Cancun, Mexico – Mexico’s economy took a big blow from Hurricane Wilma, with the palatial hotels at the heart of its tourism industry left in ruins and shopping centers emptied by looters.
Soldiers and federal police took to Cancun’s streets Monday to prevent further theft, and President Vicente Fox announced plans to start evacuating 30,000 frazzled tourists as he worked to restore the image of a carefree Caribbean beach paradise.
Fox said while touring Cancun that officials hoped to start busing some tourists 170 miles across the Yucatan Peninsula to the airport in Merida later Monday. He said he hoped Cancun’s airport could resume operations today so evacuations could move more quickly.
There was no estimate on damage, but Fox told the Televisa network there should be $2.7 billion in aid from various levels of government, insurers and loans to help reconstruction. Many of Cancun’s 500,000 residents lost nearly everything in flooded or destroyed homes.
Electricity was reported out in much of the city, and the president estimated it would take a week to restore power. He said officials were trying to bring in more portable generators.
Fox expressed concern that one of Mexico’s biggest moneymakers – the Caribbean coastal resorts – would not fully recover for at least two months. The booming string of hotels anchored by Cancun produce almost half of the country’s $11 billion in yearly foreign tourism revenue.
“We’re approaching the full tourist season. So speed is fundamental,” Fox said.
Ana Patricia Morales, vice president of the Cancun Hotels Association, said full recovery could take until Easter week. She said that all the group’s 110 hotels had sustained damage, ranging from broken windows to structural problems.
Fox said six people were known dead in Mexico.
Lingering over the region for two days, the hurricane battered Cancun’s line of luxury hotels into an expensive breakwater.
As the rains stopped Sunday, stunned Mexicans watched television images of looters rushing through stores like swarms of ants, carrying out everything from TV sets, clothes and beer to trucks, cars and even pizza delivery motorcycles.
Whole blocks of stores were looted, and many stores were bare by Monday. Police had made about 200 arrests.
Most tourists were still sheltering in cockroach-infested classrooms reeking of sweat and mildew.
