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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | October 2005 
UPDATE: Deadly Hurricane Wilma Ravages Mexico Resorts
 Noel Randewich - Reuters
| | Residents walk in strong winds and rain on a flooded street after Hurricane Wilma hit Playa del Carmen in the Mexican state of Quintana Roo, October 22, 2005. (Reuters/Henry Romero) |
Cancun, Mexico - Hurricane Wilma blasted through Mexico's luxury Caribbean resorts on Saturday, smashing homes and killing at least two people in a slow-moving, rain-swelled rampage across the Yucatan peninsula.
Howling hurricane winds tore off roofs and uprooted trees for a third day and kept thousands of panicky foreign tourists packed into sweltering shelters.
The long spit of white sand that draws planeloads of tourists to Cancun was completely under water and the luxury hotels along it were flooded up to the knee and littered with debris after the normally tranquil sea charged inland. Sheets of rain continued falling on Saturday.
Wilma by midday had lost some punch, its winds slowing to 110 mph (175 kmh), down from 115-mile-an-hour (185-kph), and was downgraded to a Category 2 hurricane on the five-stage Saffir-Simpson scale.
With roads blocked by downed trees and tangles of fallen power cables, only a few locals ventured out as the calmer eye of the storm hovered over Cancun's devastated center.
"It's a complete disaster. The city is totally destroyed," said restaurant worker Pablo Resendiz, picking his way through flooded streets, looking for two friends.
Nearby a car lay crushed with a fallen wall on top. Buildings in the town center had their fronts torn off.
"We are looking for food. I don't know where we'll find any," said Pedro Hernandez, 32, walking through the debris. He said the roof was ripped off his home.
Further south, at the resort town of Playa del Carmen, two people died when a gas tank exploded, the state governor said.
Half a dozen flimsy homes were knocked down in the town, which is popular with Europeans, and many streets flooded.
The Yucatan peninsula, famous for its turquoise seas, white sand and Mayan ruins, has been lashed by Wilma since Thursday.
A man died in the west of the state when a large branch blew off and crushed him, local emergency officials said.
Florida was next in line for a battering. Authorities there were taking no risks after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, and ordered mandatory evacuations, starting with 80,000 residents of the vulnerable Florida Keys.
"Take this seriously. There will be flooding," Key West spokesman Michael Haskins told local radio.
Still, the longer it lingers in Mexico the weaker Wilma will be when it heads north toward Florida, likely on Sunday.
It was still strong enough to cause severe damage, however, as it continued to pound the Cancun area throughout Saturday.
ANOTHER NIGHT IN SHELTERS
Resort island Cozumel, popular with scuba divers, took the brunt of the storm on Friday and most communications were cut. President Vicente Fox will visit the battered area on Sunday.
In one shelter 40 migrant workers huddled in a small, damp room. They had only eaten half a can of tuna each in 24 hours.
"We need water, food and clothes," pleaded Carlos Vaca, a construction worker from the state of Tabasco.
"I have lived through three hurricanes and this is the worst," said Alberto Pat, head of Playa del Carmen's tourist police force, which was patrolling to prevent looting.
Store fronts were ripped away, a bus station roof had collapsed, and cars lay crushed by fallen trees. Five prisoners escaped from a jail into the jungle after a fence blew down.
"Never in history have we seen something like this," Felix Gonzalez, the governor of the state of Quintana Roo, told CNN.
Some 23 inches of rain was dumped on tiny Isla Mujeres off Cancun, an unprecedented downpour for Mexico.
"We are talking about a record hurricane as far as rain is concerned," said meteorologist Alberto Hernandez. Wilma is also unusually big with a diameter of 500 miles.
Thousands of stranded tourists prepared for another night huddled in dank, sweaty gymnasiums, hotels and schools but many were relieved they had evacuated, especially those who had stayed in flimsy wooden beach cabins.
"We are very fortunate to be here. We were in a palm hut. I bet there is nothing left. I cannot wait for this to be over," said Scott Whitcher, 38, from San Francisco. He was bathing in rain on a hotel balcony after two days without running water.
In one Cancun hotel, tourists nailed up tables to keep out the rain after the windows blew in with a huge explosion.
Some 1,600 tourists in a gymnasium were moved to safer locations just before the roof blew off, a city official said.
Mudslides caused by Wilma killed 10 people in Haiti this week and Cuba, which evacuated 559,000 people, was hit by drenching rains and tornadoes in the west of the island. More rain was forecast in Cuba as Wilma moves northeast.
Wilma was expected to head into the Gulf of Mexico late on Saturday evening and could hit southern Florida on Monday.
This hurricane season has spawned three of the most intense storms on record. Experts say the Atlantic has entered a period of heightened storm activity that could last 20 more years.
Additional reporting by Greg Brosnan in Playa del Carmen, Monica Medel in Mexico City, Michael Christie in Miami, Laura Myers in Key West and Anthony Boadle in Cuba
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