x
Breaking News
More () »

San Diego fiance pleads for Hurricane Odile aid

While a bachelorette party from San Diego is stranded in Cabo San Lucas, the fiancé in San Diego is requesting humanitarian aid.

LATEST: The fiancé of a woman who was stranded in Cabo San Lucas due to Hurricane Odile says she and her friends were flown Tijuana by the Mexican government returned to San Diego Tuesday night. The fiancee has set up a GoFundMe account to provide Hurricane Odile relief.

SAN DIEGO (CBS 8) – Hurricane Odile crashed one San Diego woman's bachelorette party in Cabo San Lucas. Rachel LeMay and her friends are among the thousands of tourists left stranded in the aftermath of what is now Tropical Storm Odile. And, LeMay's fiancé, who is in San Diego, is requesting humanitarian aid.


Category 3 Hurricane Odile roared through Mexico's Baja California Peninsula on Sunday night and left a path of destruction in Cabo San Lucas. Homes were leveled, the airport was closed, which left 30,000 tourists stranded in hotels seeking shelter and among those stranded was bachelorette Rachel LeMay and her five friends - all except one are from San Diego.


“We were all crammed into a bathroom and were hanging on for dear life," said LeMay.


CBS News 8 spoke to the San Diego State University senior from her hotel room where she is sharing two beds with five other girls, because the other room they rented flooded.


“We are trying to keep calm and trying to stay positive," LeMay noted.


The group was scheduled to fly back on Monday, but had to escape their coastal hotel and seek shelter inland in San Jose del Cabo on Sunday.


“I just want to be able to get home and get married,” said LeMay.


The couple is scheduled to get married on October 4.


“This is the last place I want my fiancée to be three weeks before our wedding,” said James McLaughlin.


He encouraged the party to evacuate inland but says hotel employees were downplaying the hurricane.


“They were instilling a false sense of security,” continued McLaughlin.


Eventually the women listened to McLaughlin who was watching the storm's path from San Diego. McLaughlin's heart dropped when he woke up Monday morning and read LeMay's text message:


“If you get this we are staying at the hotel. If someone can call the US Embassy anything there are a ton of us stranded. Airport destroyed, gas stations demolished, people are looting. It's nuts. Please, anything we need help."


Reports of limited water, power and food supplies has the women scared of looters.


“Just crowds of people flying in and pushing things off the shelves and the locals are stealing things,” said LeMay. “At this point we are starting to realize that things could get dangerous and they know there is a hotel full of tourists here. We don't want to have a target on our back."


Her fiancé has reached out on Facebook, pleading for humanitarian help:


“We need all ideas and help we can get. We called the Embassy in Tijuana. No help. We called and spoke to... a representative from congressman Scott Peters, and they are willing to help and research US efforts down there. Will post an update when I hear back. We need to get these girls out of there! How can we do it?? All thoughts welcome! #Odile #HurricaneOdile #PrayForCabo.”


McLaughlin says with thousands of U.S. tourists stranded he wants the U.S. to offer aid and assistance in getting them home.


“They need food water, a quick and swift ride home, that's what they need,” said McLaughlin “We are basically requesting that the help is given, that they're picked up and brought back safely and if that cannot happen right away that they at least have the basics.”


Pictures show metal scrap strewn across the airport terminal which is closed.


“We hitchhiked in the back of a truck with all of our luggage in a hail storm and when we showed up at the airport it was just completely annihilated and scrap metal,” said LeMay.


She worries about her classes. LeMay is a senior studying to be a teacher at San Diego State University. Her professors know about her being stranded, but she doesn't want to be dropped.


The bachelorette party hopes by staying positive it will get them home safe and soon.


“We are just trying to live in the moment because we don't know what is next,” said LeMay.


The Mexican government released a statement that it is sending military and commercial planes to La Paz and Los Cabos airports to move out tourists but it's unknown when that will happen.

Before You Leave, Check This Out