(1st paragraph edited to update on the road on otro lado)
OK...here's a real status update!
Cozumel is perfectly fine and the ONLY damage I saw today was ONE small tree down. T
here are also reports that the road on the other side has some damage at Chen Rio and Punta Sur. I heard this from my friend Margarita who owns Rentadora Isis...she just walked by my house with her dogs I'll report on this when I know more.
We had NO flooding anywhere and only a very small portion of the island lost electricity. Mine was actually back on by 10:00am this morning and everyone will have power by this evening.
Everyone got to work immediately today unboarding and undoing the preparations made over the past few days.
As of 11:00am, Meridiano wasn't putting boats back in the water yet, but they MIGHT have started putting them back in this afternoon. Definitely tomorrow.
My boats will go back in tomorrow because we still had a little too much wave action today...think of it as a norte, because that's exactly how conditions are right now.
The water is as blue as it ever was...I'll have some pictures on my website blog later this evening.
The Cozumel Red Cross, DIF, and SOL Stero (maybe others) organized an amazing relief effort to help our neighbors south who took the storm for us. When we dropped off our donation of clothes, food and water...they were already getting ready to send the first full truck to Carillo Puerto, and that was at 10:30am. The response and the donations from this community was outstanding. I was truly impressed!
Those of you who have trips planned for arrival this week, please contact YOUR dive operator to find out when they will resume operations. I cannot speak for other operations, although I would say it's a pretty safe bet that all will be back to normal by the end of the week at the latest. I can't believe how many e-mails I've gotten from people wanting to know how their reservations stand with other dive operations, and even some wanting to know if their hotel in CANCUN will be open! So please contact your dive op and hotel directly for reopening information and confirmation of your reservations.
If you're debating on whether to come because you're worried about the conditions...there's absolutely nothing to worry about. Vis will be down for two or three days...but will still be better than a day in the office or a dive in your local lake or quarry right? And when I say vis will be down...I mean 60 to70 ft vis vs. 80 to 100 ft vis.
Two cruise ships will be arriving tomorrow and the kids all start school tomorrow as scheduled. Life is back to normal in Cozumel and you wou'dn't know that Dean had brushed us if you didn't already know it!!
OK...that's all I have to report for now. I'll be updating my website later with pictures!