Hurricane Wilma weakened slightly before it roared toward Mexico's Yucatan peninsula and southern Florida early on Thursday, leaving 13 persons dead in its wake and forcing the evacuation of tens of thouands in coastal areas from Honduras to the Florida Keys.
Storm surges have reached as high as the third storey of some hotels as Hurricane Wilma batters Mexico's popular Cancun resort area.
Wilma briefly grew into a monstrous Category5 storm before weakening to a Category 4 with maximum sustained winds of 150 mph. Forecasters at the National Hurricane Center in Miami said the storm was ``extremely dangerous'' and was expected to make a beeline for the resort of Cancun, hitting land early on Friday.
Tourists were ordered out of the Florida Keys and the island of Isla Mujeres near Cancun on Thursday, and authorities were poised to move out thousands of others on Thursday from low-lying areas in a 1,000-km swath covering Cuba, Mexico, Belize, Honduras, Jamaica, Haiti and the Cayman Islands.
``People should take this hurricane very seriously,'' said Scott McClellan, spokesman for U.S. President George W Bush.
Some of the estimated 70,000 tourists still in Cancun and surrounding areas were taking the warnings more seriously than others, as heavy rains began lashing the city. Wilma was centred 195 miles southeast of Mexico's Cozumel Island, and was moving northwest at 8 mph. The storm was expected to hit the tip of the Yucatan peninsula, near Cancun, early on Friday before turning northeast toward southern Florida. Forecasters said it could strengthen before hitting land. Countries across the region prepared for the worst. Much of Central America and southern Mexico was still recovering from Hurricane Stan, which left more than 1,500 persons dead or missing. Americans were still mourning 1,200 Gulf Coast victims of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
In the coastal state of Quintana Roo - which includes Cancun — officials ordered the evacuation of four low-lying islands, and also closed the cruise ship port on the island of Cozumel.
