Dean strengthens to Category 5
Hurricane Dean strengthened into a 160mph Category 5 storm capable of catastrophic damage today, as its first rain and winds began hitting the coasts of Mexico and Belize.
Thousands of tourists fled the beaches of the Mayan Riviera as the fast-moving storm roared toward the ancient ruins and modern oil installations of the Yucatan Peninsula.
President Felipe Calderon said he would cut short a trip to Canada where he is meeting US president George Bush and Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper and travel today to the area where the hurricane is expected to hit.
“Given (the hurricane’s) progression and dangerousness, I have decided to return to Mexico soon after we hold the trilateral meeting,” Calderon said in Ottawa.
“I’ll personally oversee the aid effort in case of a disaster.”
Mexico’s state oil company, Petroleos de Mexico, said it was evacuating all of its 14,000-plus offshore workers in the southern Gulf of Mexico, which includes the giant Cantarell oil field. Dozens of historically significant Mayan sites were also emptied, and any metal signs or objects that could go airborne in hurricane-force winds were removed.
Dean – which has killed at least 12 people across the Caribbean – quickly picked up strength after brushing Jamaica and the Cayman Islands.
By 1.35am British time today, it had sustained winds of 160mph and was centred about 210 miles east of Chetumal, Mexico, the US National Hurricane Centre said. The eye was expected to strike near Chetumal today.
Category 5 storms are huge, and rare – only three have hit the US since record-keeping began.
Cancun’s plush hotels, many of them newly hurricane-proofed, seemed likely to be spared a direct hit. Oil rigs are made of steel, designed to withstand damaging winds. And ancient Mayan sites like the stunning seaside temples at Tulum, about 75 miles north of Chetumal, were built from solid limestone.
Dean appeared to be bearing down on the Yucatan’s most vulnerable population - the Mayan people – many of whom have seen little of the riches from oil or tourism, and still live in traditional wooden slat huts in small settlements all over the low-lying area.
A large storm surge could push seawater deep inland, and Dean’s heavy rains could inundate the swampy region.
“Yes, we are afraid,” said construction worker Pedro Kanche, a Mayan, as he nailed boards against the windows of a shop in Cancun.
“The truth is that a lot of people lost jobs” during Hurricane Wilma in 2005, “and tourism still hasn’t recovered”.
A hurricane warning was in effect from Cancun all the way south through Belize, as well as the Yucatan’s western coast. All hospitals were closed in Belize City, the country’s biggest, and authorities urged residents to leave, saying Dean was too strong for their shelters.
Meteorologists said a storm surge of 12 to 18 feet was possible at the storm’s centre.
The storm was expected to slash across the Yucatan and emerge in the Gulf of Campeche, where Petroleos de Mexico decided yesterday to shut down production on the offshore rigs that extract most of the nation’s oil.
Central Mexico was next on the storm’s path, though the outer bands were likely to bring rain, flooding and gusty winds to south Texas, already saturated after an unusually rainy summer.
At the southern tip of Texas, sandbags were distributed in the resort town of South Padre Island, and residents were urged to evacuate.
“Our mission is very simple. It’s to get people out of the kill zone, to get people out of the danger area, which is the coastline of Texas,” said Johnny Cavazos, Cameron County’s chief emergency director.
In Mexico, the Quintana Roo state government said about two-thirds of the 60,000 tourists in the Cancun area had left. Some camped overnight at the city’s airport to ensure a flight out. Many others were turned away.
Dean could be even stronger than Wilma, which stalled over Cancun and pummelled it for a day. The fast-moving Dean was passing farther south, and was likely to deliver a brief, but powerful punch to the Maya heartland.
That area stretches from the stunning seaside ruins of Tulum south to the growing beach resort at Mahahual, where authorities evacuated hundreds of tourists yesterday.
Cancun could still face destructive force winds, since the storm swirled over 75,000 square miles, twice the size of South Korea.
Dean, the first hurricane of the Atlantic season, raked Jamaica and the Cayman Islands on Sunday, but both escaped the full brunt of the storm.
The worst storm to hit Latin America in modern times was 1998’s Hurricane Mitch, which killed nearly 11,000 people and left more than 8,000 missing, most in Honduras and Nicaragua.
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