Mexico facing up to most costly disaster ever

The once-huge throngs of tourists desperate to leave Mexico’s Caribbean coast have 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 yesterday, and he announced series of tax breaks and a $18.5m (€15.2m) progamme to restore Caribbean beaches ravaged by Hurricane Wilma.