There's some photographic evidence today that damage to Playa del Carmen has been less severe than initial accounts suggested.
Nevertheless it is being reported that Hurricane Wilma may cost Mexico 0.25% of economic growth this year and that damages may add up to $1.5bn. The regional association of hoteliers is seeking a $500 million loan from Mexico's development bank, claiming that their collective losses are running at $7m a day.
At 10pm Friday (local time) the eye of Wilma was located directly above the Mayan Palace Hotel, a particularly nasty example of mass tourism development along the coast between Playa and Cancún. (It would be too much to hope for that this gruesome structure requires demolition now!)
BBC Breakfast this morning featured a telephone interview with some moaning Brits, stuck in their ruined hotel in Cancún and wondering when someone English-speaking will come along and help them.
The eye of the storm passed well to the north of Tulum, whose beaches are reported to be re-opening already. Cozumel faired less well, as Wilma devastated the same northern portion of the island lashed by Wild Gilbert in 1988. (With 882 millibars of pressure Wilma briefly exceeded Gilbert's record low of 888.)
Cozumel was hit again by Roxanne in 1995, then the first category 3 in the western Caribbean sea since Hurricane Hattie (category 4) in October 1961 - the storm that destroyed Belize City.
