The long true Cancun story of Hurricane Wilma with pics

[Adult Traffic]

First of all, I am back to work and it's business as usual so anyone that needs me I will try to get to you as soon as possible. I have a ton of work to catch up on as you can imagine and the best way to contact me is by my contact form . All traffic orders will get taken care of ASAP.

Of course, the traffic orders already running from http://adult-site-traffic.com was never affected as those servers are in California.

This is the factual account of our experiences during and directly after Hurricane Wilma, who pounded Cancun, Quintana Roo and Mexico’s Maya Riviera on the Yucatan Peninsula for 60 hours in October 2005. It was originally posted and published once on November 7th, 2005 but I wanted to share it even at this late date, so now that work is caught up I have time to post it.

Here is the (very long) Cancun Story.

Cancun City Pics

Cancun Hotel Zone Pics

Our House Pics

I don't know what the news is telling you in the US or other countries, we don't have cable back on yet to see US TV. Mexico President Vincent Fox is telling the people of Cancun that the hotel zone will be 85% occupied on December 15th, but from what I see that's not even remotely possible. Many of the hotels are gutted with electrical services and air ducts hanging out. There are virtually no beaches left in Cancun, just rocks up to the foundations of hotels with the ocean washing against the foundation. What used to be beach structures and swimming pools are gone. Some are floating out in the ocean. Millions of tons of sand is missing. The bottom has changed and where there used to be deep water is now sandbars. The hotel Aqua is a total loss and must come down as will many other hotels and buildings. Parking structures have collapsed. La Isla mall is about a 60% loss. If you have seen La Isla you know it's a huge mall with hundreds of outside shops and restaurants, one of the focal points of tourism and that was also were dolphin discovery/swim with dolphins was. Looking around Cancun and the Hotel Zone, complete businesses are just missing. Nothing is there but an empty lot, sometimes 2 or 3 walls.

Cancun is a City of 700,000 - 900,000 people depending on the time of year. Tourism is the only industry in Cancun and directly or indirectly supports 100% of the economy from the hotel gardeners to the surgeons at the hospitals. Walmarts (3), gas stations, supermarkets, department stores, street vendors, car stereo shops, hardware stores etc., etc., are all supported by tourism. Thousands and thousands of maids, bartenders, waiters and waitresses, pool boys, tour operators, convenience store employees and fast food workers (about half were destroyed) etc., etc., have no job. Many also have no house, no food, no car and no way to leave. For the first time here, I feel it prudent to carry weapons whether walking or driving. I no longer let my daughter just go off with her friends in a taxi. We take her to a specific destination and pick her up from the same. Cancun is a dangerous place to be right now and for the immediate future.

I went to bed Tuesday night before Wilma thinking we would stay here in the house for a cat 2 hurricane and I woke up Wednesday morning and saw that Wilma was officially the strongest storm ever observed. Thursday morning I put my wife and daughter in the car along with our computers and clothes and drove 4 hours to Merida across the Yucatan Peninsula where we set up my laptop and cell communications with our people in Cancun. The last pics we had were as the eye of the storm was over the island of Cozumel about the time they cut power to Cancun. As the winds picked up we lost communication with everyone in Cancun with a TelCel cellular phone as the towers were lost one by one. Most of our friends were in a downtown hotel which is managed by another friend and is also the backup shelter for the Ritz. A friend staying there had a MovieStar phone which stayed up for the entire storm and I was able to deposit $1,000 pesos on to her phone credit from Merida. We used that phone for weather updates back to the hotel management in Cancun. They were very afraid. The hotel was coming apart and some of the roof area was blowing away. They had water up to the service desk and the generators both failed as they were taken under water.

The main thing people wanted to know was what was happening. They could hear buildings being ripped up and they kept thinking it was going to be over. We were pinpoint tracking the storm and it's a pretty helpless feeling to hear how afraid they are and have to tell them that they haven't even seen the max winds yet. The storm was only moving between 2 and 4 miles per hour and they were pummeled for 60 hours. I wanted to make sure they knew they would have 6 to 7 hours of the eye and then they would get the backside of the storm. I was afraid that they thought that because of the long duration of the storm that the eye had missed them and when the eye actually hit that the storm was in fact over.

When the eye of the storm was over Punta Sam, in the area of our house, it was Sunday morning. I knew the storm would pull out fast as it left land so we had packed the car the night before and we left Merida at 7:00 am Sunday morning. We took the toll road for 2 hours and stopped at a gas station where there was a line of cars trying to get gas. We talked to an NBC crew who told us that the 'Cuota' (toll road) was under several feet of water near Cancun so we had to re-plan. Everyone was going to try to go through Valladolid, cross the jungle through Coba and catch the coastal highway near Tulum and smoke into Cancun on 4 lane roads. Well, as it takes 5 minutes or so to get gas, everyone got split up. We went to Valladolid and got headed about half way to Coba when we saw a police car sort of lounging on his hood talking to the drivers of a couple of vehicles. I decided to stop and check things out and found out that the road to Coba was under water. I'm sure a lot of vehicles that were going that way never slowed down to even ask what the conditions ahead were and wasted several hours of travel time.

(Later we found out that the NBC crew we talked to earlier at the gas was killed Sunday night in a wreck with their Ford Explorer. I guess they hit deep water at high speed, I didn't get a lot of details).

We turned around and headed back to Valladolid to take the road to Felipe Carrillo Puerto, down towards the area of Acapulco and the border of the country of Beliz. As we left Valladolid we were mixed in a convoy of well over 100 trucks from the Comission Federal Electrico which were staged in Valladolid waiting for the storm to clear and figure out which route to take. There were trucks from Acapulco, Merida, Veracruz, Monterrey and Mexico City etc. More military was also staged there and thousands of army units were already in place in Cancun before the storm. The navy was already in Cancun as Isla Mujeres (the island in front of our house) is their headquarters.

