Hurricane Emily lashes Mexican beach resorts

By Tim Gaynor and Anahi Rama

CANCUN, Mexico (Reuters) – Hurricane Emily pounded Mexico’s
Caribbean beach resorts early on Monday, driving many tourists
out of their fancy seafront hotels and into shelters to escape
its destruction.

Packing 135-mph (215-kph) winds, Emily knocked out power,
toppled trees and whipped up huge waves at the popular resort
of Cancun and along the “Maya Riviera,” normally a playground
of white beaches, aquatic parks and golf courses.

Thousands of tourists cut short their beach vacations and
fled for home over the weekend. But many were unable to leave
or decided to see it through, so they hunkered down as the
Category 4 hurricane tore in from the Caribbean.

“This is my first trip outside the United States and then
this happens … I’m just going to keep praying,” said Rod
Jones, a schoolteacher from Michigan, as he sat nervously in a
blacked-out hotel room early on Monday, clutching a pillow.

Outside, trees were bent over and large branches were
ripped off and dragged along the streets.

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

Luxury beachfront hotels were boarded up, so inland hotels
put up the 5-star refugees as well as local residents. Some
squeezed in 15 people per room and schools and gymnasiums were
also used in the operation to protect about 60,000 people.

Soldiers packed 2,000 visitors from three luxury hotels
into one gymnasium in Cancun 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.

Many locals who live in ramshackle houses feared for their
homes as they packed a few possessions and headed for shelter.

“We live on a ranch about 10 km (six 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.

KILLER HURRICANE

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

Emily killed four people when a car was swept away by flood
waters in Jamaica on Sunday. 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 Mexico’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 supply cut.

Emily is expected to weaken as it crosses the Yucatan
Peninsula on Monday but could strengthen again once it heads
out over the Gulf of Mexico. Hurricane watches were likely to
be issued on Monday for the southern Texas coast and
northeastern Mexico.

At 2 a.m. EDT (0600 GMT), the hurricane’s center was just
southwest of Cozumel island, famous for its scuba diving, and
was expected to hit the mainland within an hour. Hurricane
winds extended out 60 miles from the center.

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

Thousands of tourists packed into Cancun’s airport on
Sunday in a desperate and chaotic search for a flight out.

Once flights were canceled, tourists joined Mexicans in
stockpiling food and water as shops and bars boarded up their
windows.

Some 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.