Hurricane Dean, turns monster, on collision course with Mexico
MEXICO: Hurricane Dean strengthened into a Category 5 storm
capable of catastrophic damage Monday night 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.
Mexico’s state oil company, Petroleos de Mexico, said it was
evacuating more than 18,000 workers in the southern Gulf of Mexico,
which includes the giant Cantarell oil field. Dozens of historically
significant Mayan sites also were 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.
At 0300 GMT, it had sustained winds of 257 kph and was centered about
245 kilometers east of Chetumal, Mexico, the U.S. National Hurricane
Center said. The eye was expected to strike near Chetumal early Tuesday
morning. Category 5 storms are monstrous, and rare - only three have hit
the U.S. since record-keeping began.
Cancun’s swank 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 125 kilometers (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 this low-lying area.
A large storm surge could push sea water deep inland, and Dean’s
heavy rains could inundate the swampy region.
Civil Defense trucks roamed the darkened streets of Tulum Monday
night urging people to remain in indoors, as heavy rain from the storm’s
outer bands began lashing the coast. Locals and tourists alike stood
expectantly on balconies and porches as violent thunderclaps boomed and
ominous of clouds rolled in over the reddish twilight.
“We have food, and our house is right there, but it’s kind of low so
we came here to make sure we were higher,” said 29-year-old Nicholas
Flaherty of Asheville, North Carolina. He spoke from the raised verandah
of a bunkhouse where he and other workers for the volunteer network
Global Vision International gathered for safety.
Earlier Monday, Tulum shopkeeper Israel Martinez, speaking as he
nailed up boards across store windows, expressed the kind of cold logic
that rules a coast marked by contrasts of poverty and wealth, Indian and
outsider.
“The less the tourist centers are affected, the faster the recovery
will be,” said Martinez, 28, a non-Indian who has lived in Tulum for 15
years. “Nobody wishes ill upon their neighbors, but if some of these
smaller towns are hit, they can be repaired faster,” without affecting
the area’s lifeblood, tourism.
President Felipe Calderon said he would cut short a trip to Canada
where he is meeting with U.S. President George Bush and Canadian Prime
Minister Stephen Harper, and travel Tuesday to the areas where the
hurricane is expected to hit. 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 is too strong for
their shelters. Meteorologists said a storm surge of four to six meters
(12 to 18 feet) was possible at the storm’s center.
The storm was expected to slash across the Yucatan and emerge in the
Gulf of Campeche, where Petroleos de Mexico decided Monday to shut down
production on the offshore rigs that extract most of the nation’s oil.
Shutting the area’s 407 oil wells will result in a production loss of
2.7 million barrels of oil and 2.6 billion cubic feet of natural gas a
day, Pemex said. Of that, about 1.7 million barrels of oil a day is
exported from three Gulf ports, where Pemex was loading the final
tankers before shutting them as well.
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.
Though expected to escape a direct hit, Cancun still could face
destructive force winds, since the storm swirled over 195,000 square
kilometers (75,000 square miles), twice the size of South Korea (about
the size of South Dakota).
“Yes, we are afraid,” said construction worker Pedro Kanche, a Mayan,
as he nailed boards against the windows of a shop in Cancun late Sunday.
“A lot of people lost jobs” during Hurricane Wilma in 2005, he said,
“and tourism still hasn’t recovered.” Dean could be even stronger than
Wilma, which stalled over Cancun and pummeled it for a day.
Tulum, Tuesday, AP |