Cancun, Q.R. — A severe downpour left the city of Cancun slow going Sunday evening after nearly 50 mms fell according to Servicio Meteorológico Nacional (SMN). The sudden but expected rainfall began around 6:30 p.m. Sunday. A brigade of 30 Transit elements were out assisting stranded motorists who found themselves unable to pass main throughways due to suddenly flooded streets.
Two outdoor events were cancelled without notice due to the heavy downpour. A semifinal soccer match was suspended and an outdoor concert canceled for another day after torrential rain left both fields under water.
A stadium filled with 10,000 soccer fans found itself quickly emptied as spectators began to run for cover. Within minutes, the field was waterlogged with areas of standing rain. After nearly three hours of waiting, the playing field drained and the match resumed.
However, an outdoor concert planned for 8,000 was cancelled until November 30. In a statement, the company reported that although the electronic equipment was removed from the stadium when the rains began, they did suffer damage.
The torrential rains forced Cancun concert goers from the field to their homes along flooded city streets that were manned by Transit authorities due to the torrential downpout.
According to Municipal Transit Directorate, more than a dozen pickup trucks were out assisting vehicles while other transit personnel kept main flooded streets blocked off from use until city drains were able to keep up.
The head of Municipal Transit, Ezequiel Segovia Góngora, reported significant flooding on Avenues Xcaret, Av. Yaxchilán, Cobá, Kabah, Andrés Q. Roo, Tulum, José López Portillo were the hardest hit along with sections of Blvd. Kukulcán and Blvd. Colosio.
Protección Civil Cancún forecast the probability of rain with scattered showers, possible electric storms with wind gusts of 50 km/h for the area of Cancun late Sunday.
The low pressure system that caused the Sunday evening rains is expected to stick around Monday. According to Protection Civil Quintana Roo “due to the upcoming displacement of Cold Front Number Twelve and the Low Pressure Channel that accompanies it over the Gulf of Mexico, it will move from north to south and affect the state of Quintana Roo starting in the afternoon and into Monday night and Tuesday, generating an increase in cloudiness and rain that may be moderate to occasionally heavy with showers accompanied by electrical activity, mainly in the municipalities of Lázaro Cárdenas, Isla Mujeres, Benito Juárez, Puerto Morelos, Cozumel, Solidaridad and Tulum.
“Due to its characteristics, greater accumulations of rain may occur in some areas, and it is expected to take on the characteristics of a stationary front during the day on Tuesday and Wednesday over the northern portion of the peninsular region.”
Less than two weeks ago, Playa del Carmen was left underwater after the arrival of two near back-to-back downpours due to seasonal cold fronts.
