Heather in Paradise

To Whom It May Concern,

I am writing to comment on your online “news” article headlined Hurricane Dean Strengthens Into Category 5 Storm Off Mexico’s Caribbean Coast. To refine my comment, I would like to mention that it is 9.30 pm on August 20, and I am e-mailing you from Playa del Carmen, Mexico, which is about 40 miles south of Cancun International Airport and about the same distance north of Tulum. Despite the implications in your “article,” we still have electricity and internet here in Playa del Carmen and apart from a few showers, some thunder, and a pretty show of lightning, we have been lucky enough to experience very little effects from the coming hurricane. In fact, since WE have actually been watching weather reports and computer tracking models, we know that Hurricane Dean is on track to hit somewhere around Chetumal or Majahual (these are cities/towns in Quintana Roo, have your “fact checkers” look it up, if you like), which are about 100 miles or more from where I sit.

While I understand that implying that Cancun and the Riviera Maya will be decimated by this hurricane will help your sensationalist cause, this kind of false fear-mongering causes undue harm, suffering, and loss of income for those people here who make their living from the tourist trade.

Imagine my surprise just after Hurricane Wilma two years ago, when checking my email on the beach in Playa del Carmen, to read of my town’s utter destruction. I so distrust the media now that I rarely believe anything I read in the so-called “news.”

We aren’t asking you to embellish the truth. We’re just asking you to find it in the first place.

Saludos,
Heather