By JIM CARNEY
Akron Beacon Journal
George Spikerman spent part of his October vacation in an evacuated resort hotel and face to face with Hurricane Wilma as it tore through Cancun.
It wasn’t intentional. He was too ill to know that he was being left behind and there was confusion about whether his hotel would be evacuated.
Spikerman, 53, an Akron firefighter and paramedic for 15 years, was vacationing alone in Cancun on Oct. 13 and was to come home seven days later.
However, on Oct. 19 -- one day before he was supposed to leave -- he returned to his hotel after scuba diving and felt feverish and nauseated.
He also learned that his flight home the next day had been canceled -- a casualty of the hurricane.
He went to bed and awoke the next day much sicker, knowing of hurricane warnings.
Because he walked up and down the back steps for exercise, he did not see all the commotion going on as the tourists in his hotel were being evacuated.
That afternoon, he still was sick and knew he needed sleep. He didn’t wake up until late that night, drenched in sweat.
The weather was on television, but it was in Spanish. He didn’t know that Wilma would land squarely on Cancun before making a 90-degree turn and heading for Florida.
All he knew was that “it was supposed to go to Florida,’' he said.
He went back to sleep and awoke the next morning feeling better, but realizing that something was horribly wrong.
“I hear whistling in the hallways and doors slamming... and I open the door and I don’t see anybody,’' he said.
The building had been evacuated and he missed it.
Into the night, he barricaded doors to keep out the storm. His room became soaked, nonetheless. All he had for nourishment was two bottles of water.
The next afternoon, Oct. 22, he used his flashlight and found a cart in a hotel hallway. He removed the back to find coffee, bottled water, soda and beer, so he grabbed a few of each.
He also found an ice machine that still had ice.
By the next morning morning, the sky and ocean began to clear, so he ventured through the destruction to find a fisherman who drove him to a shelter where he finally had food and found out that his hotel had been evacuated three days earlier. He said he never got the notice of the evacuation.
It wasn’t until two days later, on Oct. 25, that he was able to leave; the only flight out was stopping in Cincinnati and Baltimore so he and others who had been heading for Cleveland got off in Cincinnati and rented vans to get get home.
His harrowing experience with Wilma left an impression, Spikerman said.
“Stuff that bothered me before sure doesn’t bother me now,’' he said.
Spikerman said there may have been a higher power at play in his surviving the hurricane.
“He must have a reason to keep me around,’' Spikerman said.