Uncovering Mexico
Jeremy Schwartz is the Mexico correspondent for Cox Newspapers. He is based in Mexico City.What's on this page?
The entry titled "Racing the hurricane."
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Home > Uncovering Mexico > Archives > 2007 > August > 22 > Entry
Racing the hurricane
We were halfway to Chetumal when we faced a decision. Either continue on and try to reach the path of frightfully powerful Hurricane Dean or head back while we still had enough gas to make it back to civilization.
Once we ventured south of Felipe Carrillo Puerto, a small town on Mexico’s so-called Ruta Maya, we would be entering a no-man’s land of no electricity, no gas and most likely, no cell phone service. That would make filing today’s story tricky to say the least. But the trip to Chetumal offered a once in a lifetime glimpse at the impact of a Category 5 hurricane and the people down there certainly would need international media attention in their drive for relief services.
In the end the decision was helped along by a photographer for another U.S. newspaper. She had a satellite phone we could use in Chetumal. It seemed a no-brainer: I could file in an hour from the storm’s ground zero or my wife/photographer and I could turn around and drive two hours to the nearest Internet connection. We could worry about the gas situation later.
We had to spell “TV” in big letters in tape on our windshield to make it past the checkpoint, and the road was littered with trees limbs (the incredibly efficient Mexican army had cleared the entire road by the time we drove back, two hours later). We saw a metal municipal auditorium shredded into pieces, fields of corn and palm trees cut to shreds, random rooftops lying on the ground.
Once in Chetumal we surveyed the scene (it looked like a war zone) and filed the story on the satphone. By the time we headed back it was getting dark. I held out hope that by the time we got back power would be restored to Felipe Carrillo Puerto and the gas station would be functioning, but no such luck. We spent awhile trying to buy bootleg gas, but no one was selling. Word was that gasoline service wouldn’t be back for a few days. Our companion had enough gas to make it to the next town, where we could spend the night, buy a few gallons and return to our car the next day. We found a friendly older gentleman near a church who let us stash the car in his garage.
By the time we woke up the next morning we realized we had gone 24 hours without eating a meal. We retrieved our car and headed back to Cancun.
Comments
By Constance Bailey
August 22, 2007 6:54 PM | Link to this
Where in Chet did you take these pictures? Neither look familiar to me. Looks like Mahahual
By Jeremy Schwartz
August 23, 2007 12:04 PM | Link to this
The photos are actually from the beach in Tulum. Even though the hurricane didn’t hit Tulum directly, the storm surge ravaged the beach there, mostly south of the ruins. We saw a whole strip of destroyed hotels and restaurants. One homeowner there said the impact on the Tulum beach (the town itself was intact) was far worse than during Wilma two years ago.
By Robert Martin
August 25, 2007 6:26 AM | Link to this
I was staying with friends in Chetumal during the hurricane and never lost cell phone service so that should not have been a problem. And while Chetumal looked like a war zone because of all the downed power lines and trees, most of the buildings came through very well.
By 1st Mate
August 26, 2007 8:18 PM | Link to this
So when is your paper going to buy you a Satphone?