Costa Maya and Hurricane Dean discussion (merged)

[flamingos]

A month or so? The pier is half gone and the pictures look like a bomb went off.

 

Cozumel still doesn't have all their piers back up from Wilma two years ago and they have a lot more money from tourism dollars than Costa Maya did. It will be a while before another cruise ship visits Costa Maya.

 

I said 'could'. :o

 

The port village itself looks to be structurally sound - if they built it well enough, then it should be. They can simply sweep it out and clean it up. They can tender until the dock is finished. We were one of the first ships to dock at Cozumel after Wilma, and there were two guys with a wheelbarrow, a 5-gallon bucket of concrete and two trowels....so that could take a while. But money is a great motivator, and there are some big bucks behind that port.

 

As for the town, I hope they get some help rebuilding. It will be a long road, and the sooner they open the port and get them back into business the better.

[flvol77]

Here is a picture of Catherine, owner of Cat's Meow, after the hurricane.

http://news.yahoo.com/photos/ss/events/sc/091905hurricanes/im:/070821/481/c4cbda313cbb41b68a512c12a4898f4d;_ylt=AmUXF71mfdX8_uVT.PWqh_blWMcF

 

There are other pictures of Majahual ofter Dean.

 

The Costa Maya port was our favorite port because of the town of Majahual. We were looking forward to returning there. It may take a little longer now.

 

Is this the Catherine you are referring to? Sounds like she stayed

 

"It wasn't minutes of terror. It was hours," said Catharine Morales, 30, a native of Montreal, Canada, who has lived in Majahual for a year. "The walls felt like they were going to explode."

One of a handful people to ignore military orders to evacuate, she weathered the storm in her new brick-walled house with her husband and 7-month-old baby. Winds of 165 mph -- with gusts of 200 mph, faster than the takeoff speed of many passenger jets -- blew out windows and pulled pieces from their roof.

 

http://www.myfoxboston.com/myfox/pages/News/Detail?contentId=4126214&version=10&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=TSTY&pageId=3.4.1

[Choozin Croozin]

You are doing a wonderful thing! Just hope the money got to him.

 

Did you take the photo? I is beautiful. I have never ventured beyond the man-made village. Could someone point out the area that has the hole. I would like to try it the next time we visit. :D

 

Not from personal experience, but from what I have read...if you notice, right to the left of the red buildings where the pavement end is what looks like a line. That is the infamous fence. From what I understand "the hole" moves periodically. They (the port owners) patch it up and then someone opens up a new one. So, when we are all fortunate to get to Costa Maya, there is usually a post as to where the current location of the hole is on these boards. :) For now let's just keep those poor people in our prayers.

[Gosap]

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/T/TROPICAL_WEATHER?SITE=MIDTN&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

 

Here is a link to an article about the area after Dean.

[flvol77]

I said 'could'. :o

 

The port village itself looks to be structurally sound - if they built it well enough, then it should be. They can simply sweep it out and clean it up. They can tender until the dock is finished. We were one of the first ships to dock at Cozumel after Wilma, and there were two guys with a wheelbarrow, a 5-gallon bucket of concrete and two trowels....so that could take a while. But money is a great motivator, and there are some big bucks behind that port.

 

As for the town, I hope they get some help rebuilding. It will be a long road, and the sooner they open the port and get them back into business the better.

 

I guess a lot will depend on Carnival and RCI -

 

JMO from the pics that I saw and the articles that I have read the port/pier seems like its gone. Remember one thing about Hurricanes - they change the bottom of the ocean floor - so the how far out will the cruise ships have to be to tender in... a lot of questions and not enough answers at this point...

 

Interesting article -

 

World to Costa Maya - are you still there?

 

http://blogs.usatoday.com/cruiselog/2007/08/world-to-costa-.html?csp=34

[Starz723]

This is sad news. Im surprised like everyone else about the pier. That was one big hunk of concrete, but we can never underestimate the power the ocean has.

 

The poor resort next to the pier, Chac-Chi, my favorite, must be totally blown away. This is such sad news.

