Flight from Wilma guts tourism industry

BY bus and charter flights, thousands of tourists streamed out of this Caribbean resort city that was pounded by Hurricane Wilma, but thousands more remained stranded yesterday.

Clyde Wiseman, a petrochemical supervisor from Illinois, said he didn't know when he would be able to leave, but "I'm happy to be among the living".

"But to the travel agents, the airlines, I want to say, 'I don't want to be among the forgotten.'"

Tourism officials estimated that about 6,000 people flew out of Cancun airport Tuesday, five days after Wilma roared through, while thousands more were bused to planes in Merida, a 170-mile trip over partly flooded roads with heavy traffic.

"Enough's enough," Paul Bracey, 45, of Wales, said at a hotel serving as a shelter in downtown Cancun as he waited for a bus to Merida late Tuesday night. "We're still stranded, and have been told six days of lies."

Officials said about 22,000 foreign tourists remained in the area Tuesday afternoon, down from almost 40,000 during the storm that lashed the coast Friday and Saturday, wiping out the heart of Mexico's $11 billion (€9bn) foreign tourism industry. There was still no solid monetary estimate of the damage caused by Wilma.

Eric and Michelle Joseph, honeymooners from San Jose, California, said a river of human waste had run through hallways at the hotel where 1,200 tourists were sheltered during the storm.

"Our whole family is calling senators, congressmen and Gov Schwarzenegger," said Eric Joseph, 26. "My Cingular (cellular phone) bill is probably going to be $3,000."

The couple had scheduled flights out every day this week, but weren't hopeful of getting home until Saturday.

Aurelio Fernandez, 35, of Asturias, Spain, said he planned to fly back on a charter flight from Merida late yesterday, leaving behind a suitcase at a Cancun airport locker.

"I'm leaving, but my bag isn't," Fernandez, said at a hotel, where he had just had his first shower in five days. "It was the most refreshing of my life," he said.

Soldiers turned back a mile-long line of taxis, vans and buses before they could reach the badly damaged Cancun airport, allowing in only organised tour groups who were ferried directly to their planes.