Reports of total devastation in Cancun

[superfly]

Most of the damage on the Yucatan peninsula concentrated on the tourist city of Cancun. Eyewitnesses said the center of the city looked as if it had been "trampled by a giant".

"Cancun is destroyed," said Mexican navy Vice Admiral Martin Fernandez. The homes of at least one million people have been damaged or destroyed, Governor Feliz Gonzalez of Quintana Roo state said late Saturday.

[superfly]

http://us.news3.yimg.com/us.i2.yimg.com ... C_yidXXg--

[CAL]

Unreal.

[Stephanie]

OMG!

[Terry]

What's the death toll? Last I saw it was seven.

What a mess. How sad.

[arkess7]

just awful!!!!!!!

[smashmode]

Thank goodness we didnt end up going to Cancun this year.

[gtalum]

I still say it's not nearly as bad as I had pictured. The hotels look like most fo their damage is cosmetic. I still bet Cancun and Cozumel are both open for business before Christmas.

[WxGuy1]

Yeah, all the pictures I've seen (mainly the tourist hotspots) haven't been too bad, certainly nothing that wasn't expected. Most downed trees/signs/facades, broken windows, etc, and maybe a peeled-back metal large-span roof (department store metal roof). I'm sure some of the less sturdy buildings away from the city have been destroyed, but again, that's to be expected with a Cat 4. I'm more interested in seeing Cozumel.

[Stratosphere747]

I think optimistic reports are just that, optimistic.

http://marriott.com/news/detail.mi?marrArticle=106981

Just off the initial assessment, three of Mariott's hotels will be closed through the rest of the year, at the very least.

[CharleySurvivor]

I think it amazing only 7 people lost their live considering the time Wilma spent pounding them. The death toll could have been unreal.

[gtalum]

This post from CruiseCritic.com is pretty descriptive. It's about damage, mostly in Cozumel:

I got this from Aldora this morning regarding the damage from the hurricane. I will post more as I get them. Kathy in Texas

October 24, 2005

I talked to Memo Mendoza at 8am today and have the following partial report:

General Damage of note (from south to north):

While there was much rain, it was not as much as tropical storms that we frequently experience and flooding from rising water was not anything out of the ordinary.

All waterfront hotels to the south have suffered catastrophic damage but the extent is not known at this time.

Day beach resorts where our surface intervals have been taken are certainly damaged if not gone.

Chankanaab Park has disappeared.

Caletta Harbor suffered severe damage to many boats. The Living Underwater boat is sunk and lies underneath a huge Dive Paradise boat which is upside down. Most if not all of the Dive House boats are wrecked/sunken, as are most of the boats in the harbor.

Puerta Maya has disappeared. That includes the buildings and the pier. Paradise Reef is now safe from Cruise Ships.

Car and Truck Ferry Pier is damaged limiting the arrival of supplies.

The International Pier (for years the only cruise ship pier) is damaged and missing a section in the middle.

The dry marina (boat yard) next to Caribe Blu (still standing but seriously damaged), where many boats are stored on land, had a collapse of the boat hanger roof which crushed the owner's giant catamaran and the travel lift which is used to launch and retrieve the large dive boats. This means that it will be quite some time before the large dive boats in dry storage there can get into the water.

The dry marina boat yard protected about 30 boats, and about 5 of them were damaged by flying debris or collapsed walls. All six of the Aldora Boats in the dry Marina are not damaged and using the forklift, can be placed in the water as soon as the authorities allow such activity.

The new cruise ship pier downtown, Punta Langosta seems to be completely intact but the adjacent buildings and mini mall are seriously damaged.

The Aqua Safari pier is gone as well as the remains of the Pro Dive Pier. The Aldora Pier seems to be ok and usable.

The hotel Casa Mexicana is open and running on a generator. The Bahia and other downtown hotels seem to be OK and given electrical power and guests seem to be able to accommodate guests.

The Aldora office and shop on Calle 5, just ¼ block from the water's edge remained undamaged.

All waterfront shops on the main street (Rafael Melgar) suffered wave damage and burst open storm doors, with the contents spread out over the street. Some people have been picking up items from the street but it is not "wild looting" and the police are now patrolling the street where no one is allowed. To the north side of town the waterfront damage seems less and Pancho's Back Yard and Cinco Solis seem intact.

