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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | October 2005 
Cancun Residents Arm Against Looters, Tourists Trapped by Wilma Wait for Flights
 Will Weissert - Associated Press
| | A tourist reads surrounded by her luggage as she waits for a flight home from Merida airport in Mexico's Yucatan peninsula. Thousands of tourists who had to ride out hurricane Wilma in sweltering shelters have clogged Cancun and Merida airports as they try to return home. (Reuters/Daniel Aguilar) |
Cancun, Mexico – Tourists camped out to wait for flights Thursday out of Mexico's hurricane-ravaged Caribbean coast, and some residents of Cancun's poorer neighborhoods armed themselves with cudgels and machetes and erected barricades to ward off looters.
Authorities reported Hurricane Wilma caused "significant damage" to coral reefs and damaged so many trees on the Yucatan peninsula that they may fuel forest fires in the upcoming dry season.
This year's battering, record-breaking hurricane season continued to grind on, as hundreds of miles (kilometers) to the south, Tropical Storm Beta formed off Nicaragua's Caribbean coast.
Despite the presence of thousands of soldiers, federal and local police, many neighborhoods in Cancun were guarded by residents manning improvised barricades throughout the night, with small fires fueled by downed branches to provide light.
Early Thursday, hundreds of tourists packed a city park in Cancun, waiting for information on flights out. And the United States was sending a cruise ship full of aid to the island of Cozumel. The ship has offered to evacuate any remaining tourists, although it wasn't clear if there were any left.
Even though another 6,272 tourists were flown out of Cancun on Wednesday, thousands more remained, forming long lines outside airports and tour offices in Cancun and the inland city of Merida on Wednesday.
In previous days, thousands of tourists had been bused from Cancun to Merida, but those trips were halted Wednesday because the airport was full and flights were booked for days.
The Environmental Department reported that Cozumel – hit directly by Wilma – suffered "significant damage" to its famous coral reefs.
Over a million acres (about 500,000 hectares) of forests were also damaged by Wilma. "That figure is worrisome, given that the fallen branches represent potential fuel for fires," the department said.
Cancun's half-million people struggled to clean up their flooded and wind-smashed homes and workplaces, while officials set up makeshift airline counters at a high school where representatives worked to evacuate tourists. Some leapt and wept for joy when told they could leave.
Those on chartered tours were leaving first, with the help of travel agents.
Benites was one of the few to be handed a coveted boarding pass at the Mexicana ticket office.
"You feel as if your soul has returned to your body," she said after waiting in line since 4:30 a.m.
Wilma caused serious damage to the airport when it hit on Friday and Saturday, the company that operates the Cancun airport, Grupo Aeroportuario del Sureste, said Wednesday.
With navigational aids blown away, pilots must operate by sight and by instruments within their planes, slowing the pace of operations and ruling out flights in bad weather or darkness.
Workmen with bulldozers and hammers were clearing away debris in the hotel zone. Some restaurants and supermarkets were opening.
Ever-resourceful souvenir vendors were hawking "I Survived Wilma" T-shirts to the hundreds of people lined up in buses and vans at a military checkpoint on the road to the Cancun airport.
"I really don't know what we're doing out here," said Paul Hiemke, 26, of Dallas, who had been on a honeymoon with his wife, Jennifer, and was now standing by the airport road with scores of other would-be evacuees.
"We don't know what we're waiting for. We're just hopeful that we'll be out of here by the weekend."
Officials said they were trying to get at least some hotels running by Christmas. Reconstruction coordinator Rodolfo Elizondo told W Radio on Wednesday that workers would begin a multi-million-dollar renewal of Cancun's beaches in January. |
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