Wilma lashes Mexico's coast with no end in sight (AFP)

[Up2Late]

("...it's going to pound the area for at least 24 hours" Max Mayfield, director of the National Hurricane Center (NHC) in Miami. I might add, he's being very optimistic and is talking about Hurricane force winds, according to current wind models, the Tropical Storm force winds will not clear for at least 48 more hours (Monday A.M.), see links below the article links.)

Wilma lashes Mexico's coast with no end in sight

22/10/2005 00h48

CANCUN, Mexico (AFP) - Hurricane Wilma relentlessly pummeled Mexico's Yucatan peninsula, unleashing heavy rain and driving winds over a resort area known for its picturesque beaches. The storm downed trees and power lines and forced the evacuation of tens of thousands of tourists from the "Mayan Riviera" with the hurricane forecast to hang over the area through Saturday.

At 2100 GMT, the US National Hurricane Center said the eye of the powerful but slow-moving storm was directly over the island of Cozumel and would linger over Mexico's Caribbean coast overnight and into Saturday. "It's going to be over the Yucatan over a long period," said Max Mayfield, director of the National Hurricane Center (NHC) in Miami.

"And it's going to pound the area for at least 24 hours," Mayfield told reporters. With winds of 225 kilometers (140 miles) an hour, the NHC said the storm could weaken somewhat as it moved inland but remained "extremely dangerous" and rated it a category-four hurricane on the five-level Saffir-Simpson intensity scale.

The storm has already claimed at least one life. A 33-year-old Mexican woman was electrocuted and killed in Cancun as she readied for the arrival of the storm, authorities said. Six people were injured in a fire Friday in Playa del Carmen, a coastal resort south of Cancun, when strong winds caused a gas tank to fall and ignite, local authorities said.

<http://www.afp.com/english/news/stories/051022003257.7dxl0qj9.html>
(more at link above)

(The current wind model and links to more graphic data are below)



<http://tsr.mssl.ucl.ac.uk/tracker/dynamic/200524N_0H.html>
<http://tsr.mssl.ucl.ac.uk/tracker/dynamic/200524N.html>

[msongs]

1. didja see the whiner americans on ABC news?

relatively safe in the well built places they were put by the Mexicans, they were whining about how hot it was, and lack of food, and how they were not allowed to go home by the Mexicans.

not ONE word of concern for the Mexicans who pick up after American butts at the hotels, thos Mexicans who live in wooden shacks with corregated tin roofs or worse.

ABC news showed pics of the damaged luxury hotels but nothing about those same poor Mexicans.

Well, they aren't important I guess.

Msongs
www.msongs.com

[Up2Late]

3. I know it, the people that I know who go to Cancun to vacation...

...are "Ugly Americans" who often remark how glad they are that everyone their speaks English, and how cheep the hotels are.:puke:
I doubt most American's who go their ever venture off the "Beach Resort" properties. :mad:

I hope this thing picks up some speed, they said on NPR that the Hurricane shelters only had enough food an water for about 1 and 1/2 days.:scared:

[Windy]

5. That area of Mexico is fantastic...away from the tourist zones

A lot of history... ruins, old spanish churches and haciendas...
and the mayan culture... Ihope that part of Mexico survives!

[Judi Lynn]

9. They'd better NOT be thinking of their families' safety when they should

be pampering bloated American tourists. That would be so selfish on their part. After all, the trickle down effect is what keeps people like them in rickety houses with tin roofs. They shouldn't bite the fat hands that feed them. :sarcasm:

[Windy]

2. Its not the tourist areas I worry about

I've been down there many times. The Mayans who live in the jungle areas outside of the cities in stick huts are the ones who will be hurt or killed.... makes me cringe just thinking about those poor folks

[Up2Late]

4. I worry about them too, but a Guam native, who is a member here...

...told me that they have well established "storm plans" that have been passed down for generations, that they use to survive.

It's probably similar to what they do in Cozumel and Cancun, or at least I hope so.

[Windy]

6. me too.... n/t

[expatriot]

7. The whole Rio de Maya strip and Cancun are populated by tens of thousands

if not hundreds of thousands of the urban poor who staff the resort and tourist industry... they are not in their villages with ancient storm plans. they are the ones truly suffering now... i do not worry less about the jungle maya since they know how to live without reliable electricity and other services.

[iamjoy]

18. Yeah, They Don't Have The Ancient Houses

I saw some Mayan ruins once in Cozumel, they built round houses with hip roofs and a single door facing west. The round shape was so it could better stand up to hurricane winds. Very smart, low tech solution.

But they don't live like that anymore, now they live in poorly constructed square shacks and apartment buildings.

[dcq]

12. Guam view and Yucatan plight

I, too, am a Guam resident. We've had about 40 years to build concrete bunker/homes, and those withstand supertyphoon strength winds (over 200 mph). Been through a few - NOT pleasant!
The wood and tin houses fly apart, but people pull together and help each other rebuild. Most folks have outdoor kitchens and know how to get along without electricity and water for weeks at a time. Just plenty of practice, and extended families - caring people.
Yucatan is flat, rocky and hard to grow crops. The Mayans live in oval shaped mud and stick homes, dome shaped. The ones I passed while doing the non-tourista travel had no doors, no windows. You could see the string hammocks hanging up inside. That was most of the "furniture". They are pathetically poor, and are lucky to have a chance to wait tables or change linens in the 5 star hotels. It is very sad. I'm having problems feeling any sympathy for those in the million dollar mansions in Florida, worrying about getting enough plywood.

