Saturday, October 21. 2006
Friday, December 9. 2005
I am Doctor Caput and was on the second floor of the Moon Palace Convention Center Refuge with my family of 6. We had the portable crib for Bryan on the second floor. Bryan got quite ill duirng the 5 days lock down and lost three pounds by the time we got home. We were evacuated to Merida on Monday evening and still couldn't get out until Saturday. The Merida airport was a nightmare. Fortunately I had been to Merida on three seperat occasions during the past five years to hold clinics for the poor people in the area on behalf of a Methodist Church in Merida. I knew Merida well and although we were all sick from bronchitis and pneumonia we survived. We are worried about some of the other guests particularily the children. Does anyone know how little Sarah did and when did that family get out. What happened at the Moon Palace after Monday October 24. When and how did the refugees finally get out. We had reports that the airport didn't function until well linto the second week. If you were at the Moon Palace please write me and let me know your experiences. Does anyone know what if anything that the American Government did to help any of us. In Merida there was no evidence of any additional airline flights. It was absolute chaos. Thanks William Caput MD wcaput at att.net
Tuesday, November 29. 2005
Jesse & Jessica, I just looked at your website and have to tell you how sorry I am to see your photos and the conditions you had to endure. We were in between Playa del Carmen and Puerto Aventuras at the Aventura Spa Palace. The Palace resorts have the Beach, Sun, Cancun and Moon Palaces in Cancun. On Thursday, October 20, the hotel evacuated us to their convention center. The convention center is a designated hurricane shelter. We and 1600 other "guests" were treated quite well during and after Wilma. The hotel kitchen is connected to the convention center by an underground tunnel. Because the electricity was out, the hotel was cooking and serving us 3 squares a day, before the food spoiled. One day, they even had peanuts from the bar and chocolates from room service. The hotel management stayed with the guests during and after the hurricane making sure we were as comfortable as we could be.  On Monday, after the hurricane, a few guys from our group found a cab to take them to Tulum. When they got there they called our families in the US to let them know we were all ok. While there, they persuaded a van to take us to Merida. There were 8 of us. Cost was $800. We got a little nervous when we went south as we were not sure where the driver was taking us. But he knew of the extensive damage and flooding toward Cancun and got us to Merida 8 hours later.
When we got to Merida the only people there were tour groups and travel agency charters. We called the US and had our families arrange flights out on Continental. We stayed in the airport that night. As we waited, the airport started filling up with escapees like ourselves. We decided at about 4:00am to get in line at the Continental counter. I kept counting how many people were ahead of us, so that I knew people weren't line busting. Behind us though, the line kept growing until there was about 300 people flying standby. We had tickets and confirmation numbers thanks to our families. Continental was the only airline on Tuesday flying in empty planes to help us get out of Mexico. They had flown 3 into Merida that day. The plane left at 1:00pm and were home in Dallas by 6:30pm. Again, your conditions were much tougher, but I am glad that we all got out of there in one piece.
But the thing is... We cannot wait to go back.
One of the guests at our hotel set up a website dedicated to all the refugees of Wilma: wilmaslastresort.com. Best regards and congratulations on your marriage,
Joe Austin, Dallas, Texas
Tuesday, November 15. 2005
Keith, I'm glad to see you took some photos of that place. After the RIU kicked us out Monday we hit this place up thanks to Keith & Chris's travel agent from Apple. The place was great, it was nice, secure and close to a VIP's. We immediately went and got our first hot meal and cold drink. It was amazing! They also had running water somehow. They were running a generator so all was good. We were able to go to the roof and scope out the city at night to see what parts still had power or were running generators. our plan for the next day was to venture out and find an outlet so Keith could charge his international phone. Thanks again Keith for letting us use it. Pictured below is Jessica, Chris and yours truly. 
You can see the line we were in at the Cancun airport on Wednesday. We were so excited to go home finally. It was such a relief to finally see a Delta employee and have them give us a hand written boarding pass and tell is to wait in line for a buss to come pick us up. 
Friday, November 4. 2005
The people of Cancun Mexico are truly some of the hardest working people I have ever seen. During our survival adventure through the days following the storm I was amazed by the amount of work that was completed in the couple days we were stuck there. Workers were out, Marina was out all working together. Their goal and attitude was clearly to push forward and move on. They were digging power-line poles by hand with post digging equipment. The cleanup began ASAP. 
These were taken in the hotel zone Monday.
Payphones had lines and people waited for hours to talk to loved ones.
