Just My Luck.

[z28pwr]

Just my luck. I'm supposed to leave for Cozumel this Friday and it's flooded.

Apparently everyone is OK but there was significant water damage to the island.


IN A STATE OF EMERGENCY
The rains leave unquantifiable damages in Cozumel

The strong rains that fell during the lst 72 hours in the peninsula left Cozumel severely inundated, where they report 20,000 disaster victims and 80 percent of the streets damaged and/or under water.

Cozumel was declared to be in a state of emergency since Sunday morning and given the magnitude of the disaster, the secretary of goverment authorized monies from the national disaster fund be used for repairs and cleanup, as well as to assist thousands of affected families.

Governor Joaquin Hendricks Diaz travelled to the island to view the preliminary damages and visited a number of neighborhoods including 10 de Abril, Urba, Emiliano Zapata, San Gervasio, San Miguel I and II, Flamingos, and CTM.

Authorities stated that a natural phenomenon of this magnitude has not been recorded in ten years, where 527 milliliters of water fell over a 48 hour period, flooding businesses, homes, schools and public buildings. The damages are unquantifiable at this time with families reporting the loss of all of their personal belongings and hundreds of vehicles stranded.

Up to this point there have been no injuries or deaths attributed to the flooding.

The Cozumel airport was closed two nights with the runway under more than half a meter of water, and hundreds of tourists were transported to Cancun to connect with their departing flights.

In a separate article:

Yesterday 800 tourists had to be transported to the Cancun airport to take their return flight home and others were evacuated from their hotels in the northern zone of the island. Several hotels in that area were flooded, with water actually entering into the buildings themselves.

More rain is expected in the coming hours, but with less intensity.

Governor Hendricks arrived in Cozumel by boat around 3:30 PM, accompanied by state representatives from the water commission and civil protection, to evaluate the damages.

At that time the civil protection department reported 454 persons in shelters. Some sections of Emiliano Zapata, Flamingos and San Gervasio neighborhoods were without electricity and water.

Drainage:
Saturday authorities were forced to bring in heavy equipment to break cement along the northern waterfront, permitting water to drain off into the ocean.

The governor informed that if it became necessary more drain off sites could be opened. For right now, DIF (family services) will be in charge of providing families with food, blankets and medical attention.

He also said that the secretary of government would soon provide resources for rehabilitating the city, and that water pumps would be coming from the state of Campeche in the near future.

[reefer]

good thing your bringing your snorkel, mask and fins!

[Nano_Steve]

OMG! i wonder if tim and his family are alright........:?

-steve

[z28pwr]

OMG! i wonder if tim and his family are alright........:?

-steve

That's true, Tim left today. I would assume they are OK since they were supposed to leave today. Maybe he can post from over there.

[TAXMAN]

Thats the 1st thing I thought about. TIM. I hope he is ok down there. Maybe he can find a computer in some shop to post here.

[Sunhutch]

I just got back from there today. I left on monday just as the rains had subsided. Our flight was delayed a bit while the airport was trying to reopen but made it there fine monday morning. The roads were still a bit flooded and you could see the debris caught in the fence that follows the road from the airport which had to be at least 3ft tall. By the end of the week most water had been drained off (at least were I was at, we stayed at the Plaza de las glorais) and during my 5 days there no rain was to be seen. There was a couple areas that smelled of backed up sewage and lots af construction going on around the marketplace area. From what I understand there was one fatality and this was related to the guy being drunk.