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Mexico's Cancun evacuates as Wilma grows, nears
(AP)
Updated: 2005-10-21 08:51 "You see the lines. I don't want to stand there for two hours and then decide
what to do," said Williams, 26.
Increasingly high winds bent palm trees and strong waves gobbled Cancun's
white-sand beaches. Officials loaded tourists onto buses after rousting them out
of a string of luxury hotels lining the precarious strip between the Caribbean
and the Nichupte Lagoon. By Thursday afternoon, the normally busy tourist zone
was deserted.
Some, like 30-year-old Carlos Porta of Barcelona, Spain, were handed plastic
bags with a pillow and blanket.
A Mexican soldier carries some mattresses for
tourists at a shelter in Cancun, state of Quintana Roo,
Mexico.[AFP] | "From a luxury hotel to a shelter.
It makes you angry. But what can you do?" he said. "It's just bad luck."
Mayor Francisco Antonio Alor said 20,000 tourists remained in the city
Thursday, down from 35,000 the day before. He said he hoped most would be able
to fly out on charters, but about 270 shelters in the area were being readied
for those who were stuck.
"It's important that the people understand they should leave for their own
security," he said. "It is important that they understand the situation is very
dangerous."
Early Wednesday, Wilma became the most intense hurricane recorded in the
Atlantic. The storm's 882 millibars of pressure broke the record low of 888 set
by Hurricane Gilbert in 1988. Lower pressure brings faster winds.
Quintana Roo state officials urged the evacuation of nearby islands, and
ferries carried throngs to the mainland. But not all agreed to flee.
Asked by telephone if she was leaving Cozumel's Hotel Aguilar where she
works, Maite Soberanis replied: "Not for anything. We're in the center of the
island. We're protected. We are very secure."
In Cuba, whose tip is just 220 130 miles east of Cancun, civil defense
officials said 220,000 people had been evacuated by midday Thursday, most from
low-lying areas in the island's west.
Another 14,500 students at boarding schools in rural Havana Province
surrounding the nation's capital were sent home to their families.
"We do what is necessary to prevent any problems," said
Yahany Canoua, 6 months pregnant as she was waiting to board an evacuation bus
in La Colma, a fishing village on Cuba's southwestern coast. Evacuees crowded
the buses with children, pet dogs and plastic bags of food.
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