Excuse me but these touritsts have no idea how the people of New Orleans felt and what they endured. "Now I know how those people in New Orleans felt," said Angela Benites, 48, of Mexico City. "Several days of desperation is no way to live. http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/americas/10/26/mexico.tourists.ap/index.html

Most disaster movies always have the hero going to where majority of frightened people are waiting to be saved. Hero sizes up the futility of the masses and finds a vehicle (hot wires or hijacks) and then continues on journey. Oh, he'll break into stores, houses etc for much needed supplies. So what's the point? Don't follow the herd when disaster strikes!!! I don't understand how entitlement made the levees fail. Self reliance is second nature for most able-bodies, fairly competent people. But big majority of population have myriad of failings - i.e. physical, mental. Some also have burden of caring for members who can't take care of themselves. But one thing for sure, those NO people were in a world of trouble, and our gov't did fail.

Well, I live in the deep south, and never could I have imagined the inabilities of people who had no responsibility but to pick their feet up and walk up the road after the hurricane was over. Able bodied people sat and sat and sat...not those with children, but very able bodied adults sat. As to the government failing, we failed them long before the hurricane...entitlement is a mindset of ineptitude and I can't do for myself so someone else must. Katrina rolled a rock over and it is their fault and the governments fault...they share the blame.

My sister and husband TRIED to leave Cancun. ALL flights were booked. Ask the other 40000 tourists there also. It's just not that easy to leave when the planes are full. The government should have sent in more planes and made more arangements to get the americans out.

Learn to wait, it's a virtue. There are things which cause governments to not be able to send in 100 to 200 aircraft to immediately evacuate an area they should have evacuated long before the disaster struck.

For goodness sake! It is the hurricane season. What did these people think was going to happen? Especially after all the hoopla over Katrina.

Ok... so according to all of you. If you are in a hurricane's way and don't evacuate then why help any of them. SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO... what about all the stupid idiots in south florida... on the keys.. that sit there... get hit, no insurance, almost get killed, lose their house and when asked why they didn't leave when a cat 4 hurricane was coming they say..."we have lived here for 20 years and it's never been this bad. we didn't think it would be this bad." What about all the STUPID people that have small children and instead of thinking we have to save our children and get the heck out of here, they stay because there is always that slim chance that it will NOT hit. We live in an area where we do have hurricanes. Our area got hit bad by Ivan. Do you know who benefited from the government??? It isn't the people that had insurance but still had a deductible and the insurance didn't pay everything... it was the people who had NO insurance... that fema helped. We were turned down by fema, as we had insurance. We heard stories that people were demolishing their own homes... breaking windows, throwing stuff out the windows, messing up walls, pouring water in houses, and then turning it in to fema... and gee.. guess what.. fema bought them a new mobile home. We got zilch. Nothing. We had damage to our house and no we didn't leave even though a cat 5 was coming. We own a business here, plus have 80 foxhounds and NO small children, so we stayed to be able to tend to our business and our hounds. AND we live far enough from the water that the surge would not effect us, just the wind and rain. Ask anyone that lives in a hurricane prone area. Just becuase they say it's coming your way, does not mean it is going to hit you. I am always on alert... When Katrina hit New Orleans... why did those people not leave? Because they didn't think it was gonna hit... they didn't think it was gonna be that bad. Why did the people not leave Cancun??? Most tried... the flights were booked. But... they showed it mostly going between cozimel and cuba... Cancun did not have the hurricane warning until very late and too late for the people to leave.

My sister and husband TRIED to leave Cancun. ALL flights were booked. Ask the other 40000 tourists there also. It's just not that easy to leave when the planes are full. The government should have sent in more planes and made more arangements to get the americans out. Okay so they tried, but then when they couldn't get out did they try to prepare for themselves, i.e. extra water, wipes, food, blankets...? Granted shelters are not the best circumstances to be stuck in but why should the "government" be responsible to send planes? I don't understand this "thought process".

Why did the people not leave Cancun??? Most tried... the flights were booked. But... they showed it mostly going between cozimel and cuba... Cancun did not have the hurricane warning until very late and too late for the people to leave. You are incorrect; it showed hitting Cancun at least 2-3 days prior and effecting that area was advised 4-5 days ahead. I have friends with a home in Cancun; they closed it up 4 days prior to landfall and headed to Mexico City. In fact, they said that officials were making many announcements in both english and spanish 4 days ahead of the storm.

soooooooo, south florida knew wilma was coming and did those that were able stock up on food, water, gas? nooooooooo...those who live from paycheck to paycheck, yes, needs help. those on welfare should begin thinking about purchasing bits and pieces at a time 3 days worth of food and water. that is not that hard.

soooooooo, south florida knew wilma was coming and did those that were able stock up on food, water, gas? nooooooooo...those who live from paycheck to paycheck, yes, needs help. those on welfare should begin thinking about purchasing bits and pieces at a time 3 days worth of food and water. that is not that hard. +++++++ Its not. Chances are those on welfare are receiving food stamps. I can buy a lot with a couple hundred dollars of food stamps.

I was raised so poor that $20 can go forever. Food stamps can, if done correctly over two months, they have have put aside enough for three days to a week of food and water. Granted, it's not fun fast food, but you won't starve and don't worry with the threat of disaster. For some reason, when you give some things like food stamps away many don't understand rationing and planning and I've stood in line with a woman purchasing an entire shopping cart of hot dogs, buns, potato chips for her daughters cookout. It was at that moment that I really knew the system was not good.