 

I will pray they have the resources to rebuild.

 

Marge

Starz723

[Loucat]

Hopefully, at some time the cruise lines will help to rebuild the pier and the area. There was some discussion on these boards that developers would buy up the land for building condos etc.

[jetskier]

How long does it take for them to rebuild when this happens to them? I know this isnt there first hurricane, does anyone remember there last one? How long till they were back up and running as best as they could?

 

Best wishes.

 

Danielle

 

I believe Gilbert was the last large hurricane to hit them. Wilma caused a little bit of damage.

Dave

[Gingee]

We were also there in late May. I feel for those poor people who are trying to pull out of poverty.

[Gosap]

We spent a wonderful day at the Cat's Meow back in May and I'm just worried about Barbara and her staff.

 

I am looking at all the pictures to see if I recognize anything from her place. Has anyone seen or heard anything concerning the Cat's Meow? I just don't see how it could of survived this kind of storm.

 

I posted about Barbara and her staff at Cat's Meow earlier on another thread but it looks like all we have is those pics from yahoo.com. I can't make out the area in the photos. I hope someone can give us some info soon!!

[R'man]

I will pray they have the resources to rebuild.

 

While there in November we heard about how the Mexican government mobilized thousands of workers from the interior to get Cozumel quickly back in business after their hurricane disaster a few years ago. I was told the cruise lines gave them a fairly short window to get it together or they were to re-route ships until the next season. Given the potential impact on the Yucatan economy, I would imagine the same will be done at Costa Maya this time. Still, prayers for the kind folks at Costa Maya.

[clackey]

It is very said that Majahual will likely be swept away completely. But also keep in mind that the very shabby construction that a lot of these very primitive coastal villages use is used for a reason. A lot of them have been using the same building methods for hundreds of years. When storms like this come through they will rebuild in a matter of weeks because they do not have to worry about pouring concrete and rebuilding complex walls and such.

 

 

 

:)

You also must be aware of the fact that these people are not afraid of work. We were in Coz in 2/06, 11/06 and 3/07 and saw the progress on the town and piers. Their resilents is astonishing. My hat is off to these wonderful people. God Bless!

[ncboys]

<sigh>... I hate to be the bearer of bad(or worse) news, but after reading some of the other boards, and seeing some of the first AP photos, Majahal(Costa Maya) is completely gone. The pier is gone(half of it anyhow), I don't know about the shopping village or Chac Chi, but based on these photos, i'm sure there's nothing left.

 

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/...d/5072938.html

 

I've gone through my photos and found some "before" shots to go with the "after" shots.

 

BEFORE - Main St. Majahal. (facing south)

 

After - Best I can tell, this close to the same spot that the above photo was taken (facing south) Cat's meow would have been on the right.

 

 

 

Before - Main Street facing North.

 

 

After - I think this pic was taken close to the same spot that the above photo was taken. It's gone. It's ALL gone.

 

 

More pics:

 

http://news.search.yahoo.com/search/news?ei=UTF-8&p=majahual&c=&fr=&c=images

 

I can't find any pics of the shopping village, the pier, or Chac Chi. If you know of any(after the hurricane), please post the link here.

[gail811]

No idea, but kudos to you for wanting to try!

[Mrsg324]

nevermind, I misread the post about the picture

[Mrsg324]

I think it is wonderful that you can & are willing to help. Try contacting the local news stations. They may be able to lead you in the direction you need to be going.

[FutureDRWorldTraveller]

My prayers go out to all the people in Costa Maya- I have a cruise scheduled in December that is suppose to go there and I was really looking forward to it. I hope that they can rebuild in time or that RCI will get us an equally exciting port to stop at.

[The Grumpus]

We were in Costa Maya with Royal Caribbean in Dezember 2004 and had a very nice time.

