Tropical Storm Sets Sights on Mexican Resorts

As Tropical Storm Rina churns off the coast of Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, residents of the resort town of Playa del Carmen have boarded up their homes and are staying indoors, patiently waiting for the erratic low pressure system to pass.

Thousands of tourists headed home while locals stocked up on emergency supplies, clearing the shelves of big box stores of bottled waters, flashlights and batteries. Major retailers had already sold out of many provisions yesterday, when the storm was still classified as a hurricane.

Chaya Goldberg, who directs the local Chabad-Lubavitch center with her husband, Rabbi Mendel Goldberg, has been turning her attention to her community’s spiritual and physical needs in addition to those of her own family. As the storm approached, she prepared all of the food needed for the upcoming Sabbath ahead of time.

“People are going to be looking for a place to go to for Shabbat,” she said.

In addition to boarding up their house, the couple bought a generator to protect the kosher meat and dairy products in their freezers.

Goldberg also had to reschedule some events because she didn’t want anyone to have to leave their homes during the storm’s more intense moments. She pushed off her daughter’s birthday party to Sunday and rescheduled today’s memorial for Rabbi Dovid Malka, father of Chabad of Cancun co-director Rochel Druk, for Monday. Goldberg was supposed to cater a wedding this weekend, but the bride and groom postponed the event.

Although Rina’s maximum sustained winds have decreased to near 70 m.p.h., according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s hurricane hunter aircraft, a dangerous storm surge is expected to raise water levels as much as one to three feet above normal tide levels.

“Nobody here knows what’s going on,” said Goldberg, originally from Brooklyn. “Our life is never boring.”