I went to the Government site and ran the Food Stamp Calculator. What I chose was a family of 4, who's head of household is getting a 30% VA Disability. The two children were ages 15 and 12. For the state of Louisiana this family could get $445 to $455 a month in Food Stamps. Now due to how I gave my data then that opened this family up to all sorts of Government Benefits, but I was only interested in what they would get in Food Stamps. Now don't get me wrong, I can't live like a king on this money in that situation.. but $450 can buy one helluva lot of food. I went back and ran it for a single person fitting the same information as the head of household above. That says: It appears that you may be eligible for Food Stamps. Based on the information you provided, you may be eligible for between $142 to $152 in Food Stamps per month. So even single people get a fair amount of assistance. On $150 a month I can eat adequately.

I am told out here there are no more food stamps. They have cards for food now. I guess plastic is getting to be the way to go. However your point is well taken. :)

Tonight on the news it told the story of a couple who returned and they said they tried to get out before the storm... the day before and the flights cancelled stopped them from getting out. Uh, does anyone else see this as a bad excuse? How many hurricanes must we have where we hear that with in the day prior to the storm hitting that the airports shut down? I'd think the responsible traveller would try to get out earlier than 1 day.

I would have been packed and out the hour I heard it. They wanted to stay as long as they could and get their money's worth probably out of their vacation...cancun knew FIVE days ahead of time...so they played the odds and lost. They did not make a responsible decision. They pushed their luck 'n lost.

I have seen it happen time and again where people don't take the warnings for things seriously and by the time they figure "this ain't fun anymore" it's too late. Of course most of these people make excuses later for why they couldn't do as advised later. I also have see it happen time and again where people figured they would be able to get out and do what they have to at the last minute, and that includes getting out of an area as well as going to stock up on items for survival, only to find that they can't do as they thought. Whenever I travelled, I paid attention to the news and weather on a daily basis, usually it was through watching the local news at night before bedtime or watching the evening news. Sometimes it was through the newspaper or talking to the locals. The oddest part is that many of those I knew that travelled did the same... and usually they paid particular attention to the weather and events which might affect their travelling. I find it inconcievable to think that the majority of Americans don't pay attention to such things when travelling. They might not do it on a daily basis, but surely these people were not all out getting drunk on the beaches all the time and doing other things that they never heard about this storm coming. If they are then I have less sympathy for them than I do the dunderheads that decided to stay and ride it out.

Well, I was one of the American tourists in Cancun during Wilma. We just got home on Saturday. I have some information for some of you who think you know everything about what happened: We got to Cancun on Saturday morning, Oct 15th. Yes, we know this is ?hurricane season? ? we?ve been going to the same place at the same time since 1998 with no issues. To me, saying we shouldn?t go there for vacation during hurricane season is like saying that no one should live near any portion of the ocean because of the risk of hurricanes there. When we got to Cancun, there wasn?t even mention of a tropical depression. We first heard about a tropical depression on Sunday, but it wasn?t named yet. Wilma was named a tropical storm on Monday morning ? no big deal, a tropical storm. Plus, it was staying down by the Cayman Islands and wasn?t projected to hit Cancun. No reason to worry. Monday night Wilma was still just a tropical storm and was stalled down by the Cayman Islands. It was expected that she would go due west from there, which again made us think Cancun was still OK. Tuesday morning Wilma is STILL just a tropical storm. Tuesday night Wilma was finally a hurricane, but only a Cat 1, and might be heading our way. We started asking questions about the storm at the front desk, but the management at our resort did not seem concerned at all. (Our resort is designed to be a hurricane shelter.) When we woke up on Wednesday morning, we were shocked to find that Wilma was now a Cat 5! We called our airline to try to get out, but were told all flights were full. Still, the management at our resort seemed to be taking it all in stride. There was no sense of urgency or stress. We had a friend who did get an earlier flight on Thursday, but it was canceled. Their airport shut down early Thursday afternoon. Also on Thursday afternoon we were told we had to move from our villa on the first floor up to the third floor, because they were concerned about the storm surge flooding our room. We packed up our suitcases and moved, no big deal. A couple hours later we got the call that the Mexican government had issued a mandatory evacuation of all of the Cancun hotel zone. We were told we could only bring one change of clothes, our documents (passports, etc.), a few snacks if we had them, a pillow and a blanket. We were shipped by bus to a shelter right around 6pm Thursday night (against our will, by the way).

The wind and rain lasted from Thursday through Sunday morning. Friday night was the worst of it ? it sounded like there was a freight train going by the building all night long. My point in all this is for those of you who thought we ?knew five days ahead of time? and that it was all over the news for us to evacuate days before hand. That is not what really happened. Wilma was only a major hurricane for two days before she hit Mexico. You can?t tell me that you would start evacuating for a tropical storm, or even a Cat 1 hurricane. As far as the news telling us to get out ? maybe the Spanish channels did but we were watching the Weather Channel and US news channels, all of which were apparently more concerned about what was going to happen to Florida than what was going to happen to Cancun. We never heard anything about getting out of Cancun on the news ? we made that decision on our own to try on Wednesday morning. For those of you who thought the tourists should have been more prepared ? if the rest of the resorts were like ours, they wouldn?t LET us take enough provisions to the shelter with us to last 3 days. They told us we?d only be in the shelter overnight. I agree, what we went through during our vacation is nothing compared to what the people who live in Alabama, Florida, Mississippi and Louisiana are going through, and I truly feel bad for them. I also agree that people have to be responsible for themselves and not rely on the government for everything. I don?t even know why I?m bothering to write this because some of you will never change your opinion of the ?Whiney American Tourists?. I just wanted you to hear our side of the story.

So you are telling me that you went to a place during hurricane season and didn't pay one bit of attention to the news? Wilma was a big thing and others said they knew it was coming, why didn't you?