Cancún (Mexico) “Don’t suffer, it won’t touch here, it’s the blessing of the island, hurricanes never come”. This is the phrase that has been repeating since Monday Sergio, receptionist of one of the hotels on the first line of the Caribbean Sea in Holbox, the paradise island located in the north of the Yucatan Peninsula (Mexico). From this Thursday, however, this one blessing is over. Holbox, but also other areas in the southeast of the country such as Felipe Carrillo Puerto, Othón P. Blanco and the ancient Mayan city of Tulum have been evacuated due to the imminent arrival of the hurricane Beryl.
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The weather phenomenon that has killed at least a dozen people in the Caribbean is the fastest cyclone to reach category 5 on the Saffir-Simpson scale (the maximum) since records of such phenomena exist in the Atlantic
However, the hurricane that is expected to make landfall between Thursday night and Friday morning (during Friday morning in Catalonia) in category 3 with wind gusts of up to 215 km/h 18 liters per hour and square meter does not seem to exist in the early hours of Thursday on the touristic Mexican island.
With a radiant sun and more than 30 degrees some tourists still take the opportunity to do some tour morning to see whale sharks or visit one cenote while a kind of tense calm runs through the island Caribbean. Idyllic scenes that contrast with the slides of business owners and also of Holboxeños to wall up premises and houses (or in some cases almost huts) as best they can to protect as much as possible everything they have before the arrival of the cyclone.
“Many will leave, but I prefer to stay, I have everything here, on the peninsula I have nothing”, explains Mateo, who owns an antiques shop and who remembers how he was in Barcelona just a year ago. “Well, I was actually in Vic at the house of some friends, who will not be amused if I say that they are from Barcelona”, he says laughing and adds: “Things can change from one day to the next, but I have hope”.
Sofía also wants to have hope that, despite being in charge of one of the more stores chic of the island, usually lives in a campsite. “With some friends, we’re moving to a house in the town because staying at the campsite is playing it safe,” she explains, dressed in sequins that shine in the sun that still beats down hard.
“I’ve never experienced a hurricane of this size, but the older ones say that the water will come this way” explains Juan, putting his hand over his head. The guy in his thirties owns a small stall of souvenirs on Avenida Ballena del Poble and take advantage of the last few hours to try to sell a bracelet, magnet, dream catcher or bottle of tequila at any price. “It’s the bargain of the hurricane, I can make you a 2×3 or whatever you want, I have to close to leave and I don’t know if I’ll be able to open again”, he regrets.
Juan is one of the 900 people – locals and tourists – who were evacuated from Holbox this Thursday morning. They did it on free tourist ferries – although many did not know it – that left every 30 minutes until the early afternoon.
“We’ve always been told that the maximum is 90 people for them to go wide, but here it says that there are 120 passengers” justifies the entry controller to the ships, in front of a queue of people visibly nervous to get a seat on the ferry. Once inside, the suitcases and rucksacks of the tourists are combined with coolers and plastic bags of those who leave their homes without knowing if they will return.
“It’s over blessing” comments Fernando to an older man in his seat on the side of the ship’s deck. He is holding a small chihuahua in his arms and he is not the only one, on a single ferry there are more than a dozen dogs that their owners have not wanted to abandon and who are protecting themselves from the sun with towels.
“I was forced to go because of the weather. You can no longer work here and with that all tourism goes away damn” he complains angrily and criticizes that there has been a lack of information about the cyclone. He says that 60% of the island’s workers have left, but that many foreigners who do not speak the language have not even learned that there is a hurricane. He says this knowingly, he is one of the hundreds of taxi drivers who transport tourists in a kind of golf cart around the island. Some vehicles that have been put on ferries because they fear that by leaving them on the island the water will take them away.
A few rows away is a woman with her 8-year-old son with very curly hair. The boy is happy because it’s his first time on a boat and therefore he leaves the island for the first time. The mother who carries him on her lap looks at him with a face of circumstances and encourages him even more to avoid infecting him with worry.
Shelters for 23,000 people
In half an hour the ferry arrives in Chiquilà where the path of tourists and locals separates. “They go to shelters” comments the driver of one the taxi pointing to two men who have put their luggage in large paint cans that they use as suitcases because they are airtight and float. They are headed to one of the 1,200 shelters that have been set up throughout the Mexican states of Quintana Roo and Yucatan with the capacity to accommodate more than 23,000 people.
Across the street, tourists pile into vans to take them to the Cancun airport on a two-hour road trip.
When the chaos comes, it repeats itself. Most of the airport’s doors are boarded up to prevent the glass from shattering and all this means that travelers have to enter through very few entrances. Once inside, the queues at the counters stretch in front of screens announcing more than 300 canceled flights.
Since mid-afternoon (Mexican time), almost the entire Yucatan peninsula has entered a red alert of maximum danger due to the imminent arrival of Beryl. A curfew has been decreed in most of the territory and curfew has come into effect to prevent riots.
Faced with the images of empty supermarket shelves by citizens collecting supplies, the government has urged suppliers not to “raise prices due to the arrival of Beryl”.
In addition, the hotels (mostly full and some near the airport with prices that have risen to 500 euros a night) have reduced hot water and food services to a minimum to guarantee supplies and facilitate arrival home of its workers.
What will happen in the next few hours? “Everyone says everything, but I’ve experienced category five hurricanes and I think this will be a night of rain and strong winds, but I hope not a catastrophe…” says Santiago as he still pushes a cart full of suitcases through a hotel in Cancun just a few hours away Beryl hit the ground
2024-07-05 06:40:09
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