The airport runway is ok and can support flights but the control tower is damaged as is the terminal building.

The Villa Aldora suffered some water in the beach level rooms but since we had moved all furniture into the Cameron Suite (furthest from the water and no ocean view) that all stayed dry. The Barracuda Suite had a broken window behind the hurricane shutters and the North Suite has a cracked sliding glass door. On the Villa Aldora Beach, the only thing left is the rocks that god placed there. Gone is the dock, palapa, retaining walls for our beach sand, the huge palms trees and the wall on the south side of the property.

Puerto Abriggo, home to many of the larger boats, suffered many casualties too but we did not have time to survey them. Maybe 50% were damaged.

Hotels to the north and structures on the east side could not be surveyed.

Synopsis

The major impact has been to the following:

Cruise Ship

It is unknown how long a time will pass before a cruise ship can land in Cozumel. And if they could there is no infrastructure to entertain them. Of course they can revert to using a lighter to bring passengers in, and the shops may be able to sweep out their stores and replace the merchandise, but it will be a long time before the streets are crowded with them again.

Power

The restoration of power is a key for renewal of the Cozumel economy. Without power there will be no tourists so I am sure that the government will apply all energy that they can to get power up and running. Complicating that effort will be that Cozumel will be competing with Cancun for support and it may be difficult to get done as quickly as we have in past hurricanes. The good news is that the Governor of the state is a former President (mayor) of Cozumel and much of his staff is from here. With their friends and family in Cozumel I don't think we will be ignored. My best guess is that we should have power restored to most of the island in less than one week.

Diving

There are two aspects to this, one is the quality of dives and the other is availability of dive boats.

The dive quality will be reduced by very poor visibility for about one week. After that the current should have carried all the light debris toward Cuba. The heavy stuff may litter the bottom for a while, but given that there is not much development near the dive sites that should be minimal. The shallow dive sites may have been scoured but we have found that the fish life returns rather quickly after such an event. Expect finger coral and lettuce coral to have been hard hit. The deeper sites such as Palancar, Columbia and Punta Sur should not have been effected. We are very curious to see if the hurricane has mover the wreck of the C-53.

As for our surface intervals which have normally been taken at a day beach resort, we will just have to revert to the ways we did things before there were piers down south. That is we will nose anchor out, backing in and raising the outboards in the shallow water. Lunch and drinks will be provided for a quiet beach picnic, blowing off the accumulated nitrogen. Many have longed for the way it used to be-here it is!

The availability of dive boats will be an issue. All of the Aldora Boats are ready to go diving as we speak. However more than 50% of the fleet is now damaged or completely destroyed and it is difficult to determine how long it will take to get them all back in operation. Prior reservations may be a must do for divers coming to Cozumel in the coming months.

Another consideration is the availability of power for the compressor shops. That should be going within a week. However, given the focus on "recovery" it is possible that the authorities may ban commercial activity for some time, and that usually includes dive boats.

Given the problems with infrastructure in Cozumel the diving may, for some time, be just it was in the 70s and 80s--not very crowded and with a scarcity of cruise ship people roaming town. There are some among us who don't see that as bad.

Hotels

Most of the large hotels are severely damaged and some may not be reopened at all. My guess is that some may make it to reopen by Christmas. The smaller hotels around town should be able to accept guests as soon as the power is restored. The Villa Aldora is operating on a generator now and could accept guests.


COZUMEL, Mexico, Oct 23 (Reuters) - Mexico's Cozumel island, a coral-fringed divers' paradise, was battered beyond recognition on Sunday after enduring three full days of Hurricane Wilma's vicious winds and rain.
Wilma's 145-mph (230-kph) winds smashed the cement dock that is Cozumel's lifeline to the mainland into car-sized chunks of concrete strewn about the seafront, some having crushed souvenir and jewelry stores.

As Navy helicopters finally managed to fly in emergency supplies on Sunday, it looked as if a giant wave had washed over the tiny Caribbean island, leaving it largely flooded and covered in debris.

