mstevens:I was unable to tell from the post whether "decimated" were being used correctly or not. On first reading, it seemed to me that the poster meant "severely damaged" but then went on to suggest the reefs had rebounded. How did you glean that "one-tenth destroyed" was the intended meaning?
I don't really think that's what he meant, either, but it's more like what really happened. Many people say "decimated" when they mean "devastated", but the reefs at Cozumel were nowhere near devastated. I have been there twice since Wilma and seen it for myself, and "decimated" (in the literal) is a lot closer to what really happened.