Cozumel Hurricane - Here is how to help

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Johnoly:
Just a grass roots effort of Divers helping divers. We don't have a 501C tax break or anything even close to that. There is no profit, and all expenses in setting up the site have been donated by myself and other divers that care and wanted a way to help.

Johnoly - I saw what Dee had written and I trust her as such that I trust her word implicitly.

Your proactive effort to be prepared for this disaster is commendable, keep up the efforts! :)
 
The website reallly doesn't give any hard facts about any direct damage to any dive operators. How long do you expect the aftermath of the hurricane to affect Cozumel's dive business? I would assume for the dive ops that it would be back to normal pretty quick?
 
hermosadive:
The website reallly doesn't give any hard facts about any direct damage to any dive operators. How long do you expect the aftermath of the hurricane to affect Cozumel's dive business? I would assume for the dive ops that it would be back to normal pretty quick?

A couple of quick thoughts here:

1.) last I heard there still wasn't power everywhere down there so no tanks can get filled.
2.) If a dive op lost some or all of it's boats, or even had damage to them, that would keep them from operating.
3.) All hands may be needed for clean up and diving may be suspended because of that.
4.) With DM's making $250 every 2 weeks on average, from what I understand, just a day or 2 off work with no tips would make a MAJOR dent in funds.
5.) If DO employee's property sustained any damage, I'm sure building materials aren't real cheap because everything has to be imported onto the island. I haven't seen a Home Depot spring up down there yet.
6.) There won't be as many divers because most people that are there and were supposed to leave will be trying to make arrangements to get off the island, and until air traffic is resumed no new divers will be arriving.

So I'm sure any little bit of money from any of us would be much appreciated.
 
"If Christi is a part of this, it has my vote."


Those were my thoughts exactly! I have contributed and I hope others will do the same. Divers helping divers!
 
dwwest101:
I would like to hear from Christi verifing her involvement.

Thank you for helping the divers in Cozumel. Christi is a critical part of this helping effort. Listed below is a link to a post that Christi put up yesterday as well as a cut and paste of part of that post.

I admire your passion for Cozumel and you are part of a strong and large group of us that have compassion and want to help with any donation. Thank you again!!

http://www.scubaboard.com/showthread.php?t=105217

BTW: To those of you who have graciously donated to the relief fund that Johnoly set up, THANK YOU! I will be distributing those funds as soon as I can access them, which will hopefully be by the end of the week. If you donated or if you do donate, please note in the comment section who you dive with. If you have already donated, please send an e-mail to cozumelrelief@yahoo.com with this information. I will check with those dive shops/divemasters/captains first to see what their needs are and this will give me a good starting point. There are several who are out of work now for awhile due to the hotel closings (Dive Palancar, Sand Dollar, Dressel) and of course all of the thers who have been out of work for days and will be for several days to come. These donations will help them financially so they can buy food and necessities for thier families.

I will provide a full accounting to all donors after all has been distributed.

Thanks again!
__________________
 
She just got electric back at her house, but her ISP does not have power yet for their servers. Her office is not going to have electric for a while. She said that a transformer just outside was damaged and as in any hurricane, spare parts are hard to come by. In Florida, we still intersections with only one traffic light because of the backorders on them.

One of the compressor stations is expected to get electric tonite/tommorrow. But since there are still a bunch of full tanks that haven't been used, they are ready to dive. She dove today and said Viz was a great 70 feet and getting better as the current does it's work. She also said that several of the ATM's are working, and downtown is all cleaned up and looks nice. Couple of stumps from trees they had to cut but the Cruise ship passengers returned to the shops today.

Now the bad news about the Dive Masters/Captains. Alot of those hotels that can't open like Iberostar, etc, also don't have the divemasters/capts working. In effect, they are layed off and out of work! They have no money and with damage to their homes, they can't fix it either. Christi is talking to the DMs & Capts to learn of their damages. One of her DM's, Javier had a huge window, blown out and water damage, even though it was boarded up. There are alot of DMs/Capts from Dressel and Sand Dollar who can't work because their resort is closed.

Good news is that all of you have responded to the Cozumel Relief fund! It was checked earlier in the week and was over $600 with a ton of people donating. Just even ten bucks through paypal will help these divers. If you have sent an e-mail or note on the Paypal of sending the money to a specific DM/Capt/Dive OP, Christi will get it to them. If there is not a note she'll get it to the ones in real trouble. She also is making notes to give us updates on which DMs/Capts got hit.

She was totally blown away at how so many divers on D2D, Scubaboard, and others pulled together when help was needed. It's divers helping divers!!

http://www.cozumelrelief.com
 
Christi e-mailed me this morning and said that we all had broken the $1000 mark with tons of new donations. She is meeting with a large number of the dive operations in a group meeting this morning and will have updates late late this afternoon/evening.

She has limited internet access and said that hotels are up and running with AC. The grocery store Cheraudi(sp?) had new pallets of food and goods in the aisles and being unloaded. Even Carlos and Charlies and Senor Frogs are back open as well as most of the restaurants.

Just gotta help those DMs/Capts that have had damage and are out of work.

THANK YOU!! THANK YOU!! THANK YOU!!

http://www.cozumelrelief.com
 
THANK YOU, TAHNK YOU, THANK YOU! Donors have/will be receiving personal thank you's from me as quickly as I can get to everyone!!!

You can also elp by writing/CALLING Funjet.

They are playing GOD with our livlihoods and rumor has it that they've cancelled flights through September. That is NONSENSE and TOTALLY unnecessary!

This will be economically devastating to the island!

During the summer, Funjet brings approximately 60% of our visitors!

I'm in a rush, been diving all day....it was beautiful...have a meeting at 8:00!

Updates later :)
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/peregrine/

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