UPDATE 5-Hurricane Wilma lashes Mexico’s “Riviera”
Hurricane Wilma’s ferocious winds battered Mexico’s famed Caribbean beach resorts on Friday, knocking over trees and signposts and trapping thousands of nervous tourists in cramped shelters.
Powerful waves swallowed up white sand beaches in the popular resort of Cancun and howling winds tore across the island of Cozumel, a favorite of scuba divers and cruise ship passengers.
All along the “Maya Riviera", sturdy tropical trees danced in the wild wind and others lay toppled in empty and flooded streets. Electricity was cut and signposts were sent spinning through the air.
“I’m okay, I’m okay – don’t worry,” Italian tourist Manuel Sanilli, dressed in black rain gear, screamed down a payphone to his family in Rome as he gripped on to the wall behind him in Playa del Carmen resort, south of Cancun.
“Mother of God! My family says they’re praying for me,” he said after hanging up, his hands clasped together in prayer.
More: today.reuters.com
UPDATE 4-Hurricane Wilma lashes Mexico's beach resorts
Hurricane Wilma's fierce winds and rain battered Mexico's famed Caribbean beach resorts on Friday, knocking over trees and trapping thousands of nervous tourists inside cramped shelters.
Powerful waves swallowed up white sand beaches in the popular resort of Cancun and electricity was cut all along Mexico's "Maya Riviera" and on the island of Cozumel, a favorite of scuba divers and cruise ship passengers.
Sturdy tropical trees danced in howling winds and others lay toppled in empty and flooded streets in the resort of Playa del Carmen, just south of Cancun. Snapped electricity cables dangled above the
UPDATE 4-Tourists flee huge Hurricane Wilma in Mexico
Roaring waves pounded Mexican beach resorts on Thursday and thousands of tourists were ready to be evacuated as powerful Hurricane Wilma ploughed through the Caribbean on its way to Florida.
Cuba evacuated 100,000 people and residents of southern Florida stocked up on drinking water and gas to prepare for Wilma, which spun off the coasts of Mexico and Belize packing winds of around 145 mph (230 kph).
Described by forecasters as extremely dangerous, Wilma killed 10 people in mudslides in Haiti earlier in the week.
Expensive beachfront hotels all along Mexico's "Maya Riviera" coast emptied of
Hurricane lashes Mexico's popular Riviera Maya resorts
Hurricane Emily ripped roofs off luxury hotels along Mexico's Mayan Riviera, stranded thousands of tourists and left hundreds of local residents homeless today, forcing many to remain in crowded, leaky shelters.
Residents of Yucatan Peninsula resorts, including Playa del Carmen and Tulum, began wading through knee-deep flood waters to assess damage under a light drizzle, as the storm barreled west into the Gulf of Mexico.
There were no immediate reports of death or serious injuries on the peninsula, but Emily was expected to regain strength and threaten Mexican oil rigs before slamming into northeast The worst
Cancún and Mexico’s Maya Riviera resurrected
Cancún, Mexico’s flagship tourist destination is steaming back.
A number of its popular resort hotels, restaurants, bars, shops, and area attractions are in fact already back in business and receiving guests. And rapid pace work continues on other visitor sites and services – all damaged by Hurricane Wilma and the devastation it left along the Caribbean coast of Mexico’s Yucatán peninsula last October.
Going beyond the range of Wilma, regional repair, restoration and aid work is also taking place in areas where Hurricane Stan caused damage. Stan struck before Wilma, in early October, and while
UPDATE 5-Fierce Hurricane Wilma threatens Mexico, Fla.
Hurricane Wilma became the fiercest Atlantic hurricane ever seen as it churned toward western Cuba and Mexico's Yucatan peninsula on Wednesday, and threatened densely populated Florida after killing 10 people in Haiti.
The season's record-tying 21st storm, fueled by the warm waters of the northwest Caribbean Sea, strengthened with unprecedented speed into a Category 5 hurricane, the top rank on the five-step scale of hurricane intensity.
Oil and gas facilities in the Gulf of Mexico were expected to escape this storm but Florida's orange groves were at risk.
Early Wednesday, a U.S. Air Force reconnaissance plane measured
Tourists flee huge Hurricane Wilma in Mexico
Roaring waves pounded Mexican beach resorts on Thursday and thousands of tourists were ready to be evacuated as powerful Hurricane Wilma plowed through the Caribbean on its way to Florida.
Cuba evacuated 100,000 people and residents of southern Florida stocked up on drinking water and gas to prepare for Wilma, which spun off the coasts of Mexico and Belize packing winds of around 145 mph (230 kph).
Described by forecasters as extremely dangerous, Wilma killed 10 people in mudslides in Haiti earlier in the week.
Expensive beachfront hotels all along Mexico's "Maya Riviera" coast emptied
Hurricane Wilma Scrubs Mexico's MTV Awards
Hurricane Wilma Forces MTV to Postpone Latin American Music Awards; New Date Not Set
The approach of Hurricane Wilma has forced MTV to postpone its Latin American music video awards ceremony, which had been scheduled for Mexico's Playa del Carmen resort.
Dulce Gordillo, MTV's Mexico spokeswoman, confirmed the postponement and said a new date for the show hadn't been set.
The cable network had shifted the program from Thursday to Wednesday to avoid the hurricane, which was forecast to pass close by Mexico's Caribbean coast Friday.
More: abcnews.go.com
UPDATE 1-Hurricane Wilma 'clobbering' Mexico's Yucatan
Massive Hurricane Wilma clobbered Mexico's Caribbean beach resorts on Saturday, threatening heavy damage and loss of life as it meandered slowly into the Yucatan peninsula.
Winds of 125 miles an hour (220 kph) howled in off the sea, knocking over houses, upturning trees and trapping thousands of tourists in cramped shelters. The storm was downgraded to a Category 3 on the Saffir-Simpson scale, from a Category 4 on Friday and a record-breaking Category 5 earlier this week.
The calm of the storm's eye settled over Playa del Carmen early in the day but the storm's north eye
Local Couples Stranded In Hurricane-Ravaged Mexico
Hurricane Wilma has caused the deaths of at least seven people on Mexico's Yucatan peninsula.
The storm is expected to pick up speed and strength on Sunday before it sideswipes Cuba on its way to Florida.
And some Tri-state families are feeling the effects of Hurricane Wilma, too.
They have loved ones stranded in the hardest hit areas.
It's been the honeymoon from hell for several local couples in Cozumel which has been battered the island for two days.
Eight people from the Florence area include the bride and groom as well as their matron
UPDATE 4-Hurricane Wilma aims at Florida after Mexico chaos
Hurricane Wilma thundered toward Florida on Sunday after devastating Mexico's Caribbean resorts with floodwaters and wild winds that smashed thousands of homes and killed at least seven people.
While residents of the Florida Keys hunkered down for battering winds and a powerful surge of floodwaters, dazed tourists waded through knee-deep water in the streets of Mexico's beach resort Cancun to seek food and water after three nights in damp shelters without electricity.
At one point the most intense hurricane ever recorded in the Atlantic basin, Wilma weakened as it hammered Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula
