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Most tourists gone from Wilma-ravaged Cancun

People line up for gasoline due to arrive by ferry in Isla Mujeres, Mexico, on Thursday. Mexico's Caribbean coastline took a beating from Hurricane Wilma, but the resort area's islands bore the brunt of the storm. PHOTO: AP

The once-huge throngs of tourists desperate to leave Mexico's Caribbean coast diminished in the wake of what Mexican insurance companies described as probably the country's most costly disaster ever.

President Vicente Fox visited Cancun to bid farewell to flights as more and more tourists were finally able to able to get planes out on Thursday, and he announced series of tax breaks and a US$18.5 million program to restore beaches ravaged by Hurricane Wilma.

While services gradually began being restored to Cancun, some of the remaining tourists hit the beach.

"I decided I had gotten too stressed, and that I was in paradise, so we said `we should just enjoy this' and we went to the beach," said Doug Pousma, a doctor from Colorado, who made sand castles, fed seagulls and went snorkeling with his wife and three children.

"The ocean was really peaceful," Pousma said. "It was almost like it needed a rest after all this."

In Cancun, Fox told departing tourists "see you again soon," and then turned his attention to the suffering local population, asking hotel owners not to lay off Cancun residents who rely on tourism for their livelihood.

"I'm asking you for zero unemployment," Fox said in a meeting with hotel operators. "I'm asking you not fire anyone, to keep them in their regular positions or use them in rebuilding."

The Mexican insurance association said on Thursday that Wilma is expected to have caused more insured damage than 1988's Hurricane Gilbert, which resulted in payments of US$1.2 billion to policy holders on the Yucatan Peninsula.

"Obviously, Wilma is possibly the biggest catastrophe we've ever had in the Mexican insurance sector," said Rolando Vega, the association's president.

A US cruise ship was sent on Thursday to the island of Cozumel to deliver aid and pick up any remaining stranded Americans, but most tourists appeared to have left the islands. Even in Cancun, lines at makeshift airline ticket counters had nearly vanished, and there were only a few visitors enjoying the sun before heading home.

Fox said that about US$500 million in rebuilding loans would be available from various sources -- private banks and international financing organizations -- as well as tax breaks for local businesses.

He said Mexico plans to have 80 percent of the resort area up and running by Dec. 15.

Yet, despite the signs of progress, many residents were left behind. On Isla Mujeres, people complained of limited access to drinking water and homes destroyed by high winds, waves and flooding.

Hundreds waited in line with plastic jugs, hoping to get a bit of drinking water brought in daily by ferries. Helicopters fly in more aid, taking off from Cancun's bullring.

Many complained they weren't getting bottled water or food stockpiled at a local senior center.

Leticia Chavez, 34, who works for a tourism cooperative on the island, said people were getting frustrated: "We don't want a disaster, but there are people considering looting the food inside."
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