A friend of mine's Wilma experience. Any specific names have been removed to keep this "anonymous". Still pretty good story nonetheless.
Here’s my Hurricane Wilma story for all who are interested…
Hello! I’m back from Mexico. FINALLY. We were supposed to be back by 10/23, but didn’t make it back until this Saturday, 10/29. We were in Playa Del Carmen, between Cozumel and Cancun. Wilma didn’t hit Playa as bad as those two, but there was still a lot of damage. We got there on Sunday 10/16, so we were able to enjoy ourselves until that Wednesday. On Thursday morning we were evacuated to the convention center and stayed there until we were finally able to get a flight Saturday. The building we were in was safe and only took water damage. Although it is a weird feeling to sit in a concrete building that’s visibly shaking. The worst part was being in a leaky concrete building (think moldy basement) with 1500 people, no air conditioning and no shower. (We finally got to shower on the 4th day.) The storm stayed over us for almost 2 full days, then had gusts up to 50 mph for another couple of days, so we couldn’t go outside. Once the storm was over, they wouldn’t let us back into our rooms because they said they were no longer a hotel, they were a shelter. (even though the rooms were fine, beyond some water on the floor. Basically, they wanted the rooms open for the paying guests who would start coming in again by today. ) So, we slept on beach chairs in the shelter for a week and a half.
We were lucky in that there was plenty of food and water, no one at our shelter got sick and there was no violence. Other shelters weren’t so lucky. I am just glad to be back.
The airport wouldn’t even let you in if you didn’t have a boarding pass, which of course no one had because we had all missed our flights. The airlines had to send reps to random locations to hand-write passes on a first come, first serve basis. Of course, they never went to the same place twice and no one could tell you where they would be ahead of time. We finally caught up w/US Air on Saturday. We camped out at the McDonald’s they were rumored to be going to. We got there at 2 AM on Friday and they finally showed up at 9 AM. I can now add sleeping on the ground at the Cancun McDonald’s on my list of stories to tell my grandchildren. I never would have believed that it was possible for one piece of ground to be dirtier than any other piece of ground, but believe me, it is. We made it home about 9 AM day before yesterday. I’m still tired. Too bad I don’t have any time off left so I could take a vacation from my vacation! Plus, I have to take last week as leave w/out pay because I don’t have any vacation time left. Yippee.
My cat made the “stinky kitty face” at me when I got home and picked her up. You cat owners know what I’m talking about. The same look they get when they smell something that they then try to cover up.
And let me just say…the US Embassy in Mexico sucks! Possibly, the whole US gov’t sucks. I haven’t decided yet. The storm hit on the 20th-21st and the UK had charter planes in Cancun by the 23rd to fly out all of its citizens. The UK Embassy was at the hotel on 10/22 and 10/23 to make sure they got everyone. They even came back on 10/29 because they heard a rumor that there were still two Irish citizens at our shelter. It turned out to be untrue, but can you believe they were willing to send another charter for 2 people??? Canada did the same. We didn’t even see the US Embassy until 10/28. Then, all they told us was there was nothing they could do and we were at the mercy of the airlines. I wasn’t asking for a fancy charter plane. A few of those military cargo planes would have been fine. I would’ve sat on the floor of one of those for a few hours. Get me to the nearest base and let me make my own way from there. Whatever…. (The Cancun airport would let in charter and military flights for the first few days, but not commercial. Their communications tower was blown over and they didn’t have radar. Once they did let in commercial, they would only allow 3-4 flights out per day per airline. And, you had to fly out on the airline that flew you in.)
Anyway, we are safe and sound and back in the US. The next time (if ever) I go back to Mexico, it will be on a cruise ship so that my hotel room will be mobile!!
Hello! I’m back from Mexico. FINALLY. We were supposed to be back by 10/23, but didn’t make it back until this Saturday, 10/29. We were in Playa Del Carmen, between Cozumel and Cancun. Wilma didn’t hit Playa as bad as those two, but there was still a lot of damage. We got there on Sunday 10/16, so we were able to enjoy ourselves until that Wednesday. On Thursday morning we were evacuated to the convention center and stayed there until we were finally able to get a flight Saturday. The building we were in was safe and only took water damage. Although it is a weird feeling to sit in a concrete building that’s visibly shaking. The worst part was being in a leaky concrete building (think moldy basement) with 1500 people, no air conditioning and no shower. (We finally got to shower on the 4th day.) The storm stayed over us for almost 2 full days, then had gusts up to 50 mph for another couple of days, so we couldn’t go outside. Once the storm was over, they wouldn’t let us back into our rooms because they said they were no longer a hotel, they were a shelter. (even though the rooms were fine, beyond some water on the floor. Basically, they wanted the rooms open for the paying guests who would start coming in again by today. ) So, we slept on beach chairs in the shelter for a week and a half.
We were lucky in that there was plenty of food and water, no one at our shelter got sick and there was no violence. Other shelters weren’t so lucky. I am just glad to be back.
The airport wouldn’t even let you in if you didn’t have a boarding pass, which of course no one had because we had all missed our flights. The airlines had to send reps to random locations to hand-write passes on a first come, first serve basis. Of course, they never went to the same place twice and no one could tell you where they would be ahead of time. We finally caught up w/US Air on Saturday. We camped out at the McDonald’s they were rumored to be going to. We got there at 2 AM on Friday and they finally showed up at 9 AM. I can now add sleeping on the ground at the Cancun McDonald’s on my list of stories to tell my grandchildren. I never would have believed that it was possible for one piece of ground to be dirtier than any other piece of ground, but believe me, it is. We made it home about 9 AM day before yesterday. I’m still tired. Too bad I don’t have any time off left so I could take a vacation from my vacation! Plus, I have to take last week as leave w/out pay because I don’t have any vacation time left. Yippee.
My cat made the “stinky kitty face” at me when I got home and picked her up. You cat owners know what I’m talking about. The same look they get when they smell something that they then try to cover up.
And let me just say…the US Embassy in Mexico sucks! Possibly, the whole US gov’t sucks. I haven’t decided yet. The storm hit on the 20th-21st and the UK had charter planes in Cancun by the 23rd to fly out all of its citizens. The UK Embassy was at the hotel on 10/22 and 10/23 to make sure they got everyone. They even came back on 10/29 because they heard a rumor that there were still two Irish citizens at our shelter. It turned out to be untrue, but can you believe they were willing to send another charter for 2 people??? Canada did the same. We didn’t even see the US Embassy until 10/28. Then, all they told us was there was nothing they could do and we were at the mercy of the airlines. I wasn’t asking for a fancy charter plane. A few of those military cargo planes would have been fine. I would’ve sat on the floor of one of those for a few hours. Get me to the nearest base and let me make my own way from there. Whatever…. (The Cancun airport would let in charter and military flights for the first few days, but not commercial. Their communications tower was blown over and they didn’t have radar. Once they did let in commercial, they would only allow 3-4 flights out per day per airline. And, you had to fly out on the airline that flew you in.)
Anyway, we are safe and sound and back in the US. The next time (if ever) I go back to Mexico, it will be on a cruise ship so that my hotel room will be mobile!!
posted by UreDead2Me at 11/01/2005 01:48:00 PM
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