[Up2Late]

14. Thanks for the info, even though it is very sad. This could be much

worse than most of us could imagine.

Welcome to DU!

I'd give you a toast, but tonight, it seems inappropriate. :grouphug: :cry:

[Zynx]

8. That's hardly going over land at all now. Crap.

Florida is going to get hammered. Bad.

[Lorien]

10. Those poor people-the stress must be unimaginable

I though a few hours in a category two was awful-I simply can't imagine going through a Cat 4 for a full day! Lots of PTSD after Wilma, I'm afraid. I just hope that everyone stays safe! :scared:

[Up2Late]

11. This might make you feel a little bit better, it should weaken to a Cat. 2

(or even a Cat. 1) by the time it heads back out over the water, but waiting for the Tropical Storm force winds to clear too would be awful.

Here's the 21 hour wind forecast:



<http://tsr.mssl.ucl.ac.uk/tracker/dynamic/200524N_2H.html>

The rain and the flooding are almost imposable to predict though.

[Lorien]

19. Tropical force winds can still do a lot of damage to a weakened area

I'm worried about that in my area (Orlando). Many trees aren't looking very healthy after last years three hurricanes, and there are still a lot of people out there awaiting roof repairs. I'm having my trees "hurricane proofed" this afternoon (having the sucker branches removed to decrease wind drag), but I don't know if it will be enough.

[Up2Late]

20. I know, I definitely wouldn't want folks to leave the shelter until the TS

force winds pass.

About your trees, this might sound crazy, but I would go out and give all of them a "good drink" of water, a drought stressed tree in a high wind is not a good thing.

Don't soak the ground though, that could make it worst. If you haven't had any rain for a while or if the leave are drooping or already falling off (signs they need water), the trees will be weaker.

It might also help to cut down any flooding in or around your property, because heavy rain will just run off hard, dry ground. Not sure if that's as big a problem in Central Florida as it is here in Georgia, I think your soil drains better. (I did live in Orlando for 5 years in the 90's).

[Baclava]

13. Still some live updates from Cancun getting out...

"The large glass sliders facing the beach are whistling as the pressure lowers. I fear they may shatter.

The hurricane shutters have kept up well till now, but the high pitched squealing now echoing from the glass doors is scary."

http://stormcarib.com/reports/2005/mexico.shtml

[Up2Late]

15. Wow, incredible photos on that board from earlier.

I guess sleep would be imposable right now in Cancun.

[Baclava]

16. Sleep from exhaustion - maybe

It's got to be just brutal...

Reminds me of riding out Ivan in the dark at home...tried sleeping in the bedroom, until the banging of debris off the plywood over the windows reminded me that someones 2X4 could probably come right through...and I didn't want to skewered sleeping...so I moved to the hallway with a big pile of sleeping bags...and that's when the roof started creaking and flexing and I realized the A/C unit was right over my head in the attic...shit...too hot and stuffy without A/C in the other rooms or too much glass...and the wind howling never stopped for 12 hrs...finally just said screw it and dozed off...and I was a good ways from the eye.

[Boomer]

17. Some photos from his blog

I've taken one scene from each of the batches that he uploaded over the course of the day. Shows just how bad things are:

[cliss]

21. Wow. Thanks for

posting, Boomer.

[Rainscents]

22. Wow. thants for posting photo's!

[Up2Late]

23. Cancun flooded after Hurricane Wilma hits Mexico (AFP)

Cancun flooded after Hurricane Wilma hits Mexico

22/10/2005 13h55


A van drives through a flooded area of Cancun ©AFP - Alfredo Estrella

CANCUN, Mexico (AFP) - Sea water rushed into the Mexican resort city of Cancun as Hurricane Wilma whipped up a massive storm surge and unleashed heavy rain and driving winds over a resort area known for its picturesque beaches. Although it weakened in the early hours and was downgraded to a category three storm, Wilma packed enough punch to fell trees and tear off roofs, as tens of thousands of tourists and residents cowered in emergency shelters.

"The water is already reaching the third floor of some hotels," said Humberto Hernandez Uzon, a spokesman for the national weather service. "And the bad weather will continue for another 12 hours."

Quintana Roo state governor Felix Gonzalez Canto said the storm had affected the whole infrastructure of the region, but noted with satisfaction that so far his administration was not aware of any fatalities.

The eye of the 12th hurricane of the Atlantic season was expected to remain over the peninsula on Saturday before heading slowly toward the Florida coast in the southeastern United States. At 0900 GMT, the US National Hurricane Center said the eye of the storm remained stationary 45 kilometers (25 miles) southwest of Cancun, right over the resort of Playa del Carmen.

<http://www.afp.com/english/news/stories/051022133602.tjqkzi08.html>
(more at link above)

[Boomer]

24. More photos: Saturday night in Cancun

From http://stormcarib.com/reports/2005/mexico.shtml

[Up2Late]

25. Wow, very chilling

It will be interesting to see how much it actual damage occurred, once the storm finally clears.