Thursday, November 3. 2005
I am sure that all of the shelters had a lot of honeymooners. I remember on the plane ride to Cancun looking around and try to guess who was on their honeymoon like us. Some were obvious because the girls still had their hair done. I noticed others through subtle body language. The guys would be spinning their rings on their left hand, not being used to wearing one, I know Jesse was spinning his. The girls had their nails done and their rings were still very sparkly. There were a few on our plane and I saw a lot at the airport when we arrived in Cancun.. The van that drove us to our hotel dropped another couple off at the Dreams Hotel first, and they were on their honeymoon. All through the storm and the days following at the shelter I wondered where all those couples were. What shelter they were at, and if they were freaking out. At our shelter, in our room alone there were 7 couples on their honeymoon. One couple was from Michigan, one from Indiana, one from Florida, two from Japan, and one from Korea. It is amazing to me how we all wound up at the same place. I think that we all seemed to make the best of it. We even joked that our room was the honeymoon suite. One guy asked us if we ever thought we would get to sleep with 40 other people on our honeymoon. I have to say that although it was not the honeymoon I had planned or had in mind, I learned a lot.
I still wonder what happened to all of the honeymooners I saw at the airport, and to the other couples from our room. I hope that they were like Jesse and I, and saw the entire ordeal as a learning experience. We both feel like it was a way for us to learn more about each other, and be more understanding. We also feel like it put a lot of other things into perspective. Its hard to worry about petty things when you are just trying to keep a dry room. As everyone has told since we have been home, it is a vacation we will never forget.
The RIU Palace Las Américas was amazing to say the least. Had a great time and they know how to take care of their people with a smile on their faces.
This is when it hit us things were about to get serious. This was one of the worst feelings I felt when on the trip to see this in the lobby.
As you can see, minimal damage, lot's of water inside from the windows being missing. Could aid in a mold problem.
This is the 2nd floor, you can see missing windows and water damage.
This is the view from our room when we went back Monday.
Well we just arrived back from Cancun Mexico. We were lucky enough to see the hotel before, during, and after the hurricane. My boyfriend and I only got about 1 1/2 days of fun before the rest of the trip turned into a pretty bad time. I do want to say that the staff at the Iberostar could not be more friendly. We were one of the unlucky ones to be in the "convention center" during the hurricane. the workers were always friendly and tried harder than I have ever seen a person/s try to make us feel at ease. Our group helped to raise the $6000 in 25min for the workers to split. The roof coming down was very scary, but everyone made us as comfortable as possible. The one thing I would of asked for is some communication before, during, and after the hurricane. I know that during the storm they could only inform us as much as they found out. But all we got from staff before the storm was that we would get some rain and it wasn't a big deal. Well it turned out a lot worse. Also the other review raved about Lomus travel. I on the other hand would like to say they are the worst and I would never use them to travel again. They were there before the storm, but after they were impossible to find. They told me countless times to meet them up front at the lobby at a certain time and guarenteed to be there, then they weren't. They could of been around like Apple was there all the time, up until late at night. They may not of had a lot of info. but they tried. Lomus did nothing. They made me feel that much more helpless and scared. We actually got out of the country using a totally different travel company because they were willing to help. The Lindo theater was up and running after it was flooded 1 1/2 days later with shows being put on. Our group made up the "Wilma" drink. So if you ever go there ask for the bartender named Irving. Once you have him ask him to either make a "Wilma" or if you use the code word you can use your middle finger and scratch your cheek. That is the code word. He hated making them because they have a lot of alcohol in them and are time consuming. Tip him well and he will be fine. Just tell him the "Wilma" Crew- Chris,Brandi,Andrew,Shawna,etc..say HI, and we will be back for his drinks. He was wonderful along with the rest of the bartending team. They kept us sane. I would love to go back to this beautiful hotel when it is back to normal, not during hurricane season. I only wish we had more time to enjoy it. We will be back. I don't have my photos on this computer, but the destruction is only something that has bonded all of us with the IBEROSTAR. Brandi Wapon, Glendal, AZ
Wednesday, November 2. 2005
Throughout the entire hurricane there was one phrase I heard over and over again, that was "I just want to go home." It was the shared feeling of almost every person at our shelter. We all just wanted to be back home, and none of us new when or how we would do it. I think that for me that was the scariest part. The storm would have been a piece of cake if some one could have told me, ok today is the storm tomorrow you will wait, we will let you fly home on Wednesday. But they couldn't. Because nobody, not the locals, not the hotel staff, not the news, nor our families back home knew when we could get home. We heard so many different things from so many different people it became hard to believe anything. I know that we had at least 7 flights scheduled, cancelled and rescheduled. And people told us the airport was destroyed, they guaranteed the airport wouldn't open for weeks. Others swore that their flights were still on for Monday. The US Consulate had told us, if you have travel agency don't get on the bus to Merida. The next day (Tuesday morning) an Apple agent said she had no idea when the Cancun airport would open our best option would be to get on a bus to Merida, the hotel staff also told us this. So people got in taxis to get to a bus station. Some of people even paid taxis up to $200 to drive them to Merida. We went to the bus station where we are told there is no more room in Merida, they would not be taking anymore buses. More run around. Our families booked and rebooked for us, and the airlines gave them the run around. My father-in-law spoke with me Tuesday night and after our phone conversation I felt awful for the way I must have come off to him, because I was just so frustrated when he told us again that our flight for the following day was cancelled and the soonest they could book us was Saturday. Saturday?? I couldn't wait until Saturday. I was sad, upset and scared on the Friday and Saturday of the hurricane, I was still upset and scared on Monday, but now Tuesday night with that news I was pissed. I couldn't believe it, how could the airlines just leave us down here? And with all the mixed messages, and the run around we got. Early Wednesday we by chance ran into the location Delta had set up for people to get on buses for an emergency flight out of Cancun Airport. One of the first flights out of Cancun. We were lucky to get on this flight. And we are so happy to finally BE HOME! But another part of me has this incredible guilt that we are home and so many of those people we met in our shelter may not be. We were all separated in the confusion of the Merida buses. We wound up in a hotel in downtown Cancun where the Apple agent told us to go to the Aero Mexico office a mile or two away in the morning. The Aero Mexico office happened to be right by the Delta station. But what about the other people. Did they know about these emergency flights? Do they have flights to get home? OR did some of them risk the 5 hour taxi ride to Merida? My brain keeps running through all of these questions. I feel lucky, and guilty. I just have to keep hoping that everyone made it home safely, and that hopefully by now a week later everyone has made it home at all.
