My Photojournalism: Old photos from Hurricane Wilma

terça-feira, março 27, 2007

Old photos from Hurricane Wilma

In 2005 I was living in Playa del Carmen Mexico. Playa del Carmen is one of the most nicest places to live, with the amazing Caribbean beaches and great dives and also with the contagious night life.
On October 2005 the Hurricane Wilma pass over the Caribbean coast. It was the most intense hurricane that has ever been recorded in the Atlantic basin. Wilma reached the category 5 of danger with winds of 295 km but was displacing at a speed of four kilometers per hour. Government officials declared a red alert on the evening of Wednesday, October 19. Classes were suspended in the state's northern municipalities and residents of coastal areas were advised to take refuge further inland, tourists in the resort city of Cancún and its adjacent islands were told to return to their places of origin or head inland while those unable to were relocated to designated hurricane shelters throughout the city. In neighboring Yucatán, classes were also suspended in 18 coastal municipalities. In the stores and in home people put tape and wood to protect from the winds. Fortunately it didn't made almost any victims but the damage was enormous.
In the following days I made some photos of the destruction in the town and in the beach, in some of them the winds blown away all the sand send boats to the streets and the ocean bought tons of coral to the beach where people came to collect them as souvenir. In town some shops were completely emptied by theft.
In the resort I was working a brand new pier was destroyed and all the palm trees were almost down.
In other area the red cross came to help with food and supplies the people who were most affected by the massive winds and destruction.
It was a very emotional and intense experience to live witch I do not expect to repeat.