We arrived in Felipe Carrillo Puerto in late afternoon and figured it was our last place to get gas so we waited in line for about 45 minutes to fuel up. This was the first place we saw bus loads of tourists heading out, to where, I don't know but we were looking in better shape than they were. We left the gas station and took the coastal highway through Tulum and into Playa Del Carmen. Between Tulum and PDC is where we started seeing serious storm damage, although we had driven through jungle debris almost the whole day. Now there was the occasional tree in the road and power poles downed into the highway. Playa Del Carmen had a lot of damage, most buildings were damaged badly and the Sam's Club looked like it had collapsed. We didn't go look at the hotel zone. Power company trucks were already preparing to restore services. We headed out to Cancun as it was getting dark already on what should have been a 4 hour trip.

Continued...

[Adult Traffic]

We got about half of the 40 minutes to Cancun when we ran into a wall of traffic. Evidently the jungle was draining across the highway. Large trucks were crossing and some were ferrying cars to the other side. The fire department was futilely trying to pump the water out with one truck. We waited in a good position with some other people for a truck to ferry us across, but when it got dark they stopped working and we were the next car to go. Well, everyone was desperate to get to Cancun so some of us walked the water and since some smaller trucks and even cars were going, we decided to go. Our car is all wheel drive and has decent ground clearance and was loaded heavy but it turns out to not have been much help. We got about 2/3 the way across and got caught in the wake of a large truck and the current took care of the rest and washed us off of the road. The car quickly filled up with water over the dash and large trucks kept filling us with water and pushing us off of the road further. One thing, the car was kind of floating, which turned out to be a benefit, when a large truck load of people passed us and stopped. Several men jumped in to the water and I got out also. Together we floated the car back onto the highway and were able to push it to dry ground. On the other side we met up again with a Cuban business man who we had previously met at the gas station outside of Valladolid. There were over a hundred cars flooded and stalled and he and I started trying to gather up tools to work on cars. Finally, we had enough tools and we started taking the plugs out of cars and pumping the water out of the cylinders. Of course, this didn't work on my car as the computers and electronics were ruined, but we got 3 of the 5 cars going that were just standard motors and also his car that did have a computer. He called his son in Cancun to bring the Escalade out and get us off of the highway.

During this time a bus load of tourists going towards PDC ran off of the road as the water was over his headlights and he couldn't see. They evacuated the tourists out of the side windows and the last time I saw the bus it was tipping over into the ditch. There were many police vehicles but I never saw them help anyone. The bus.. all the police did was shine the spotlight on to watch it tip over. We thought they may send some people to rob us, but not help us for certain.

Well, it was about 2:00 am by this time and the Cuban people pushed us at a high rate of speed into the outskirts of Cancun while we were trying to see with dim headlights and wipe rain off of the windshield with the power from a dead battery, dodging downed power poles, trees, wires and trying to keep the car upright as we hit flooded places in the road.

They pushed us into the first gas station in Cancun, near the airport entrance, which as we found out was the only gas station operational and they had a light plant. This is where we spent the rest of the night sleeping in our wet car. I woke up at daylight and the first thing I saw was a flatbed tow truck getting fuel and we talked him into trying to get us across flooded Cancun to see what was left of our house. Almost all of the power poles were down in Cancun and everyone was looting clothes, shoes, TVs etc. It was sad to see.

We actually made it home through the water sand and seaweed and everything was totally silent and the iron gates were locked. I jumped out of the truck and yelled for the guard and I was never so happy to see someone in all of my life when he came out to greet us and open the gates. We had just been to his daughter's 15th birthday celebration before the hurricane and that was the last time we had seen him. Before I even got my wife and daughter out of the car that was still on the flatbed I ran around the building to see the destruction and to look at our house. Many of the houses in our complex were destroyed with the wood being ripped off and the wind and the storm surge carrying everything out but amazingly, our house is still standing. We were certain with all the news and destruction that our house had been demolished. The building is concrete and I put heavy plywood on the windows with liquid nails and then nailed it on with cement nails. Things were wet and there was sand, saltwater and seaweed in the house but even most of our fish survived. We are on the second floor and the houses on the first floor were under water. We had storm surge and waves hitting our plywood. Some houses on the 3rd and 4th floors were completely gutted with door casings ripped out of the cement. The outside of our building with palapas, a beautiful common area, rock storm wall, pool etc. had all been destroyed with the storm wall ripped apart and the rocks used to build it strewn all over in huge piles. We had cement perimeter walls ripped down and iron gates torn off.

Later that day some of the other people who stayed at the hotel started showing up here to look at the damage. Some stayed at their house and some took the clothes on their back and left Cancun, presumably forever. Our water supply was ruined and our 5,000 liter tank was dry. We had a supply of flood water in our storage cistern which came in useful to flush toilets etc.. Early the following morning another man and I went to find water for the people. We got in line at the beginning of the Hotel Zone where water trucks were staged where we made a deal with another person for a 20,000 liter truck, but he wanted to go to his neighborhood first and we agreed.

We arrived at his neighborhood 2 hours later by going the long way as the sand banks had closed the coastal roads and we spent the next 3 hours filling water containers for people and carrying water to their houses. The army was opening the road by this time and were trying to get a Red Cross semi through to get it onto the car ferry to go to Isla Mujeres. As we were trying to back the truck up so they could get through the one lane road, the truck broke a u-joint. We couldn't budge it with all 4 people from the truck, 6 Red Cross people and 2 army people so I went to call on the neighborhood who we gave water to, to come and help us.

Everyone refused to help after we had just spent half a day giving them water.

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[Adult Traffic]

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

[Ramster]

Wow! Amazing pics too.