Cancun, Q.R. — Winds and rain are being blamed for the delay of over 20 flights at the Cancun International Airport Thursday. During the late afternoon, 50 kilometer winds accompanied by heavy rain forced several airlines to land at other nearby airports.
According to Protección Civil Cancún the bad weather was expected. “In the next few hours, rain with showers, wind gusts of up to 50 km/h and thunderstorms are forecast in the vicinity of Cancun.”
Even with a heads up, the storm took the city by surprise, leaving streets under water and causing the dealy of 22 flights. Traffic was slowed to a crawl as streets became more waterlogged.
Jesús Antonio Riverol Riboon, the Municipal Director of Civil Protection, said some areas of Cancun reported power outages due to an exploding transformer in the city center.
He said that 150 city workers in 20 brigades were out in the stormy weather unclogging city drains while areas of Cancun recorded 30 and 40 mms of rainfall in the hour or so it took for the storm to pass.
Cancun airport’s managing company Aeropuertos del Sureste (Asur) said that 22 flights were affected by the weather. Asur reported that nine of those affected flights were divereted to other airports.
Of the nine flights, five flew on to land at Cozumel International Airport. The diverted flights were United Airlines, American Airlines, Volaris and Viva Aerobus. The other four from Aeroméxico, Volaris and Viva Aerobús flew to Merida for a safe landing.
The weather also affected planes trying to leave Cancun. Numerous flights were delayed as much as 40 minutes due to the wind and rain.
