Hurricane Wilma's Outer Edge Hits Cancun
Pakistan Times Monitoring Report

CANCUN (Mexico): Hurricane Wilma's outer edge battered Cancun's white-sand beaches Thursday as officials ordered guests out of hotels, tourists jockeyed for spots on the last flights out, and tens of thousands of people from Honduras to the Florida Keys evacuated ahead of the "extremely dangerous" storm.

Wilma weakened slightly as it roared toward Mexico's Yucatan peninsula and south Florida after killing 13 people in Haiti and Jamaica. It was expected to reach Cancun early Friday, the second hurricane to hit the resort this year, following Hurricane Emily in July, before turning northeast toward Florida.

It was forecast to hit Florida's southwest coast sometime Sunday. It briefly grew into a Category 5 storm before weakening to a Category 4 with maximum sustained winds of 145 mph. "This is still a very, very powerful hurricane," said Max Mayfield, director of the National Hurricane Center in Miami.

Tourists were ordered out of the Florida Keys and the island of Isla Mujeres near Cancun. Cuban civil defense officials said more than 96,000 people fled their homes in low-lying areas on the island — part of thousands of evacuations along a 600-mile swath through the Caribbean.

Florida Keys

In the Florida Keys, officials put off a mandatory evacuation of residents until Friday. With rain and rough surf already pounding Cancun, officials ordered 20,000 tourists to leave high-rise hotels that line the famous beach, although some ballrooms would be turned into shelters, Mayor Francisco Antonio Alor said.

He said the city was chartering flights to evacuate tourists before the airport closed. All but emergency officials had been evacuated from the nearby islands of Isla Mujeres and Holbox.

Some of the estimated 70,000 tourists still in Cancun and surrounding areas were taking the warnings more seriously than others. The Senor Frog's restaurant in Cancun sponsored a "Hurricane Wilma" party, but it was far from full.

Standing knee-deep in the ocean and drinking beer in Playa de Carmen, south of Cancun, Mike Goepfrich of Minneapolis said: "As long as they give me beer in the shelter, and my kids are safe, we'll be fine. We're going to ride it out here."

Nearby, fisherman Rolando Ramirez helped others pull their fishing boats from the water. "People here aren't concerned about anything," he said. "They don't know that when the hurricane comes, this will all be under water."

At 11 a.m. EDT, Wilma was centered 170 miles southeast of Mexico's Cozumel Island, and moving northwest at near 7 mph. The "extremely dangerous" storm should eventually make the sharp right turn toward Florida because it will get caught in the westerlies, the strong wind current that generally blows toward the east, forecasters said.

The White House promised to stay on top of the situation, hoping to avoid a repeat of the slow initial response to Hurricane Katrina, which devastated New Orleans and other parts of the Gulf Coast in August.

President Bush

"We got a job to make sure this hurricane headed toward Florida, the federal response is prepared for it," President Bush told reporters at the White House.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency was positioning emergency materials in the Florida cities of Jacksonville, Lakeland and Homestead.

Countries across the region prepared for the worst. Much of Central America and southern Mexico was still recovering from floods and landslides unleashed by Hurricane Stan, which left more than 1,500 people 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, including Isla Mujeres, and also closed the cruise ship port on the island of Cozumel.

"This is getting very powerful, very threatening," Mexican President Vicente Fox said. Hundreds of schools in Quintana Roo were closed, and many will be used as storm shelters. 

Mayfield said most of Wilma's impact would be on the Florida Keys and southern half of the Florida peninsula. Residents bought water, canned food and other supplies. Wilma's track could take it near Punta Gorda on Florida's southwestern Gulf Coast and other areas hit by Hurricane Charley, a Category 4 storm, in August 2004.

The state has seen seven hurricanes hit or pass close by since August 2004, causing more than $20 billion in damage and killing nearly 150 people. "People have learned their lesson and know better how to prepare. We're not waiting until the last minute anymore," said Andrea Yerger, 48, of Port Charlotte, Fla.

Mark Carara cut his family's vacation short by two days, and tried to get on a standby flight home to Colorado. "You hear it was the biggest storm on record, and yeah, that was the clincher right there," he said. "It was time for us to go." Honduras escaped major damage. Power was cut Wednesday to about 20 towns, two Caribbean ports were closed, and four fishermen were reported missing at sea. On its popular Bay islands, about 500 U.S. and European tourists were moved to safety at hotels.

The head of Haiti's civil protection agency, Maria Alta Jean-Baptiste, said that at least 12 people had died in rain and landslides there since Monday. At least 2,000 Haitian families had been forced from flooded homes. Jamaica, where heavy rains have fallen since Sunday, closed almost all schools and 350 people were living in shelters. One man died Sunday in a rain-swollen river.

Storm Expected

The storm was expected to dump up to 25 inches of rain in mountainous areas of Cuba through Friday, and up to up to 15 inches in the Caymans and Jamaica through Thursday. 

Heavy rain in Cuba's eastern province of Granma forced the evacuations of more than 1,000 people. Cuban officials said they were canceling all sporting events, including soccer and field hockey games.

In Florida, the storm forced the cancellation of this weekend's Nationwide Tour's Miccosukee Championship golf tournament and the postponement of the college football games between Georgia Tech and sixth-ranked Miami, and No. 20 West Virginia at South Florida.

Wilma's confirmed pressure readings early Wednesday dropped to 882 millibars, the lowest minimum pressure ever measured in a hurricane in the Americas, according to the hurricane center. Lower pressure translates into higher wind speed.

The strongest Atlantic storm on record, based on pressure readings, had been Hurricane Gilbert in 1988, which registered 888 millibars. Wilma is the record-tying 12th hurricane of the Atlantic season, the same number reached in 1969. Records have been kept since 1851.

On Monday, Wilma became the Atlantic hurricane season's 21st named storm, tying the record set in 1933 and exhausting the list of names for this year. The six-month hurricane season does not end until Nov. 30. Any new storms would be named with letters from the Greek alphabet, starting with Alpha.●