Impact
Roxanne caused 14 deaths, with five of them coming from the sinking of a petroleum work barge with 245 people on board. There was massive damage in Mexico across numerous Mexican states. Over forty thousand homes were damaged in the States of Campeche, Quintana Roo, Tabasco Veracruz and Yucatán. Crops were destroyed, cattle drowned, and roads were either washed out or blocked by mudslides. The road between the City of Carmen and Campeche was completely destroyed. There are unconfirmed reports that many hotel lobbies in Cancun and Cozumel were damaged from pounding waves. Rainfall and storm surge combined with overflowing rivers caused the worst flooding in Campeche since 1927. Rainfall in some areas was over 20 inches, with the highest rainfall reported as 26.61 inches/676 mm at Silvituc/Champoton. The storm surge also pounded the Mexican coastline for days and the Gulf waters surged inland hundreds of yards.
Roxanne caused the state owned Pemex to shut down 90% of its drilling in the Gulf of Mexico during its pass as well as halt all shipments from three oil terminals in the southeastern region of the gulf. As a result, Mexico lost millions of dollars. Oil production dropped from 2.838 million barrels a day in September to 1.976 million barrels a day in October or 30.4%. (A rough guess using a price of the Maya Crude averaging about $13.77/b, 30 days in September, and 862,000 barrels a day of lost output yields $356 million, which in 2011 dollars equals about $530 million.) Oil production didn't completely recover in November, so there were some additional losses, but did completely return in December.
Throughout the state of Tabasco, nearly half of the highways sustained significant damage. Governor Roberto Madrazo Pintado estimated that it would cost roughly $60 million to repair them.
Roxanne struck an area that had been directly struck by Hurricane Opal just a few weeks earlier and all damage could not be sorted out from Opal and Roxanne. Combined damage was estimated in the neighborhood of $1.5 billion.
Read more about this topic: Hurricane Roxanne
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