After a rough but memorable end to their sunny Mexican vacations, stranded Canadian tourists are finally headed home.
Forced to leave their resorts to huddle up in shelters further inland as Hurricane Emily pounded the Yucatan in the tourist-heavy regions of Cancun and the Mayan Riviera, as many as 3,000 Canuck tourists had to stay a few extra days in the country until the storm passed.
Now that the hurricane has moved over the Gulf of Mexico, life is returning to normal. Airports have re-opened, and there were no reports of Canadians killed or injured in the storm.
Chris Channon, a passenger returning to Toronto's Lester B. Pearson Airport was thrilled to be back in Canada after Emily provided him with some fearful moments.
"I looked outside, put my hands on the patio doors and they bowed in two or three inches," he said. "Then we were like, this is not fun."
Another passenger, Keith Paridy, praised the Mexican government for keeping people safe.
"The winds were howling. We were in Cancun, but I know people that came back from the flight. Their hotel was south and they had no bags to come back with because their hotel was pretty much gone," he said. "The Mexican government had everything totally planned out. There was no panic. Very well prepared."
Though some passengers were able to grin and bear it, many weren’t happy with what they had to go through waiting for a flight, and some Quebecers have threatened to launch a class-action lawsuit against Montreal-based carrier Air Transat.
The airline reportedly won’t reimburse passengers because a hurricane is a "force of nature" and travellers were warned of the possibility, said Air Transat spokesperson Pierre Tessier.
Other Canadian vacationers were taken to hotels inland after charter carrier Skyservice cancelled its flight to Toronto due to a piece of ground equipment on the runway damaging the plane's left wing.
More than 200 passengers were told they’d have to wait for a Tuesday morning flight. Customers complained it took too long, and they weren’t given access to enough food or water in the meantime.
Skyservice spokeswoman Sheila Whaley said the company's priority was to keep its passengers safe, and despite the challenges was trying to keep them comfortable as well.
The hurricane was blowing at nearly 220 km/h when it hit the Yucatan Sunday, making it a fierce Category 4 storm.
It weakened to Category 2 as it passed over the peninsula Monday, but was expected it to regain force and hit the northeastern Mexican coast Tuesday night, the Miami-based National Hurricane Center said.
Topic: Re: Canadian Tourists Head home from Mexico (Read 5011 times)