docmartin
Contributor
an article i found quoted on scubadiving.com:
By Greg Brosnan
543 words
24 October 2005
16:21
Reuters News
English
(c) 2005 Reuters Limited
COZUMEL, Mexico, Oct 24 (Reuters) - When vicious hurricane winds and massive
waves pounded Mexico's Caribbean island of Cozumel, 17 people ran from one
improvised bunker to another as the Hotel Barracuda collapsed in bits around
them.
They first tried to ride out Hurricane Wilma in their rooms but then took refuge
in a first floor corridor as doors flew off, windows exploded and the churning
ocean tore back and forth through the shattered lobby below.
The 12 American scuba divers, two Dutch tourists and three Mexican hotel
employees tried to make extra walls with packs of building tiles but gave up
when water poured in from above.
So they hid out in another room and then crammed inside toilets before Mexican
navy officers finally broke in and pulled them out at the height of the storm.
They were lucky, because now nothing at all is left of Hotel Barracuda.
"You could feel the waves banging at the wall, the water was coming over the
three-storey hotel," said Hans Van Erp, a 40-year-old Dutch bookseller. "Every
time we thought 'It can't get any worse', it did."
Cozumel, a popular scuba diving center and cruise ship destination, bore the
brunt of Wilma's attack on Mexico's Caribbean coast last week.
Hotels and seafront stores and restaurants were shattered and its streets were
left deep in water and debris.
"I thought, we're not going to make it," said Ad Kolster, a 38-year old shipping
agent who abandoned the coral island on Monday with Van Erp on the first ferry
out since the storm.
Still shocked, the two clicked through photos and video-clips on a digital
camera that showed the wind howling and sea crashing against the hotel as debris
flew about. Water gushed in through the windows and the corridors flooded.
The low point was when one guest managed to make a cellular phone call out and
was told that even fiercer wind and rain was on its way. "We thought it was the
end. Nobody would say it, but everyone was thinking it," Van Erp said.
Cozumel, made famous by legendary French scuba diver and documentary maker
Jacques Cousteau, could be out of business for months. One of its three piers
for cruise ships was pulverized, massive chunks of concrete torn away and thrown
onto the beach, and another suffered substantial damage.
Locals say the clean-up will be long and expensive.
"This was all so beautiful before," said Jose Galan, a 52-year-old house painter
as he stood with his wife on the sea front. Part of the town was still knee-deep
in water and some residents moved around in kayaks and on surf boards.
As Van Erp and Kolster left the island on Monday, they said they would try to
rent a car and visit Mayan pyramids on the mainland, looking for an easy time
after the chaos of Wilma.
"That's our story, and now we need therapy," joked Van Erp. "The only water we
want to see is a shower."
By Greg Brosnan
543 words
24 October 2005
16:21
Reuters News
English
(c) 2005 Reuters Limited
COZUMEL, Mexico, Oct 24 (Reuters) - When vicious hurricane winds and massive
waves pounded Mexico's Caribbean island of Cozumel, 17 people ran from one
improvised bunker to another as the Hotel Barracuda collapsed in bits around
them.
They first tried to ride out Hurricane Wilma in their rooms but then took refuge
in a first floor corridor as doors flew off, windows exploded and the churning
ocean tore back and forth through the shattered lobby below.
The 12 American scuba divers, two Dutch tourists and three Mexican hotel
employees tried to make extra walls with packs of building tiles but gave up
when water poured in from above.
So they hid out in another room and then crammed inside toilets before Mexican
navy officers finally broke in and pulled them out at the height of the storm.
They were lucky, because now nothing at all is left of Hotel Barracuda.
"You could feel the waves banging at the wall, the water was coming over the
three-storey hotel," said Hans Van Erp, a 40-year-old Dutch bookseller. "Every
time we thought 'It can't get any worse', it did."
Cozumel, a popular scuba diving center and cruise ship destination, bore the
brunt of Wilma's attack on Mexico's Caribbean coast last week.
Hotels and seafront stores and restaurants were shattered and its streets were
left deep in water and debris.
"I thought, we're not going to make it," said Ad Kolster, a 38-year old shipping
agent who abandoned the coral island on Monday with Van Erp on the first ferry
out since the storm.
Still shocked, the two clicked through photos and video-clips on a digital
camera that showed the wind howling and sea crashing against the hotel as debris
flew about. Water gushed in through the windows and the corridors flooded.
The low point was when one guest managed to make a cellular phone call out and
was told that even fiercer wind and rain was on its way. "We thought it was the
end. Nobody would say it, but everyone was thinking it," Van Erp said.
Cozumel, made famous by legendary French scuba diver and documentary maker
Jacques Cousteau, could be out of business for months. One of its three piers
for cruise ships was pulverized, massive chunks of concrete torn away and thrown
onto the beach, and another suffered substantial damage.
Locals say the clean-up will be long and expensive.
"This was all so beautiful before," said Jose Galan, a 52-year-old house painter
as he stood with his wife on the sea front. Part of the town was still knee-deep
in water and some residents moved around in kayaks and on surf boards.
As Van Erp and Kolster left the island on Monday, they said they would try to
rent a car and visit Mayan pyramids on the mainland, looking for an easy time
after the chaos of Wilma.
"That's our story, and now we need therapy," joked Van Erp. "The only water we
want to see is a shower."
