Recovery in Yucatan?
 

Anyone have a feel for how fast the Yucatan and Cozumel will recover?

I was prepared to book a trip for early February, but am guessing that it will have to be another year.

Taking care of the people that live there is MUCH more important, but they need the tourist dollars, pounds and euros as well.

Keith

Here is the text of a posting from Aldora Divers on Cozumel regarding hurrican damage and recovering:

Cozumel Hurricane Update from Aldora

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Hurricane Wilma Recovery

October 24, 2005

General Damage of note (from south to north):

While there was much rain, it was not as much as tropical storms that we frequently experience and flooding from rising water was not anything out of the ordinary.

All waterfront hotels to the south have suffered catastrophic damage but the extent is not known at this time.

Day beach resorts where our surface intervals have been taken are certainly damaged if not gone.

Chankanaab Park has disappeared.

Caletta Harbor suffered severe damage to many boats. The Living Underwater boat is sunk and lies underneath a huge Dive Paradise boat which is upside down. Most if not all of the Dive House boats are wrecked/sunken, as are most of the boats in the harbor.

Puerta Maya has disappeared. That includes the buildings and the pier. Paradise Reef is now safe from Cruise Ships.

Car and Truck Ferry Pier is damaged limiting the arrival of supplies.

The International Pier (for years the only cruise ship pier) is damaged and missing a section in the middle.

The dry marina (boat yard) next to Caribe Blu (still standing but seriously damaged), where many boats are stored on land, had a collapse of the boat hanger roof which crushed the owner's giant catamaran and the travel lift which is used to launch and retrieve the large dive boats. This means that it will be quite some time before the large dive boats in dry storage there can get into the water.

The dry marina boat yard protected about 30 boats, and about 5 of them were damaged by flying debris or collapsed walls. All six of the Aldora Boats in the dry Marina are not damaged and using the forklift, can be placed in the water as soon as the authorities allow such activity.

The new cruise ship pier downtown, Punta Langosta seems to be completely intact but the adjacent buildings and mini mall are seriously damaged.

The Aqua Safari pier is gone as well as the remains of the Pro Dive Pier. The Aldora Pier seems to be ok and usable.

The hotel Casa Mexicana is open and running on a generator. The Bahia and other downtown hotels seem to be OK and given electrical power and guests seem to be able to accommodate guests.

The Aldora office and shop on Calle 5, just ¼ block from the water's edge remained undamaged.

All waterfront shops on the main street (Rafael Melgar) suffered wave damage and burst open storm doors, with the contents spread out over the street. Some people have been picking up items from the street but it is not "wild looting" and the police are now patrolling the street where no one is allowed. To the north side of town the waterfront damage seems less and Pancho's Back Yard and Cinco Solis seem intact.

The airport runway is ok and can support flights but the control tower is damaged as is the terminal building.

The Villa Aldora suffered some water in the beach level rooms but since we had moved all furniture into the Cameron Suite (furthest from the water and no ocean view) that all stayed dry. The Barracuda Suite had a broken window behind the hurricane shutters and the North Suite has a cracked sliding glass door. On the Villa Aldora Beach, the only thing left is the rocks that god placed there. Gone is the dock, palapa, retaining walls for our beach sand, the huge palms trees and the wall on the south side of the property.

Puerto Abriggo, home to many of the larger boats, suffered many casualties too but we did not have time to survey them. Maybe 50% were damaged.

Hotels to the north and structures on the east side could not be surveyed.

Synopsis

The major impact has been to the following:

Cruise Ship

It is unknown how long a time will pass before a cruise ship can land in Cozumel. And if they could there is no infrastructure to entertain them. Of course they can revert to using a lighter to bring passengers in, and the shops may be able to sweep out their stores and replace the merchandise, but it will be a long time before the streets are crowded with them again.

Power

The restoration of power is a key for renewal of the Cozumel economy. Without power there will be no tourists so I am sure that the government will apply all energy that they can to get power up and running. Complicating that effort will be that Cozumel will be competing with Cancun for support and it may be difficult to get done as quickly as we have in past hurricanes. The good news is that the Governor of the state is a former President (mayor) of Cozumel and much of his staff is from here. With their friends and family in Cozumel I don't think we will be ignored. My best guess is that we should have power restored to most of the island in less than one week.

Diving

There are two aspects to this, one is the quality of dives and the other is availability of dive boats.

The dive quality will be reduced by very poor visibility for about one week. After that the current should have carried all the light debris toward Cuba. The heavy stuff may litter the bottom for a while, but given that there is not much development near the dive sites that should be minimal. The shallow dive sites may have been scoured but we have found that the fish life returns rather quickly after such an event. Expect finger coral and lettuce coral to have been hard hit. The deeper sites such as Palancar, Columbia and Punta Sur should not have been effected. We are very curious to see if the hurricane has mover the wreck of the C-53.

As for our surface intervals which have normally been taken at a day beach resort, we will just have to revert to the ways we did things before there were piers down south. That is we will nose anchor out, backing in and raising the outboards in the shallow water. Lunch and drinks will be provided for a quiet beach picnic, blowing off the accumulated nitrogen. Many have longed for the way it used to be-here it is!

The availability of dive boats will be an issue. All of the Aldora Boats are ready to go diving as we speak. However more than 50% of the fleet is now damaged or completely destroyed and it is difficult to determine how long it will take to get them all back in operation. Prior reservations may be a must do for divers coming to Cozumel in the coming months.

