Hurricane drenches Mexico's Yucatán
By Maria Newman and Timothy Williams The New York Times
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2005
Hurricane Wilma's ferocious winds whipped the Mexican island of Cozumel on
Friday, toppling trees and forcing tourists to flee the popular hotels and
resorts and seek refuge in hot, crowded emergency shelters.
Forecasters at the National Hurricane Center in Florida said the eyewall of
the hurricane - where the fastest-moving winds surround the eye - hit the
Yucatán Peninsula, bringing pounding winds and heavy rains that caused
widespread flooding in Mexico and the Caribbean region.
With winds of 145 miles, or about 230 kilometers, an hour, the storm could
linger over the Yucatán for a couple of days, said Max Mayfield, director
of the National Hurricane Center.
And the longer it spends in that area, he said, the greater the potential
for the storm to weaken.
But he cautioned residents along the U.S. Gulf Coast that it was too early
to tell exactly how the storm would affect the United States, and to
continue to monitor the forecast for what is still a powerful storm.
"This is a good thing," Mayfield said at a news conference in Coral Gables,
Florida. "This gives us more time. It gives people time to say we can see
it coming. Don't let our guard down yet."
There already was flooding in parts of Cancún, which is in the projected
path of the hurricane. Nearly 50 hotels there have been evacuated, but more
than 30,000 tourists remain in and around the resort area, according to The
Associated Press.
After it hit the Yucatán, Wilma was expected to veer north and east toward
Cuba, before moving toward southwest Florida, where it is expected to
arrive Sunday or Monday.
Mayfield said that if it only clipped the Mexican peninsula, it would
continue on into the Gulf Coast with more force. If it hit land more
directly and lingered, its force could lessen and it would travel at a
slower velocity.
The Category 4 storm, which has killed at least 13 people in Haiti and
Jamaica, has led to the evacuations of hundreds of thousands in Mexico and
Cuba, The Associated Press said.
In Florida, officials have not called for mandatory evacuations, but
officials in Key West have asked tourists to leave and have transported
hospital patients and nursing home residents out of the area.
Governor Jeb Bush of Florida has declared a state of emergency, as
residents performed the now-familiar exercise of boarding up houses and
businesses. Wilma would be the eighth hurricane to pass over the state in a
little over a year.
The National Hurricane Center has continued to call the storm, whose
sustained winds have been reduced from a high of 175 miles per hour earlier
this week, "extremely dangerous."
"All interests in the Florida Keys and the Florida peninsula should closely
monitor the progress of extremely dangerous Hurricane Wilma," the
Miami-based hurricane center has warned on its Web site since Wednesday.
The hurricane center said that Wilma would cause a storm surge of 7 to 11
feet, or from 2 to more than 3 meters, above normal tide levels. And, it
added, the storm's "large and dangerous battering waves can be expected
near and to the north of the center along the northeastern Yucatán
Peninsula."
Wilma is expected to produce 10 to 20 inches, or about 25 to 50
centimeters, of rain on the Yucatán and Cuba - and as much as 40 inches in
Cuba's mountainous regions.
Two to four inches of rain are expected in Florida through Sunday. Swells
generated from the hurricane will likely travel to the Gulf Coast region
late Friday, which could cause flooding, the hurricane center said.
Ambergris Caye 
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