Mérida International Airport is ready to face a hurricane-related emergency, assured the director of airports-operator Asur, Héctor Navarrete Muñoz.
Navarrete made the statement as representatives of commercial airports of the world met in Yucatan, to analyze strategies of response to a tropical cyclone.
At the XIV International Hurricane Seminar, which took place on 19 and 20 February in Merida, port authorities from various regions of the world also met.
“It is a necessity that all airports that provide commercial services are prepared. We have to be prepared, not only at the airport where an eventual hurricane might impact, but at the surrounding airports, which are the ones that help in operations of this magnitude,” Navarette said.
He added that hurricane “Wilma” that hit Cancún in 2005 was the point of reference that ignited the warning lights so that the airports would generate mechanisms for prompt response to this type of natural disaster.
“In that occasion the neighboring airports were the ones that were in charge of mobilizing with more planes the tourist population that did not want to stay in the place,” he recalled.
The seminar was opened by Yucatan Gov. Mauricio Vila Dosal, who announced that the State Coordination of Civil Protection (Procivy) will soon strengthen its presence within the State with the establishment of four new operating bases in the same number of municipalities, which will be added to the one that exists in Mérida.
In a press release it was reported that the operational bases that will be opened will be strategically located in the municipalities of Valladolid, Tizimín, Izamal and Tekax, which will expand the coverage of Procivy to support the municipalities of those places and nearby towns in any emergency.
Among other meeting attendees were the mayor of Mérida, Renán Barrera Concha; the specialist of the National Hurricane Center (NHC, for its acronym in English), Lixion Avila; the general coordinator of the National Meteorological Service (SMN), Humberto Hernández Peralta and the representative of the United States consulate in Merida, Mila Millman.
Text and photo: Iván Duarte
