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Tourists desperate to leave devastated Mexican resorts

Tourists literally camped out to wait for flights out of Mexico's hurricane-ravaged Caribbean coast, and some residents of Cancun's poorer neighborhoods armed themselves with cudgels and machetes and erected barricades to ward off looters.

Authorities reported Hurricane Wilma caused "significant damage" to coral reefs and damaged so many trees on the Yucatan peninsula that they may fuel forest fires in the upcoming dry season.

And this year's battering, record-breaking hurricane season continued to grind on, as hundreds of kilometers to the south, a tropical depression expected to become tropical storm Beta formed off Nicaragua's Caribbean coast.

Despite the presence of many thousands of soldiers, federal and local police, many neighborhoods in Cancun were guarded by residents manning improvised barricades throughout the night, with small fires fueled by downed branches to provide light.

And even though another 6,272 tourists were flown out of Cancun on Wednesday, thousands more still remained, forming long lines outside airports and tour offices in Cancun and the inland city of Merida on Wednesday.

Nicole Samaha, owner of the MedioMundo Hotel in Merida, said some tourists had been sleeping on the lawn near the city's airport -- yet evacuees still called Merida a huge improvement over Cancun.

In previous days, thousands of tourists had been bused from Cancun to Merida, but those trips were halted Wednesday because the airport was full and flights were booked for a week.

Local media reported one small victory: the last foreign tourists had finally been extracted from the island of Cozumel, south of Cancun on Mexico's Caribbean coast.

But Cozumel -- hit directly by Wilma -- suffered "significant damage" to its famous coral reefs, the Environment Department said.

Over 500,000 hectares of forests were also damaged by Wilma. "That figure is worrisome, given that the fallen branches represent potential fuel for fires."

While most of the flooding had receded and electricity was slowly returning, frustrated visitors who had gone a week without showering said they were beginning to relate to victims of 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."
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