I keep getting a busy signal for Cozumel?

[TheBeachBears]

You may have answered this question (And before you get all hot and bothered we love Cozumel and we feel for all the people who went through Wilma) When do we call to see if the situation has stabilized for our private excursion? Two weeks? Four weeks? We only have Seven weeks before our cruise and though this area has been hit before this situation seems much, much worse. We realize that RCI will not stop if the island isn’t ready and we have no problems with that.

 

Or with seven weeks will it not matter at all. (Hey at least it isn’t about my kid got bit at AO)

[Cruising89143]

Don't think that you are going to be getting through for a while.

 

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N23532182.htm

[AFT_LOVER]

so unless you have a satellite phone or cell phone to use for them, forget it!

 

I doubt if any cruise line will go there for quite a while, so any excursion you bought will not be charged since they have no computers either..........

[TheBeachBears]

This is the first report I have seen on damage in Cozumel, not Cancun. It seems that reporters are mostly in Cancun. Not concerned about the money, port is the highlight of our trip, such a dreadfull shame.

 

Wilma ravages Mexican coral island Cozumel

 

By Greg Brosnan

 

COZUMEL, Mexico, Oct 23 (Reuters) - Mexico's Cozumel island, a coral-fringed divers' paradise, was battered beyond recognition on Sunday after enduring three full days of Hurricane Wilma's vicious winds and rain.

 

Wilma's 145-mph (230-kph) winds smashed the cement dock that is Cozumel's lifeline to the mainland into car-sized chunks of concrete strewn about the seafront, some having crushed souvenir and jewelry stores.

 

As Navy helicopters finally managed to fly in emergency supplies on Sunday, it looked as if a giant wave had washed over the tiny Caribbean island, leaving it largely flooded and covered in debris.

 

"This is the most important thing in Cozumel. This is where everything comes in -- food, tourists, gasoline. I can't believe it," said resident Luis Hau, viewing the smashed dock.

 

Wilma, one of the fiercest hurricanes to hit Mexico, hung over the Yucatan Peninsula for three days after it struck on Thursday, blasting it with gale-force winds and sheets of rain. Seven people were killed, four in Cozumel.

 

Desolated families stood in thigh-deep water outside wrecked homes and called to emergency teams for food and water. Some used surfboards or kayaks to move about the streets.

 

"I had a nursery here. Where is my nursery? Twenty years of work are gone," cried Jesus Rios, who lost 30,000 ornamental plants and his life's investment when Wilma turned his tropical nursery into what looked like a paddy field.

 

The few tourists who had not evacuated huddled with locals, with no power or running water since the storm hit.

 

"The sea has broken everything," said Jose Mariscal, from Spain, staying in a hotel lobby with staff and their families.