"This is the most important thing in Cozumel. This is where everything comes in -- food, tourists, gasoline. I can't believe it," said resident Luis Hau, viewing the smashed dock.

Wilma, one of the fiercest hurricanes to hit Mexico, hung over the Yucatan Peninsula for three days after it struck on Thursday, blasting it with gale-force winds and sheets of rain. Seven peoppeople were killed, four in Cozumel.
Desolated families stood in thigh-deep water outside wrecked homes and called to emergency teams for food and water. Some used surfboards or kayaks to move about the streets.

"I had a nursery here. Where is my nursery? Twenty years of work are gone," cried Jesus Rios, who lost 30,000 ornamental plants and his life's investment when Wilma turned his tropical nursery into what looked like a paddy field.
The few tourists who had not evacuated huddled with locals, with no power or running water since the storm hit.
"The sea has broken everything," said Jose Mariscal, from Spain, staying in a hotel lobby with staff and their families.

MAYA RIVIERA GUTTED

Wilma wrought destruction across the "Maya Riviera," a strip of tropical coastline that draws planeloads of tourists to its pristine white sands, tuturquoise sea and Maya ruins.
The resort city of Cancun lay gutted after Wilma blew out windows, tore through shops and left hotel lobbies knee-deep in water and strewn with glass, plaster and other debris.
Swimming pools were full of sand and hotel ceilings were a mess of fallen tiles and tangled wires.
Where pristine beaches had been, jagged rocks poked out of gray water after Wilma tore away banks of white sand.

"It's going to take Cancun a year to recover. We can get the Coco Bongo club back up in three months but it will be a lot longer before tourists have the confidence to come back," said Argentine nightclub worker Gabriel Condi.
In the Paradise Beach hotel, part of the stairwell had collapsed. At a nearby mall, all the windows were blown out of stores and a restaurant.

"I lived through Hurricane Gilbert and this is far worse. It's truly terrible," said shop owner Carlos Martin del Campo as he loaded computers into his car to save them from looters, who had descended on stores across Cancun.
Visiting the area, President Vicente Fox told locals: "We are going to rebuild everything that is damaged, but the urgency now is to save lives."

As thousands lined up at town hall for pasta, crackers and canned tuna, Cancun Mayor Francisco Alor told reporters it could take six months for Mexico's biggest tourism city to recover.

An estimated 90 percent of hotels have suffered damage, local public works director Mario Castro said.
For Cozumel, where almost all 70,000 inhabitants depend on tourism, the outlook was grim.

"My concern is a couple of months down the line," said Cozumel guest house owner Kathleen Martin Kopelman. "For the people who live hand to mouth, who earn tips on Friday so they can eat on Saturday, no tourists means no food."

There was no indication of when Cancun airport would reopen or when roads out could be cleared for buses. (Additional reporting by Noel Randewich and Lisa Jucca in Cancun)

As I imagined, they will be partially reopened for business by year-end. But things won't return to normal for a long time.

[Stratosphere747]

I've been reading, with my limited Spanish, some of the online Mexican newspapers. It is as grim if not worse than that article. Cozumel, especially the northern part is decimated.

[simplykristi]

I am sure you would find total devastation once got away from the tourist areas.

Kristi

[lisa0825]

Here is a photo album for Cozumel

http://photobucket.com/albums/d98/bfrick1965/?start=0

[djtil]

while its obviously bad, i must say i expected worse in cozumel at least based on those pics. im surprised there are still some power poles/trees standing and not more stuctural damage.

[Dr. Jonah Rainwater]

Yeah. That's the only way you could top Katrina's devastation here in the US - if Katrina had passed right over New Orleans or if Andrew had directly hit Miami. And then it continued for 36 hours.

The US press wouldn't pick up on it, but with Emily, Stan, and Wilma, and with Bret, Gert, and Jose all thrashing nearly the same location, Mexico is hurting just as bad as the US is this hurricane season.

[superfly]

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/cozumel00 ... DB4a0eg7JJ

Cozumel pictures

[Weatherfreak14]

Unbelievible.

[inotherwords]

Friends of mine have a vacation condo in Isla Mujeres and they don't know if it's still there. I know we've seen rain reports from there (huge amounts) but I haven't seen any damage reports about structures. Anyone have info on this?