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Lethal Hurricane Emily lashes Mexican resorts

Posted on: Monday, 18 July 2005, 00:02 CDT

By Tim Gaynor and Anahi Rama

CANCUN, Mexico (Reuters) - Hurricane Emily pounded Mexico's Caribbean coast on Sunday night and thousands of panicked tourists fled beach resorts or squeezed into shelters to escape its destructive winds and torrential rains.

Packing 135-mph (215-kph) winds, Emily knocked out power and whipped up huge waves along the "Maya Riviera," normally a sun-blessed playground of huge hotels, aquatic parks and golf courses.

Mexico shut down the majority of offshore wells in its most productive oil fields, and two ports that export crude were closed due to churning seas.

In Cancun, one of the world's best-known resorts, luxury beachfront hotels were boarded up as the Category 4 hurricane tore in from the Caribbean.

Hotels further inland and at other resorts along the coast squeezed in up to 15 people per room. Schools and gymnasiums were also used as makeshift shelters in the operation to protect about 60,000 people.

Soldiers packed 2,000 visitors from three luxury hotels into one gymnasium and simply barred the doors.

"I am dying here," screamed Spanish tourist Juan Moreno, 27, from Madrid as he banged on a locked iron gate. There was no fan or air conditioning, and hotel staff tied to calm down a woman who was hyperventilating.

Locals, many of whom live in ramshackle houses much less able to withstand storm winds than Cancun's luxury hotels, worried about their homes as they headed for shelter.

"We live on a ranch about 10 km (6 miles) from here and I don't know if the roof is going to bear up. We left everything covered by tarpaulins," said Ezequiel Martinez, 53, a welder taking refuge at a shelter in Playa del Carmen.

Many feared a repeat of Hurricane Gilbert, which tore up Cancun in 1988, razing homes and killing hundreds.

SIX KILLED

Emily killed four people in Jamaica early on Sunday and two pilots were killed in Mexico on Saturday night when their helicopter was blown by a gust of wind into the Gulf of Mexico during oil rig evacuations.

The state oil company Pemex cut off most oil production in the Campeche Sound, the southern Gulf of Mexico basin that produces 80 percent of the country's crude, and some 15,000 oil rig workers were pulled out before Emily hit.

Oil prices jumped more than 1 percent in response to the cut in supply. Shell Oil Co. shut some U.S. natural gas and oil output ahead of the storm's expected arrival in the Gulf of Mexico on Monday.

The second major hurricane of the season, Emily was rated an "extremely dangerous" Category 4 on the five-step scale of hurricane intensity, capable of doing severe damage to infrastructure. Forecasters warned of coastal flooding.

At 11 p.m. EDT (0300 GMT Monday), Emily was 50 miles southeast of Cozumel island, and moving west-northwest near 18 mph (30 kph). Hurricane winds extended out 60 miles from the center.

Earlier on Sunday, thousands of tourists packed into Cancun's airport in a desperate search for a flight out.

Once flights were canceled, terrified tourists joined Mexicans in stockpiling food and water as shops and bars boarded up their windows. As the wind picked up people scurried to safety clutching stacks of takeout pizza.

Some in Cancun refused shelter. "This is our first hurricane and we want to see it," said Jonathan Morisset from Quebec, Canada, who said he planned to stay outside with his girlfriend.

Others groaned at a suspension on alcohol sales.

"The party's off in Cancun," said Andrew Lechance, 41, from Boston.

Emily passed 100 miles to the south of Jamaica but still triggered flooding and mudslides there. Two children and two adults died when a car was swept away.

Source: REUTERS

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