CANCUN, Mexico – Thousands of desperate tourists stranded by Hurricane Wilma besieged airports and tour offices Wednesday as officials faced the challenge of evacuating 22,000 visitors with only 6,000 airline seats available out of Cancun.
While most of the flooding had receded and electricity was slowly returning, frustrated tourists who had gone nearly a week without showering said they could relate to those who survived Hurricane Katrina.
“Now I know how those people in New Orleans felt,” said Angela Benites, 48, of Mexico City. “Several days of desperation is no way to live.”
As Cancun’s half-million people struggled to clean up their flooded and wind-smashed homes and workplaces, crowds of tourists surrounded airline offices. Some leapt and wept for joy when told they could leave.
Benites was one of the few to be handed a coveted boarding pass at the Mexicana ticket office. “You feel as if your soul has returned to your body,” she said after waiting in line since 4:30 a.m.
Still waiting was Beverly Gerg, 33, a university researcher from Canada’s Prince Edward Island.
“I’m out of money, and if I can’t get out today, I have nowhere to stay tonight,” said Gerg, who went to the airport at 5 a.m. only to be sent back downtown to the Mexicana office for the boarding pass needed to even enter the airport premises.
“I don’t understand why they don’t get more flights going.”
At makeshift airline counters set up at a high school, representatives worked to evacuate the stranded. Those on chartered tours were leaving first, with the help of travel agents.
Others who had booked vacations on their own were known as “The Lost Ones.”
“They’ve been grouping together and doing all they can as a large group, so they aren’t ignored,” said Terra Junk, a 21-year-old from Wisconsin who booked her honeymoon through a tour group but was staying in a hotel with about 600 people traveling on their own.
U.S. Embassy spokeswoman Judith Bryan said officials were focusing on tour groups because it was an easy way to evacuate a large number of people. But she stressed that all would be evacuated. “We are still here doing as much as we can,” she said.
Wilma caused serious damage to the airport when it hit Friday and then ground slowly across the area on Saturday, said the company that operates the Cancun airport, Grupo Aeroportuario del Sureste.
With navigational aids blown away, pilots must operate largely by sight and by instruments in their planes, slowing the pace of operations and ruling out flights in bad weather or darkness.
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