CANCUN, Mexico — Hurricane Emily weakened slightly as it began lashing the beaches of the Yucatan Peninsula yesterday, hours after thousands of jittery tourists streamed out of beachside hotels and headed inland.
The Category 4 storm caused heavy flooding that swept four persons to their deaths in Jamaica on Saturday. In Mexico, it downed signs, toppled trees and whipped white sands from the beaches in Cancun.
Two persons were killed in a helicopter crash in the Gulf of Mexico as more than 15,500 workers were evacuated from offshore oil platforms, raising to seven the number of persons killed in the second major hurricane of the Atlantic season.
Emily’s winds decreased from 145 mph to 135 mph as it bore down on the peninsula last night and likely would weaken further as it headed toward the Gulf, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.
Emily was likely to make landfall again Wednesday anywhere from northeastern Mexico to southern Texas, said Jack Beven, a hurricane specialist at the Miami-based center. He cautioned that it was too early to make a precise prediction.
In Cancun, hundreds of buses moved 30,000 tourists in the resort to temporary shelters, part of the 70,000 to 80,000 people being evacuated statewide from resorts such as Tulum, Playa del Carmen and Cozumel. Cancun’s airport closed yesterday afternoon after thousands lined up at ticket counters, trying to get flights out before the storm hit.
By late afternoon, heavy winds tugged at palm trees and sent the last people at the beach running for their cars.
Christopher Espinoza of Cancun braved howling bursts of wind to look over the pounding surf. “The waves are already starting to take away part of the beach,” he said.
Erosion has long been a problem for Cancun, and waves were starting to lap almost at the doorsteps of some hotels.
Hundreds of mostly foreign tourists waited for the buses in a light drizzle. Others lay shoulder to shoulder on thin foam pads in a sweltering gymnasium near the center of Cancun, one of Mexico’s most popular tourist destinations known for its white beaches, sprawling hotel complexes and all-night discos.
The evacuees were given free bottled water and sandwiches, but many gasped when a hard rain rattled the metal roof of the building. Some asked how long they would have to stay in the confines.
“It’s hot in here,” said Beth McGhee, 46, a tourist from Independence, Mo. “We feel like we’ve been kept in the dark until this morning. But we’re safe, and that’s what’s important.”
Cancun’s grim-faced mayor, Francisco Alor Quezada, said the city was preparing for a near-direct hit.
“This hurricane is coming with same force as Gilbert,” he said in reference to the 1988 hurricane that killed 300 people in Mexico and the Caribbean.
Tourism and hotel officials had said guests of beachside hotels would be relocated to ballrooms and convention centers in larger, well-protected hotels, but the first wave of evacuees was ferried to gymnasiums and government schools.
Yesterday evening, Emily was about 90 miles southeast of Cozumel, an island just south of Cancun, and was approaching the Yucatan Peninsula at about 20 mph.
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