Puerto Aventuras
Hurricane Emily - July 2005
Hurricane Emily struck the Riviera Maya on Sunday 17th July 2005. The eye of the Hurricane made landfall at Xel-Ha. The worst hit area was where the Northern eyewall of the hurricane made landfall. Unfortunately that was Puerto Aventuras.
This category four hurricane with windspeeds of 135 mph stayed in the area for four hours but fortunately was not as wet and therefore damaging as expected.
This page originally gave news to worried tourists and residents of Puerto Aventuras, but remains here now as a photographic record of a destructive and historic event in the life of this little town. A later update of conditions was provided on the page, Puerto Aventuras and Hurricane Emily update.
A few months afterwards, incredibly another category four hurricane, Hurricane Wilma hit Puerto Aventuras
Summary
The information channels did a very good job reporting on Cancun, Cozumel and a little bit of Playa del Carmen, but totally neglected Puerto Aventuras, the most impacted town, and of course the place with which we have a personal attachment.
Due to this lack of information, we received lots of calls from friends asking for news. Internet forums were full of postings with questions, but very little information.
Puerto Aventuras was seriously damaged, though it was not as bad as we had first heard. Most of the damage was limited to the trees, with only the palms surviving the intense gusts due to their flexibility), sixty per cent of PA vegetation was temporarily lost. The "palapas", not suprisingly, suffered heaviy damage, making buildings look far worse than they really were.
Overall everything was far better than we could have expected from such a powerful storm. Most of the damagewas quickly repaired and perhaps more importantly there was no loss of life.
Later in the year, in October, Puerto Aventuras was unbelievably hit by a second hurricane. Click here to see pictures from during and after the horrifying two day visit of Hurricane Wilma to Puerto Aventuras.
