When you see photos come back from the tourists and travel agents we've talked to on the ground in Los Cabos, and you see the horrendous devastation that Odile rendered on this tourism destination, it seems myopic to only think about yourself. It seems beyond selfish. But the thing is, I've seen this before. And what I've seen makes me optimistic for Los Cabos' future.
I live in a small town called Bluffton on the very Southern tip of South Carolina just across the bridge from Hilton Head Island. Every time you see that cone of destruction on the Weather Channel, it usually spends a good 2-3 days pointed right at me and this little spit of sand I love and call home. And I'll admit, as many times as that cone has hit the Caribbean only to get spun north to the Outer Banks or south to Florida, I still get nervous.
I get nervous because we're overdue. The last hurricane to make direct landfall anywhere nearby was Hurricane Hugo in 1989, which touched down in Charleston just a few miles away as the fish crow flies. She took 27 South Carolinians when she did, and left the Holy City a wreck.
I'm just over the bridge from Hilton Head Island, and the island took a pretty big hit during Hugo then. Before that, you have to go back to 1893 to find a direct hit by a hurricane where I stand. So whenever you see that cone pointed right at them, most locals know it'll skew this way or that, but they also know we're overdue.
But if we ever do get direct hit here in Bluffton, you can bet tourism will be right there to help pick up the pieces. All the great hotel properties over the bridge on Hilton Head would see to that. The Westin, Sonesta, the Marriott Grande Ocean, the Disney resort, all these places would be quick to rebuild their properties and get those tourists back as quick as possible. That's to say nothing of places like The Sea Pines Resort and, on this side of the bridge, The Inn at Palmetto Bluff who would have built an enormous reputation they couldn't afford to lose on the whims of nature.
We've been very fortunate to avoid too many direct hits here, but if the worst were to happen, you can bet the financial rudder of tourism would right the ship as soon as possible.
And while we've been very fortunate here down South, I've seen places where that hasn't been the case. I made a brief move to Long Island last year, arriving months after Sandy had struck. I talked to people on the south shore who had seen their homes destroyed. I walked the sands of Long Beach, where broken pillars marked the remnants of the once-proud boardwalk.
But as I talked with those people, I did so over stacks of new flooring they were putting in as they rebuilt. As I walked Long Beach, I dodged construction crews who had already replaced massive sections of boardwalk and were busily restoring the rest.
Long Island wasn't devastated by any means. But those parts that had been torn down by nature's fury were well on their way back within months. And that's without much by way of tourism to support their efforts.
Rebuilding can happen just fine without tourism. With tourism, with that added financial pressure to get visitors coming back, to get rooms filled, rebuilding becomes a fiscal imperative. Maybe it's cynical, but nothing will drive rebuilding efforts like an investment that needs protected.
And Los Cabos' tourism investments have been substantial. There are a lot of great properties in this blossoming tourism mecca, and those properties will want to get rooms ready as soon as possible. Many of them, as we've reported, are already back up and running.
The rest is up to you, the traveler. The sooner you get back into those rooms, get back onto those beaches, and start filling Los Cabos' coffers with your tourism dollars, the faster they can rebuild.
I've seen the photos from after Odile. But I've also seen the photos from before she hit, and what I saw was a stunning piece of paradise. Something tells me travelers will be lining up to come back and help Los Cabos rebuild.
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