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Hurricane Wilma crashes into Mexico, tourists flee

Posted on: Thursday, 20 October 2005, 18:26 CDT

By Noel Randewich

CANCUN, Mexico (Reuters) - Roaring waves pounded Mexican beach resorts on Thursday and thousands of tourists were evacuated to escape the wrath of Hurricane Wilma, which gathered strength in the Caribbean on its way to Florida.

Cuba evacuated 220,000 people and residents of southern Florida stocked up on drinking water and gas to prepare for Wilma, which spun off the coasts of Mexico and Belize packing winds of around 150 mph (240 kph).

Described by forecasters as extremely dangerous, Wilma killed 10 people in mudslides in Haiti earlier in the week.

Expensive beachfront hotels all along Mexico's "Maya Riviera" coast emptied of tourists who fled to shelters. The normally calm, turquoise Caribbean heaved and frothed and rain began to fall.

"We are trying to stay calm, but we are freaking out inside," said Kerry Rieth, a tourist from Pennsylvania in the cloud-covered resort of Cancun. Winds were strong and heavy rains were expected later in the day.

Wilma became the strongest Atlantic storm on record in terms of barometric pressure on Wednesday. It weakened to a Category 4 hurricane, then picked up again as it headed for Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, where it was expected to hit on Friday.

"Believe me, this is still a very, very powerful hurricane," said Max Mayfield, director of the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami.

The hurricane season has six weeks left and has already spawned three of the most intense storms on record. Hurricane experts say the Atlantic has entered a period of heightened storm activity that could last another 20 years.

The storm was expected to miss Gulf of Mexico oil and gas facilities battered by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in August and September, but Florida's orange groves were at risk.

DESTRUCTIVE HURRICANE

"The center of Wilma will be very near the coastline of the Yucatan by midday tomorrow. However, Wilma has a large circulation, and hurricane conditions will be felt well before the arrival of the center," the hurricane center said.

Residents who live in flimsy shacks that cannot withstand high winds were being moved to shelters.

Some 150 poor construction workers helping to build hotels and supermarkets hunkered down for the night at a school in the resort of Playa del Carmen.

"They haven't paid me yet. I have no money, no food," said Fernando Gomez, a Tojolabal Indian worker from the state of Chiapas, whose feet were sticking out of old boots.

The island of Cozumel, one of the world's best spots for scuba diving, faced a possible direct hit and tourists were ordered to leave. In Cancun, they took shelter at gymnasiums and schools as the storm was expected to send a 10-foot (3-meter) surge of water over the coast.

Mexican authorities said about 42,000 tourists could be evacuated from coastal areas, and airlines added flights from Cancun and nearby points on the Riviera Maya as well as Cozumel and Isla Mujeres.

Lowanda Cole, a massage therapist from Houston, said she was getting used to hurricanes after one of the most destructive seasons on record.

"We evacuated from Rita, we helped folks out with Katrina and now here we are and we have to run again. We can't get away from these things," she said in a crowded Cancun hotel lobby as she waited with her sons to be evacuated.

Some hardy local residents who have lived through many hurricanes were unfazed.

"I've been here 25 years. I'm not at all worried. My house is safe," said Jorge Moreno, a carpenter who lives in a low-cost housing project in Cancun.

At 5 p.m. EDT (1800 GMT), Wilma was 135 miles southeast of Cozumel and was slowly moving northwest.

Forecasters said it would strike densely populated southern Florida late on Sunday.

At a briefing in Tallahassee, Florida, Gov. Jeb Bush told residents to take advantage of the extra time the slow-moving storm has given them to prepare.

"You need to have non-perishable food for 72 hours. Make sure you have fresh water, make sure you have batteries, battery-powered radios and lighting so that you can survive what will happen after a storm."

Authorities in the Keys, connected to mainland Florida by a single road, ordered tourists out on Wednesday and are considering telling the islands' 80,000 residents to evacuate.

Tobacco planters in Cuba's westernmost Pinar del Rio province protected seedlings and secured bales of leaves for the country's famed cigars.

(Additional reporting by Greg Brosnan in Playa del Carmen, Jane Sutton in Miami, Jennifer Portman in Tallahassee and Anthony Boadle in Cuba)

Source: REUTERS

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