Tourists take shelter as Wilma lingers over Mexico
Hurricane Wilma pounded the Mexico coast today as terrified tourists sought shelter from its furious winds and rain.
The Category 4 storm battered idyllic beaches as it brushed the Yucatan peninsular, where there are thousands of holidaymakers.
Thousands of tourists fled inland from the vulnerable resorts of Cancun, huddling in makeshift shelters and hotels.
Buildings were boarded up, airports, ship ports and schools closed down.
Max Mayfield of the US National Hurricane Centre said Wilma was expected to linger over Mexico throughout the weekend, meaning it should weaken before it hits Florida.
“It is terrible news for Mexico but good for the rest of the US,” he said.
Mr Mayfield described Wilma as “extremely dangerous” and warned everyone in the Florida Keys to pay “very close attention” to its path.
It is now not predicted to reach southern Florida before Monday.
Wilma approached Mexico with the same strength as Hurricane Katrina, which slammed into Louisiana on August 29, killing more than 1,200 people.
Rachel and Carl Farricker, from Altham in Lancashire, England, are part of a group of 1,000 tourists, including around 80 Britons, crowded into a dark sports hall in Cancun.
Mrs Farricker, 39, described the noise of 150mph winds ripping into the city, and the torrents of water pouring in through the windows of the sports hall.
“There’s loud crashing and bangs going on,” she said. “We’re hoping it’s something hitting the building, and not pulling the roof apart.
“There’s a massive amount of water pouring in, leaking in through the windows.
“It’s not good, it’s not good at all. I really want to go home now.”
Wilma, a 400-mile wide storm, at one point ranked the strongest Atlantic hurricane on record. It has already been blamed for at least 13 deaths in Haiti and Jamaica.
Julian Heming, a Met Office hurricane specialist, said it had slowed down almost to a complete halt and would likely remain over the Yucatan Peninsula, slowly weakening, over the weekend.
“There is some degree of uncertainty about when it will swing north east but it is unlikely to be before Monday or Tuesday and it will be considerably weaker by that stage,” he said.
If it follows its predicted path it will be the seventh hurricane to hit Florida in 14 months.
Mandatory evacuations of non-residents in the Keys were postponed but Governor Jeb Bush urged residents to prepare for the worst.
“It’s too early to specify how strong Wilma will be once it reaches our coast, but Floridians south of the (Interstate 4) corridor and in the Keys should prepare for the possibility of a major hurricane making landfall,” he said.
Traffic jams had already began forming across the south west coast as people put up shutters, stocked up on canned food and bottled water and queued for petrol.
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