Yucatan, southern tip of Texas ready for Dean

The big resort of Cancun was expected to escape the
hurricane’s brunt.

TULUM, Mexico (AP) — The last oil workers were evacuated from their rigs Monday, and the last tourists removed from ancient Mayan temples — along with metal signs, tree limbs or anything else that could go airborne in hurricane-force winds and potentially damage the structures.

But the rigs are made of steel, designed to withstand damaging winds. The 800-year-old seaside temples at Tulum are made from solid limestone.

Much more vulnerable to Hurricane Dean are the Mayan people who still live all over this low-lying area. With the storm surge projected to rise as high as 12 to 18 feet above normal tides at the center of the storm, it could push seawater deep inland, and Dean’s heavy rains could inundate the swampy area.

Dean — which has killed at least 12 people across the Caribbean — brushed past Jamaica and the Cayman Islands on Monday. But the U.S. National Hurricane Center said the storm had strengthened into a monstrous Category 5 storm Monday night with sustained winds of 160 mph as its first rain and winds began slamming the coasts of Mexico and Belize.

The eye was expected to make landfall early today near Chetumal, about 80 miles south of Tulum. Category 5 storms — capable of catastrophic damage — are rare with only three having hit the U.S. since record-keeping began.

The Yucatan peninsula is the Maya heartland, a place rich in ancient culture as well as oil. Its Caribbean coast is dotted with beach resorts, and its gulf is dotted with oil platforms.

Situation for the Maya

But most modern Maya have seen little of the Yucatan’s peninsula’s riches from either oil or tourism. Many still live in small settlements, in traditional breezy, thatched-roofed, oval-shaped homes made of sticks, making them easy prey for such huge storms.

And as Dean roared near, many here expressed sympathy with the Maya — but a thankfulness the storm would apparently not bash the coast’s biggest resort and moneymaker, Cancun.

Though Cancun seemed likely to be spared a direct hit, tens of thousands of tourists fled the beaches of the Mayan Riviera on Monday.

A hurricane warning was in effect from Cancun all the way south through Belize. The storm was expected to slash across the Yucatan and emerge in the southern Gulf of Mexico, where Mexico’s state oil company, Petroleos de Mexico, evacuated more than 14,000 offshore workers and decided to shut down production on the rigs that extract most of the nation’s oil.

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, officials urged residents to evacuate ahead of the storm. “Our mission is very simple. It’s to get people out of the kill zone,” said Johnny Cavazos, Cameron County’s chief emergency director.