Hurricane eyes Louisiana after hitting Mexico
Delta could make landfall as a Category 3 storm
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 Yucatan 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 Wednesday night. It was expected to gain even more strengthen before reaching the U.S. Gulf coast.
Delta could make landfall, possibly as a Category 3 storm, sometime Friday south of Morgan City, Louisiana., the forecast said. On Wednesday evening, the storm was centered about 525 miles south-southeast of Cameron, Louisiana, and heading westnorthwest at 17 mph.
The hurricane came ashore in Mexico around 5:30 a.m. Wednesday with top winds of 110 mph. 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 Yucatan peninsula. There were no reports of any deaths or injuries, said Carlos Joaquín González, the governor of the state of Quintana Roo.
“Fortunately, the most dangerous part of the hurricane has passed,” Joaquín González said, noting the big problem was downed trees that had knocked out power lines and blocked roadways.
Civil defense official Luís Alberto Ortega Vázquez said about 39,000 people had been evacuated in the states of Quintana Roo and Yucatan, and that about 2,700 people had taken refuge in storm shelters in the two states. Joaquín González said some tourists who had to take refuge at storm shelters had not yet been allowed to return to their hotels, where cleanup was underway, but said he hoped they would be able to by the end of the day.
There were reports of some flooding in Cozumel and Playa del Carmen. Overnight emergency calls came in from people whose windows or doors were broken and they were taken to shelters, he said.
Early Wednesday, guests of the Fiesta Americana Condesa hotel awoke in the sweltering classrooms of the Technological Institute of Cancun campus where they had been moved Tuesday.
All of the windows at the campus had been covered with plywood so they couldn’t see what was happening, but they said the howling winds started around 2 a.m. and there had been heavy rain. The power had been knocked out early Wednesday so tourists used their cell phone light to get up and make their way for a first cup of coffee.