 

Watch our HD movie about the cruise:

 

http://www.audiovisualconcepts.org/movies/cruise720p30.wmv

 

This movie file is about 900 MB and is in High Definition 1280x720 pixels. So it might need some substantial buffering time. If it doesnt play, you can

download the file by right clicking it. It needs about 30 minutes to download it with a good cable connection.

hptschupp, I love the movie! I feel like I'm right there with you guys. I love the way our host Sara didn't even know where she was on the second day.:D I'm only a few minutes in but will watch the whole thing. Thanks for sharing, can't wait to see Costa!

[bluefintuna]

It seems we are all on the same page remembering a wonderful day in Costa Maya. We were there with family and had a great beach day in Mahajual. Many of us have cruised to lavish ports, but respect an unspoiled region such as this. When I went to bed last night I knew this was a direct hit. Prayers to all these very resilient people.

[ljwm67]

I emailed Barbara at the address she gave us in February of this year but it was returned from Yahoo. It said that there was no such account at yahoo.com.

[robomom]

This is sad news. Im surprised like everyone else about the pier. That was one big hunk of concrete, but we can never underestimate the power the ocean has.

\

 

Living 150 miles north of the Mississippi Gulf Coast, I can attest to what power a Cat. 5 hurricane can have. After Katrina, we were without power for almost a week, even this far north! And of course, there was nothing, truly NOTHING along the coastline for miles except slabs of house foundations, chunks of asphalt from the coastal road, and missing spans of the 4 lane bridge over the bay at Bay St. Louis.

 

Actually, I'll be surprised that there is ANYTHING left of the cruise pier at the Costa Maya. So sad! What a great place!

[Top-Cat]

This is sad news. Im surprised like everyone else about the pier. That was one big hunk of concrete, but we can never underestimate the power the ocean has.

 

The poor resort next to the pier, Chac-Chi, my favorite, must be totally blown away. This is such sad news.

 

I will pray they have the resources to rebuild.

 

Marge

Starz723

 

 

A hurricane took out the whole pier in Cozemel. It was very much like the one in Costa Maya. I thought I read somewhere that Coca Cola actually built a lot of what was in Costa Maya, literally carving it out of the jungle and the cruise lines built the pier.

 

We went there for the first time this past May and loved it. I can't imagine the center of that village surviving What a sahme.

[GuitarPlayer]

We visited Majuhual in January, 2007, via the Carnival Fantasy out of NOLA.

 

It was a beautiful place.

 

I took this "before Dean" picture while we were there, and the "after Dean" picture I found on news.yahoo.com (All Rights Reserved; Copyright by the rightful owners; your mileage may vary; lather, rinse, repeat; and whatever other disclaimers are necessary).

 

The other two pictures are of a kid selling bracelets at Tequila Beach, and some kids playing in the street in Majuhual. When DW saw this picture she said "Well those kids sure aren't glued to any dang computer," referring to our own 5 DD's...I sure hope these kids and their families (and everyone in Dean's path) are OK through all of this.

 

GP

[signdaddy]

We can not explain how we fell for the people of Majahual. We have enjoyed Cat's Meow a couple of times and just recently on July 11th, 2007. That was only just over a month ago. I sure hope everone is ok. We have also our share of storms with Hurricane Rita but not a direct hit on the coast. We have many pictures of Costa Maya along with many other Caribbean Ports. We will try to get links posted to those happy moments we captured on our camera. We have some pictures online at myspace.com/clintonhebert

[The Grumpus]

We were in Costa Maya with Royal Caribbean in Dezember 2004 and had a very nice time.

 

Watch our HD movie about the cruise:

 

http://www.audiovisualconcepts.org/movies/cruise720p30.wmv

 

This movie file is about 900 MB and is in High Definition 1280x720 pixels. So it might need some substantial buffering time. If it doesnt play, you can

download the file by right clicking it. It needs about 30 minutes to download it with a good cable connection.

All I can say is that's one heck of a first post HP! That was better than the cruise shows I see on the travel channel. You guys did a great job and I felt like I was there as part of the family. It was just fun and relaxed which is what it's supposed to be about. The Costa Maya section was very well done and I appreciate you sharing this. After seeing that I know I'll return there.

 

Thanks!

Fred