Acapulco - Stranded tourists' nerves fray in storm-hit Cancun

Stranded tourists' nerves fray in storm-hit Cancun

Reuters

Oct. 24, 2005 - CANCUN, Mexico (Reuters) — Dazed foreign tourists stranded in stinking shelters in this hurricane-hit Mexican beach resort demanded to be rescued Monday, and President Vicente Fox lost his cool at slow aid efforts. (Related story: Cancun takes stock after Wilma moves on) Toilets overflowed and food was scarce at refuges in Cancun, where some 20,000 vacationers spent their fifth day sleeping on floors or in stuffy rooms without electricity or running water.

Hurricane Wilma, one of the strongest Atlantic storms recorded, wrecked Cancun at the weekend, gutting huge hotels before pounding Cuba and Florida.

Cancun is Mexico's main resort, a major source of jobs in the region and the jewel of a tourism industry that is the country's third-biggest earner of foreign currency.

Heavily armed federal police stood guard at supermarkets to prevent looting that broke out at the weekend, adding to the chaos. Authorities declared a night-time curfew.

Another 18,000 tourists were stuck in Playa del Carmen, down the coast from Cancun, and the Tourism Ministry said Wilma would cost Mexico's tourism industry $800 million.

A fist fight broke out overnight at the El Forito theater, which was holding some 300 mostly American and British package tourists evacuated from their lodgings, witnesses said.

"If some changes aren't made, it's going to get real nasty, because people's tempers are starting to get frazzled. You are living on rice and noodles and fruit," said Jim Pelinka, 54, a school administrator from Minnesota.

Tourists slept in two-hour shifts on the theater's wooden stage because there was not enough room in the building. It stank of overflowed toilets.

One American tourist shouted for aid from the U.S. government. "We need help in here and they're not helping us," she screamed. "They should be flying in planes or helicopters or something. Give us water! Give us food!"

Fox angry

A visibly angry President Fox demanded that the army and police set up a joint command center in Cancun to stop an outbreak of looting and help tourists fly out.

"I want that command center operating 100% right now," he shouted at local officials.

Fox complained that Cancun residents were going hungry, and he interrupted the federal civic protection chief Carmen Segura who told him supplies were on the way.

"Leave it out, Carmen. I don't know if the supplies are finished or not or if they are in people's stomachs but I don't see them here," he snapped.

Police fired warning shots to stop looters stripping stores bare of washing machines, televisions and other goods over the weekend, and soldiers stood guard outside shopping centers.

In better times, millions of foreigners visit Cancun every year for its pristine beaches and turquoise seas. It was built out of almost nothing by government planners in the 1970s on a spit of mosquito-infested sand.

Wilma's fierce winds left debris lying on Cancun's streets and tore shop fronts off expensive shopping malls.

At least two luxury hotel chains said they would not be taking new reservations until after the lucrative Christmas holiday period.

On Monday, drinking water and sandwiches provided by hotels was rationed at the shelters. Cancun airport was closed for several more days and tourists demanded to be taken home however possible.

Dozens lined up for space on a handful of buses to take them to flights from the city of Merida but the highway through flat jungle was closed due to flooding,

"The road was impassable. It was washed out," said exasperated Randy Reynolds, from Vermont, who returned to Cancun after trying to drive out.

Some tourists said the elderly with heart troubles were running out of medicine and arguments about the use of water or sleeping space broke out at the shelters.

"We just want to go home. We're tired, hungry, we're not clean. Everything here is unsanitary, no running water," said Gloria Davis, a children's hospital worker from Philadelphia who was on her honeymoon.

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© Copyright 2005 Reuters Limited.

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