The honeymoon Story To Top All Others

When Wilma Crashed the Party

Pat Smith

One thing for sure, few young couples will be able to tell of honeymooning while Wilma howled outside their window. Kevin and Heather (Robbins) Miller did but they don’t recommend it at all.

They left Greensburg for their honeymoon trip Mexico Monday, Oct. 17. Wednesday morning, while at Riveria Maya they were told they must leave because a major hurricane was headed their way.

The left for the airport at Cancun Thursday morning to get a flight home.

Simple so far?

It wasn’t.

When they arrived at the airport they found that any flight they booked was soon canceled. In fact, they were finally told to get out of the airport.

“I panicked,” said Heather. “They told us to go to a shelter but we’d heard horror stories about Katrina.” Kevin said they happened to meet a representative from Apple Vacations who told them about a hotel in downtown Cancun that still had a few vacant rooms.

In the meantime, Diana and Rocky Robbins were at their home in Greensburg desperately trying to receive information from or about the couple.

“My brother Mike and I made reservations for them only to have them canceled,” she said.

“Sometimes even seats were assigned but every flight was canceled. That happened over and over. We made calls to our embassy in Mexico. There was absolutely no help there. There were 40,000 Americans in Mexico needing help but they would not even listen to us."

“We were in the Cancun hotel room,” said Heather, "with no electricity, no water except what we purchased ourWe couldn’t telephone out because the phones were dead. The officials there said everyone could use the pay phones for local calls only but who were we going to call there? We didn’t know anyone there to call." But, he said, the Mexican authorities would come into the hotel, get things set up for news cameras, and appear to have everything in control." They sat their hungry while the hotel staff set out big plates of cookies for the officials. None were offered to the guests. They were also running out of money but couldn’t use credit cards because with no electricity the card couldn’t be swiped through the machine.

They have since learned that others were using their own credit cards.

The couple was in their hotel room when Wilma hit. Winds up to 180 mph blew out windows in the hallways causing a lot of shaking of the building but it was the noise that was so unsettling.

Kevin said, “I will tell you that I would rather be in the actual

hurricane than the aftermath.

That was the most disturbing part.”

They said there was no protection.

The Mexican police rode around in trucks with bright lights and more than a dozen men in back with guns drawn.

“We could see them all over the city because everything was dark but those truck lights. We’d hear shouting and then shooting,” he said. "There was tremendous looting and they were trying to stop that but they’d shoot at whatever they saw. If you were in the wrong place at the wrong time you became a target.”

From start to finish their ordeal lasted 60 hours. There was severe damage everywhere.

“The hotel really took advantage of all of us and over charged for everything,” they said.

They were finally able to call home Saturday at noon during the eye of the storm.



Diana was still desperately trying to get them help and tickets out.

Still no flights, only relief planes at about 400 per day.

Something that stands out in their minds is that those who had Canadian or Great Britain passports got out immediately.

“Their embassyies helped them. The Mexican officials don’t seem to like Americans – although they do appreciate our money.”

Kevin and Heather finally got a plane out Wednesday on a first-come first served basis.

“The only way we got out was that Delta had a booth set up and if you got there in time you got out, if not you waited.

“There are still plenty of Americans there that can’t get out.”

They were told to go to an open field and take their turn.

They got there at 4:30 a.m. in order to get their handwritten passes.

“They marched us to the plane in single-file,” said Kevin.

They finally flew out at 7 p.m. on their flight to Atlanta “There was no security so they checked us over well when we landed in Atlanta.”

Diana said she didn’t relax a minute until she got their call from the Atlanta airport.

Both Kevin and Heather say they will never leave this country again but have no unkind words to say about the Mexican people.

Kevin told of a local man staying at the hotel, “He helped us a lot. He got water for us and medicine for an older couple. He even got ice to keep their insulin in.”

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