So the day we get back from our trip in Coba we get back to our hotel room to see a sheet of paper on the bed. It stated there was a hurricane headed our direction and at that time it was a category 4. We immediately go downstairs and get on the internet and talk to our loved ones telling them the new we just received. At that time there was quite a buzz going around the RIU Palace hotel in the lobby. The next morning we get yet another sheet of paper slipped in the door. It said to bring our airline paperwork, 1 pillow and blanket each. We were then bussed to the shelter inland about 4-5 miles to a secondary school. Along with us came several cooks and raw fruit / vegetables and some canned goods. We were told that we were only going to be there 1-2 days. We personally stayed in the school shelter from Thursday the 20th through Sunday the 24th.
Once we left the school shelter we went back to the RIU Palace Las America resort and stayed there for 1 night. This was the start of the chain of events that eventually led to us being one of the first planes out of the Cancun airport. At the RIU we were able to get a lite wash from the back of the toilets. Since the back of the tanks hold fresh water we lathered ourselves up and washed ourselves. There were several rooms that were unlocked so we went around and gathered up more waters and other choice drinks left in the fridges. Since only some of the rooms key cards worked another couple roomed with us. Aside from no running water and power this was the best night we had since leaving the shelter. Here are some pictures from the school shelter: 
The food situation was not very exciting. At least in our shelter we had food. Some of the stories we had heard when people came in from other shelters was that there was no food in other places. We had food up until the point that we left. It would get worse every day. You could tell the people making the food were running out
of ideas on what to make.
This was our very fist meal, looks decent but was hard to get down.
This was a Tuna lunch with diced veggies mixed in it.
You can tell she really likes the food. This was taken Thursday when we still had power.
Notice how portions got smaller. By the time we left we were eating a salsa looking mix with chips and that's it. By Sunday we were out of water because people were bathing in it and waisting it in other ways. We did our best to keep from getting hungry. We ventured out several times after the storm lookin for small shops that were open to get chips and such. Sunday there was a place selling rice & chicken, our first hot meal in 4 days. It was so good.
Tuesday, November 1. 2005
Hurricane Wilma Photos If you would like to contribute by adding your own photos to go along with your blog please self-register to the gallery and upload your photos in a new album. If you need assistance please e-mail huryde at gmail.com. Please look at the current format of albums setup and use similar nested albums in your own. Please keep the photos on the topic: "Vacation pictures from Wilma in Cancun."
Monday, October 31. 2005
Welcome, I am please to present an online weblog for everyone who experienced hurricane Wilma's destructive path through Cancun. This site is a living journal for you to express your true feelings and talk with others about what we all went through. Please send an e-mail to huryde at gmail.com if you would like to join this community. Once I recieve the e-mail I will send you the info you need to log-in so you can post. Everyone will share the same login, please include your name in each post. Feel free to talk about anything related to your time in Cancun, good and bad. To post a topic:(registered users only) Use the "Open Administration" link on the right side of page, enter the login and password. Then click on "Add Entry". From there, you are given the option to give your entry a title, a category, and to set the date and time of your posting (its default is the current date at time). Type in your post and even add pictures using the Image Manager Icon (hovering over the top of each icon on the bars above your post will display text as to what they are...look for the one displaying "Manage Images") Posts will Accept plain text and HTML, and there are a variety of Markup Plugins that one can enable in order to beautify your post. The Entry Body is what is displayed on the front page (and in your archives and RSS/Atom feeds) You can add additional text to the extended body, which will show up only when a user clicks on that particular entry.
To post comments:
(any visitor)
Click the comments link under entry and post your comments accordingly.
|
