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We finally found a dump truck to push the water truck out of the road for the semi to get through. Borrowed a chain, got pulled by another dump truck, got pulled by the military cat, ended up on dry pavement and I spent the next 3 hours rebuilding the u-joint in the truck with a pair of vice grips and some rusty caps and needle bearings that were in a can under the seat of the truck.
We talked to the military guys that helped us and found out that they hadn't had any food and little water for two days. As I was working on the truck my Mexican partner ran to the house where my wife and his girlfriend's sister were preparing 2 pots of food. They fed 4 army guys, 2 truck drivers and 16 other people that day. Incidentally, that week they fed about 120 people.
All this time with the truck broken down we were constantly having to guard our water supply with weapons. Everyone needed water and it's heart breaking to have to tell them no, but we were on a mission to bring water to our own people. I did secretly give water to some single people here and there, but if I were to start filling water jugs up for everyone there would have been no where to stop until the truck was dry.
We got the water to our house and were able to fill up out 5,000 liter tank so that we had water to clean dishes and take a bath by siphoning the water out into our jugs. Well, we had about 1/3 of a truck load left and I saw 3 young girls walking into the alley next to our house and I asked them if they wanted water. They said yes and I told them to go tell the neighborhood, OUR neighborhood. Well, we gave water to about more 200 people and even little kids were standing in line with toy sand buckets to fill. We watered everyone who wanted it and left some water on the truck for the driver who had none for his family either, I gave him some cash and sent him on his way.
We got power on 14 days after arriving home and after bribing a crew from Acapulco with showers and a hotel room because they have been sleeping in their service truck for over 15 days. We are the only house on the grid with power and phone. My phone is the only phone in the complex that works also and now I have DSL too.
Our building took thousands and thousands of dollars in damage, the outside is destroyed and myself and some other people have restored security and shut off the damaged power points etc.. I was able to get running water into the houses after the power was on with some work finding and capping the water lines that have been ripped out when the storm took our outside water points and wet bar on the palapa when it blew away.
The Riviera Maya puts 50 million dollars (USD) every day into the Mexican economy during the peak of the tourist seasons, all the way from buying a Louis Vuitton purse or renting a Jetta or a yacht, to paying the guy on the street to clean your windshield.
Vincent Fox was saying the 15th of December, but reality is now setting in for everyone. I feel that date was mentioned just for the peace of mind for the people. Just think of the hundreds of semi loads of glass, cement, steel, paint, wood, carpet, beds, TVs, chairs, towels, sheets etc. that must come into Cancun and then imagine the labor and time it's going to take to clean up each flooded room and re-install everything. This hurricane even ripped marble and paint off of the sides of the buildings. The local paper this morning says they don't know how Cancun will recover from this hurricane. We have learned that several hotels will need to be totally demolished with high explosives. Cancun is a dangerous place right now. Los Cabos is looking better and better, maybe Puerto Vallarta. We will wait here with our friends and see what happens... Cancun will recover but no one knows when.
A-S-T
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