruce of Atlanta, just making it to Mérida after 48 hours in a hotel ballroom south of Cancún was a relief.
"Imagine 2,000 people cooped up in a hotel ballroom," Susan Bruce said. "I am claustrophobic, so I took off like a jet the first chance I had. It was 48 hours of torture."
Sunday afternoon's sunshine allowed Mexican officials to make their first moves toward Cancún and other Caribbean beach resorts along the Mayan Riviera. U.S. officials joined Mexican Red Cross and military caravans bringing drinking water, food and medical supplies to the region.
By Sunday afternoon, more than 1,000 soldiers and federal police officers had arrived to stop looting that began as soon as the rain and wind subsided.
"It's chaos," fire official Gregorio Vergara said. "They are taking things all over the city."
Complicating relief efforts is a power outage across the peninsula. Phone service is spotty, and gas stations are not functioning.
President Vicente Fox said he was making available an initial $1.2 billion in disaster funds.
Mexican officials are already calling Wilma the most destructive storm to hit their prized Caribbean Sea resorts.
With the annual winter crush of visitors expected to start arriving within a month, Mexican officials are predicting an economic catastrophe.
Officials said that at least three people were killed during the storm: one by a falling tree and two when a gas tank exploded. Four bodies were found floating off Cozumel, but the cause of death was unclear. |
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