Cancun Bounces Back After Wilma

Posted on October 11, 2006
Filed Under Hurricanes |

hurriance wilma Carl Johnson said his heart missed a beat when he saw the beach outside his Cancun timeshare. He was expecting little sand a year after the resort was savaged by the most intense Atlantic hurricane on record. But what he saw took him by complete surprise.His patch of golden-white sand had tripled in size, stretching a gaping 140 feet toward the crystal-clear Caribbean water. “After the initial shock, I just burst out laughing. It is so weird when you are used to seeing something and then it completely changes,” said Johnson, a 50-year old aircraft mechanic from Chicago.

Cancun’s new beach, built by pumping 96 million cubic feet of sand from the ocean floor, is the highlight of an extreme makeover the resort has gone through since it was punished by Hurricane Wilma on Oct. 21, 2005.

Mexican tourist officials are promoting their Caribbean haven as being fully revamped and made bigger, better and more glitzy than it was before Wilma. Public and private investment for the rebuilding has totaled $1.5 billion they say. CONTINUE