Another consideration is the availability of power for the compressor shops. That should be going within a week. However, given the focus on "recovery" it is possible that the authorities may ban commercial activity for some time, and that usually includes dive boats.

Given the problems with infrastructure in Cozumel the diving may, for some time, be just it was in the 70s and 80s--not very crowded and with a scarcity of cruise ship people roaming town. There are some among us who don't see that as bad.

Hotels

Most of the large hotels are severely damaged and some may not be reopened at all. My guess is that some may make it to reopen by Christmas. The smaller hotels around town should be able to accept guests as soon as the power is restored. The Villa Aldora is operating on a generator now and could accept guests.

This will be updated as more complete information is received.

Dave Dillehay Aldora Divers

Additional posting from Dave at Aldora Divers regarding Cozumel.

October 25, 2005 4PM CDT

This afternoon a meeting was held with business owners and the President (mayor) of the Island to discuss the recovery effort, priorities and schedule. The major points were:

1. It is recognized that the life blood of Cozumel is the tourist industry and all priorities (after public safety) will be to return the infrastructure as soon as possible.
2. The airport is open for business and Mexicana flights from Mexico City should be arriving today.
3. A 7pm curfew will remain in effect for the time being.
4. The Passenger Ferries are running, bringing supplies in and tourists out.
5. Friday the Truck Ferry pier will be fixed and heavy equipment will be able to come over and help. Electrical crews are already here from all over Mexico.
6. Power will be restored to the Chedraui/Corpus Christi area by Thursday, with other areas added to the grid as soon as possible. It is expected that all areas of the island will be finished by early December.
7. The good news, this time, is that the President of Mexico has promised Federal Aid in the recovery. We hope that is more than just lip service.

Other news includes:

A news release by the Fiesta Americana chain says all Mayan Riviera hotels, including Cozumel will not reopen until December 15th.

Continental Airlines has cancelled flights in this week but is scheduling to resume service on October 29th.

Given that the power will be restored starting October 27th in the Chedraui area, it is presumes that the downtown section may be next followed by the North Hotel zone, then the South. This would allow the quickest return to commercial viability for the island.

Elsewhere, the authorities announced that the first priorities for the roads will be rebuilding the main street, Rafael Melgar, and the road around the island.

Memo Mendoza was able to buy two rotisserie chickens.

Food and water supplies are coming in via the passenger ferries but once the truck ferry is running inventories may soon return to normal.

The big problem for many people though will be that this event comes on the tail end of the low season and almost everyone, including the businesses are broke, a having used up their reserves getting over Hurricane Emily in July and the very low season of September and October. Virtually everyone was expecting to begin making money to live on in early November. Now that is not going to happen for many.

We have read a report that the Barracuda hotel is in rubble, posted by a European I think. That is not entirely true as actually from the street it looks OK. We are sure however that the dive shop and poolside areas are history, and maybe some of the rooms are damaged—but the structure is still standing.

The Villa Blanca hotel pier and the Temptations Bar on the water side have been destroyed, they are rubble. The Casa Del Mar hotel pier is gone as is the waterside stairs going up to the pedestrian bridge. Other than that the hotel seems intact.

It was reported that the Occidental Grand and Allegro Resorts are standing but have 2 feet of sand in the rooms and lobby.

If any divers are scheduled into Cozumel the rest of this year, and find accommodations to be difficult to find we would be willing to help in any way we can. Truly, when power does come back on it is going to be a very peaceful place for a while—that is the way I used to like it.

It is not possible to drive to the south of the island so tomorrow we will be taking out one of our boats to survey the damage to the far south hotels and piers. We will also dive a few select reefs and provide what info we can on what we see.

I passed on the many requests for information to our staff today and am to have a conference call with them between 7 and 9pm CDT this evening. Once I get their feedback I will send replies as I can.

I tried to get a quick flight down for tomorrow with return for the next day, but Continental had cancelled flights until Saturday. Because of Halloween and the fact that I have 6 year old twins I have had to defer that trip until November 2nd. Actually I may be more help here than there anyway.

Again, let me reiterate, almost no one in Cozumel was physically injured by this storm. So to worry about the safety of friends is a waste of emotional energy. However, there has been great mental stress and I even hear that over the telephone in the voice of Memo Mendoza. It will take time and the support of our diver friends but they will get past this, all they need is you.


Dave Dillehay
Aldora Divers

Thank you very much. I have bookmarked Aldora Divers's website.

If anyone knows of a similar info sourch for the pennisula, please pass it along.

Keith

Keith, I think there is some information on locogringo.com regarding the Yucatan mainland. Try this link:

http://www.locogringo.com/forums/tm.asp?m=136263

From what I have read (as we are going he 1st week of January) the bulk of the damage was sustained in Cancun, Cozumel and Isla Mujeres. It appears resorts south of Puerto Adventuras were spared most of the damage as they got the backside of the hurricane. Therefore, it all depends what resort you are booked in.

http://imageevent.com/mapchick/cozumelafterwilma?n=0

Here are some good news photos to pass on to all the Cozumel friends. Its pretty amazing what the people on that island can accomplish in no time at all. No one sitting around waiting for the government to come in and fix things.

That's why we love Cozumel.

I have many friends in Cancun that I keep in touch with almost daily. I understand that repairs are progressing rapidly, so don't give up yet.

Try http://www.cancunassist.com/specialreports.cfm

The site has photos and videos of many of the hotels, restaurants, beaches, etc., post-Wilma, and is updated every few days.