Storm wreaks havoc, batters Mexico tourist destinations

MEXICO CITY -- The havoc Hurricane Wilma wrought along Mexico's Mayan Riviera became clear yesterday with scores of demolished buildings, miles of shattered roads and altered beaches, acres of flooded property, and the prospect of close to a billion dollars in lost tourism revenue.

Wilma savaged Cancun, Playa del Carmen, and Cozumel, perennial big draws in the country's hugely important tourism industry, in which foreigners spend about $11 billion a year.

Business in the popular tourist zone was brought to a virtual halt. Most hotels closed their doors, and the government of President Vicente Fox worked to help tourists return home. Officials estimated that it would take up to four months for the industry to recover.

Casualty reports varied, but a Quintana Roo state official said that 12 people were killed during the storm in Cancun, Cozumel, and Playa del Carmen, El Universal newspaper reported.

The Mexican government estimated that 1 million people were hurt, stranded, displaced, left jobless or otherwise victimized by the hurricane. Much of the region remained without electricity, telephone service, and gasoline.

Damage in Cancun alone amounted to $1.5 billion, said Jesus Almaguer, president of the Cancun Association of Hotels.

Fox, Tourism Minister Rodolfo Elizondo Torres, and other top officials flew to the devastated area, which includes parts of the states of Quintana Roo and Yucatan, and the federal government dispatched 2,500 military personnel and federal police officers to help restore order after weekend looting. But people were still raiding stores late Monday, grabbing everything from food to tires.

Governor Felix Gonzalez Canto of Quintna asked Fox yesterday to declare a state of emergency. Elizondo said losses in the tourism industry would be some $800 million -- through December alone. He said about 18,000 tourists remained in Cancun and 19,000 in Playa del Carmen. The airport at Cancun, which attracts almost 40 percent of Mexico's foreign visitors, remained closed yesterday.

Wilma's timing could not have been worse for the tourism industry, which traditionally draws a large portion of its annual visitors in the fall.

''Cancun was one of the most sought-after places . . . but sales already have fallen more than 30 percent," said Diana Barrientos of the Mexico City travel agency Vacations Express. ''We had many [reservations] for next week and November. No one has canceled, but they have changed destinations to Acapulco, Puerto Vallarta, and Ixtapa -- safer places."

Almaguer of the Cancun hotel association said losses would be $7 million a day.

''We hope that things are well re-established in between three and four months," he said.

He said the industry has asked Fox for assistance, including a line of credit of $500 million from the country's development bank to help rebuild damaged hotels.

Cancun was virtually shut down yesterday as work crews using shovels tried to dig drains to help floodwaters subside. Street signs littered the streets, yanked from their moorings by Wilma's 140 miles per hour winds.

Nine of every 10 hotels in the city were affected in some manner by the hurricane, officials said. Wilma shattered windows throughout the hotel zone, leaving mounds of powdered glass.

The city's fabled beaches were abandoned yesterday, clogged with debris, twisted metal, and chunks of concrete. In a stretch of beach near the Gran Melia hotel, there was virtually no sand to be found, most of it washed away by the sea. Concrete and steel supports were exposed where the sand fell away.

In Playa del Carmen, a key thoroughfare, Luis Donaldo Colosio Avenue, was a shambles of junk and water. Near the beach, boats sat on the coastline, thrown there by the force of the hurricane.

In the town of Tizimin, Yucatan, flooded streets were navigable only by boat, and many houses were in splinters, as if a tornado had swept through.