Hurricane Delta lashes Yucatán, heads for U.S.
CANCUN, Mexico — Hurricane Delta emerged into the Gulf of Mexico on Wednesday and headed toward Louisiana after making landfall just south of the Mexican resort of Cancun, toppling trees and cutting power to residents of the Yucatán peninsula’s resort-studded coast.
The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said Delta weakened to a Category 1 storm during the afternoon, but it began strengthening again while moving over the southern Gulf, rising to maximum sustained winds of 90 mph by evening. Itwas expected to gain even more strength before reaching the U.S. Gulf Coast.
Delta could make landfall, possibly as a Category 3 storm, sometime Friday south of Morgan City, La., the forecast said. On Wednesday evening, the storm was centered about 550 miles southsoutheast of Cameron, La., and heading northwest at 17 mph.
The hurricane came ashore in Mexico around 5:30 a.m. Wednesday with top winds of 110mph. Officials said it caused no deaths or injuries, but did force hundreds of tourists to take refuge in storm shelters. It knocked out power to about 266,000 customers, or about one-third of the total on the Yucatán peninsula.
There were no reports of any deaths or injuries, said Carlos Joaquin Gonzalez, the governor of the state of Quintana Roo.
“Fortunately, the most dangerous part of the hurricane has passed,” Joaquin Gonzalez said, noting the big problem was downed trees that downed power lines and blocked roadways.
Civil defense official Luis Alberto Ortega Vazquez said that as the storm approached about 39,000 people were evacuated in the states of Quintana Roo and Yucatán. He said about 2,700 people took refuge in storm shelters in the two states.
Joaquin Gonzalez said Wednesday that most of the tourists had returned totheir hotels but a shelter had been opened to accommodate people stranded in Cancun by the cancellation of 157 airline flights. He said the international airport would resume its normal operations Thursday.
There were reports of some flooding in Cozumel and Play a del Carmen. Overnight emergency calls came in from people whose windows or doors were broken and they were taken to shelters, the governor said.
More than a thousand trees were knocked down by strong winds, but authorities expressed confidence that electricity would be restored to 80 percent of those affected Wednesday night.
People in Louisiana or Mississippi should prepare now for hurricane- force winds to begin hitting their coastlines on Friday, the hurricane center advised.
Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards said Delta was expected to make landfall there Friday night or Saturday morning and the entire state is in the storm’s possible path. State and local officials in coastal areas were shoring up le-vees, sandbagging and taking other protections measures, he said.
Louisiana is still recovering from Hurricane Laura, which ravaged the southwestern region as it roared ashore as a Category 4 storm in August. Morethan6,600 Laura evacuees remain in hotels around the state, mainly in New Orleans, because their homes are too heavily damaged to return.
In a residential neighborhood on the south side of Cancun, downed trees littered streets. Neighbors with machetes worked alongside firefighters and soldiers to clear the fallen timber.
The neighborhood, like much of the city, lost electricity and phone service early Wednesday. Once the strongest winds had subsided, residents emerged from their homes to assess the damage and take photos, momentarily forgetting the pandemic, masks and social distancing.
Pilar Sanchez said the fierce wind blowing through the barson her windows woke her around 4 a.m.
“Minutes later the power went and you could hear strong wind shaking the trees,” she said. She was still a bit shaken, but said she had lived through hurricanes there before.