Battered tourists scramble for tickets out

CANCUN - Desperate to escape Mexico's beach resort of Cancun, ripped apart by Hurricane Wilma, thousands of tourists crowded airports and tour offices for flights home or even a long bus ride out.

Three United States commercial airlines ran flights from Cancun for the first time since Wilma tore in last Friday, and there was chaos at the airport as tourists scrambled to get one of up to 6000 seats available.

Many were willing to fly almost anywhere after spending six nights in grim shelters, sleeping alongside strangers with no electricity, little food or drinking water, overflowing toilets and intense heat.

Some complained they were abandoned by their Governments.

"I haven't seen any American help anywhere," said Bud Botzon, 44, who owns an auto repair shop in Spokane, Washington, and was waiting with his wife for word on flights home.

"How about American military flights down here? Cruise ships. Anything to get us out of here," he said.

"I feel like Americans just got forgotten about by the US Government," said Melissa Vestal from Kansas City.

Police set up roadblocks outside Cancun's airport, allowing past only those with firm reservations on flights leaving in the next few hours. Everyone else was turned away.

In central Cancun, tourists formed lines before dawn and those who got tickets checked their luggage with airline staff at a makeshift desk in the middle of a muddy traffic circle.

Thousands more fled Cancun in buses on journeys of several hours to the colonial city of Merida, where they swamped the airport for flights taking them closer to home.

As in Cancun, there were nowhere near enough seats available and officials said it could be several more days before everyone who wanted to leave would be able to get out.

US officials, sensitive to claims from some tourists that they were left alone, said they lined up buses that moved 2000 holidaymakers out of Cancun and were working with US airlines to speed the evacuation with more flights and bigger planes.

"We are doing a lot more than people are aware of," said Judith Bryan, spokeswoman for the US Embassy in Mexico.

At least seven Mexicans were killed by Wilma, although far fewer than feared given the destruction it caused to Cancun. Not a single tourist died.

Paradise lost

* Wilma damaged Cancun, the coral reef island of Cozumel and resorts along the 'Maya Riviera'.

* Cancun is a coastal city in Mexico's easternmost state, Quintana Roo.

* Much of the sand from Cancun's famous white beaches was ripped away by huge waves and major hotels were battered.

* There are about 140 hotels with 24,000 rooms and 380 restaurants. Four million visitors arrive each year in an average of 190 flights daily .

- REUTERS