Mexico battles to rid Cancun of hurricane scars
All along Cancun’s famed hotel strip, laborers are working flat out to patch up the wounds inflicted by Hurricane Wilma, replacing smashed windows, planting new palm trees and rebuilding torn up sidewalks.
Package tourists – whose absence is costing Mexico’s biggest resort town several million dollars a day - should be back in this Caribbean paradise starting in mid-December and local officials insist they will barely notice the difference.
Yet sneak between the cordoned-off luxury hotels, and past surly security guards barring access to the sea, and the picture is more alarming.
Along large sections of the coast, the talcum-powder sand beaches that lure some 7 million sun seekers each year have simply disappeared, dragged off by huge waves from Wilma’s storm surge.
And the luxuriant palm trees that used to fringe this 16-mile (25-km) long spit of sand, separated from the mainland by a tropical lagoon, are now desolate brown stumps.
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Mexico warns tourists in Cancun of threat from Hurricane Emily
Mexican officials issued a hurricane warning Saturday for much of the eastern Yucatan peninsula, including the resort of Cancun, as Hurricane Emily barreled across the Caribbean south of Jamaica.
Authorities already were recommending tourists leave much of Mexico's Caribbean coast as a precaution.
While evacuation had not yet been ordered, the Cancun city government met with local bus companies to arrange transportation for tourists away from the low-lying spit of land that houses much of Cancun's hotel sector, which lies almost directly in the catagory 4 hurricane's path.
Mexico issued a hurricane
Mexico plans evacuation of tourists from Cancun as hurricane Emily advances
Mexican officials recommended Friday evacuating tourists from much of the country's Caribbean coast - including the resort of Cancun - if hurricane Emily continues heading toward the Yucatan peninsula.
While no evacuation has yet been ordered, the Cancun city government is already meeting with local bus companies to arrange transport for tourists away from the low-lying spit of land that houses much of Cancun's hotel sector.
The Interior Department recommended evacuating the Caribbean coast from Tulum to an area north of Cancun, and urged people to take refuge at
Hurricane Emily's winds start battering Mexico
Hurricane Emily started lashing the beaches of Mexico's Yucatan peninsula late Sunday.
The Category 4 storm blew down signs and trees, leaving Isla Mujeres and parts of the island of Cozumel and Cancun without electricity.
Emily's eye would pass over Cozumel early Monday, authorities predicted.
The hurricane did slightly weaken as it approached Mexico, with speeds dropping from 235 kilometres per hour to 220 km/h.
Earlier Sunday, chaos ruled at Cancun, Mexico's airport as tourists waited for flights to escape hurricane Emily.
At Toronto's Pearson Airport, Dave Job arrived on one flight -- but without his son.
While concerned, "I'm a
Tourists fleeing Yucatan ahead of hurricane
Long lines of people choked the Cancun airport as tourists rushed to leave this Caribbean resort ahead of Hurricane Emily, which packed 155 mph winds as it streaked toward Mexico.
Mexican officials issued a hurricane warning today for much of the eastern Yucatan peninsula, including the resort of Cancun, and authorities were recommending tourists abandon much of Mexico's Caribbean coast as a precaution.
Sunny skies and a laid-back atmosphere still prevailed at the resort, despite the approaching Category 4 hurricane.
"The locals seem pretty nonchalant about it," said Becky Hart, 29, a school teacher from Madera, Calif.,
Locust plague encircles Mexicos Cancun resort
Clouds of locusts have descended around the Mexican beach resort of Cancun, destroying corn crops and worrying officials in a region still recovering from the devastating fury of last years Hurricane Wilma.
Traveling in dark fogs, locusts are grasshoppers that have entered a swarming phase, capable of covering large distances and rapidly stripping fields of vegetation.
Imagine, they fly in the form of a flock. Imagine the width of a street, government official Martin Rodriguez said on Tuesday, describing the fields around Cancun on the Yucatan Peninsula.
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Mexico resorts getting back in the swim
Tourism officials in the hurricane-battered Mexican state of Quintana Roo hope to have 80 percent of the accommodations and amenities in the affected Caribbean coast resorts fully operational by February.
The Yucatan Peninsula state, home to tourism magnets Cancun, Cozumel and the Riviera Maya, accounts for about 36 percent of Mexico's nearly $11 billion tourism industry, according to Quintana Roo tourism secretary Gabriela Rodriguez.
Hurricane Wilma hit Cancun the hardest in late October, closing most of its hotel rooms. Between 8,000 and 10,000 of the city's approximately 25,000 hotel rooms are now open, and officials expect
Hurricane halts Mexico travel
Tour operators are holding back tourists from the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico, which was hit by Hurricane Emily last week, until hotels reopen and damage is assessed.
Winds of 125mph swept across the popular holiday region on Monday, killing six and forcing the evacuation of 30,000 tourists in Cancun. Many had to camp in a local gymnasium for the night. Some tourists on the island of Cozumel also had to abandon their hotels.
The hurricane continued to the north-east coast and moved inland, travelling westwards. A hurricane warning remained in effect from La Cruz to the Texas border at
Hurricane Wilma slams into mainland Mexico
Ocean waves surged over the narrow strip of land that holds Cancun's resort hotels as Hurricane Wilma slammed into Mexican mainland, where some 30,000 tourists huddled in hotels and shelters amid shrieking winds and shattering glass.
The eye of the category 3 storm, which had already killed 13 people, first slammed into Cozumel Island _ the worst-hit, and now cut off _ and then headed north-northwest onto the mainland near the beach town of Playa de Carmen, south of Cancun.
The howling winds caused severe damage in Playa de Carmen, flattening dozens of wood-and-tarpaper
Six dead as Wilma batters Mexico
At least six people have died as Hurricane Wilma lingers over Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, Reuters reports.
Two deaths been reported on the island on the island of Cozumel, and one person died in Cancun when a gust of wind blew out a window.
In the resort town of Playa del Carmen, two people died when a gas tank exploded, while to the west of the Yucatan Peninsula, a large tree branch crushed a man to death.
The slow-moving storm has sent waves as high as the third storey of some hotels in the resort of
Hurricane Emily may hit eastern Mexico
authorities warned Thursday the inhabitants of Yucatan Peninsula, east of the country, about the possibility that hurricane Emily hits the area on Sunday.
The National Meteorological Service (SMN) said in a statement that Emily is in the Caribbean, 2,700 km off the Mexican littoral.
The hurricane has sustained gusts of wind of 160 km per hour, even reaching 185, with the possibility of further increasing.
The Civil Protection authorities told the inhabitants of the states of Quintana Roo, Campeche and Yucatan to
