Hurricane Rina Projected Path: Looming Storm Chases Tourists From Resorts

By Ivana Kvesic, Christian Post Reporter Thursday, October 27, 2011

Hurricane Rina has sent tourists in Mexico packing ahead of the storm, which is expected to crack down on the Mexican coastline Thursday evening.

Rina, which was originally projected to gain strength, has winded down to a Category 1 storm and will likely remain so by the time it hits the country’s Yucatan peninsula.

The Untied States issued a travel alert for those in the country that have been eager to get a beach vacation in prior to the winter season.

Yesterday, Mexico’s State Tourism Director said that there were about 83,000 tourists in Mexico and that about 45,000 of them were vacationing along the Cancun coast.

With the news of the storm, the Cancun airport remained open, however dozens of flights into and out of the city were canceled.

The Cancun airport was crowded yesterday, as tourists hoping to flee the country prior to the storm created long lines hoping to catch a flight out of the wildly popular destination spot.

“We just figured that we’d rather be home where it’s dry and the sun is still shining,” one Californian tourist named Danielle Selvin told Reuters.

Although many tourists have decided to cut their vacations short to avoid being caught in a storm, others plan to stick out the hurricane and continue to enjoy their vacation rain, waves, wind and all.

One such tourist, an American woman named Wendy Power who had lived through Hurricane Katrina, told AP, “We had Katrina and we survived it. If the one coming here is a category 1 or 2, we could have a beach party.”

Although the storm poses little danger to tourists, many people have either cut their vacations short or have opted to reschedule.

However, for Cancun residents living in poorer areas, the storm could be potentially dangerous by causing floods and damaging fragile housing.