For a return visitor, the first dive in Cozumel is going to be a shock because the reefs are changed, not destroyed. I've logged over five-hundred dives in Cozumel and will agree that on some reefs storm damage is noticeable - my favorite tube sponges for WAL on Colombia Reef are gone, there's a fine dusting of sand nearly everywhere, and the sandy flats are now very clean. The reefs are changed, but still beautiful and full of life, both verterbrate and invertebrate - I found no dearth of subjects to photograph and even found some new ones. After the first dive, we began to look around and discovered a new Cozumel. We were there for two weeks, logged thirty-nine dives and almost fifty hours of bottom time.
The shallow tops of the reefs used to meet sand on the east side. Much of that sand has been swept away, exposing the limestone underneath. Someone seeing this gray rock for the first time might assume that the reef was killed by the storms; this rocky area isn't as pretty as the sand used to be; but it isn't reef damaged by the hurricane - just uncovered rock. There are now many more tunnels, holes, and cracks to explore.
