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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.
Continued...
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