CANCUN, Mexico?? Hurricane Rina headed for Mexico's Yucatan peninsula on Wednesday with winds just shy of major hurricane strength, threatening beach resorts but steering clear of oil platforms.
Authorities evacuated fishing communities on Mexico's resort-studded Caribbean coast and some tourists began to leave, as Rina took aim at Cancun and the island of Cozumel.
"Rina has the potential to become a major hurricane today or tonight," the U.S. National Hurricane Center said in its 2 a.m. EDT public advisory.
Rina is now a Category Two hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson intensity scale, packing winds of 110 mph. When sustained winds hit 111 miles per hour storms are considered major Category Three hurricanes.
The sixth hurricane in the Atlantic season this year, Rina was located 225 miles southeast of Chetumal, Mexico early on Wednesday, and was moving west at 3 mph.
The storm was expected to be near or over the east coast of the Yucatan peninsula late Wednesday and on Thursday.
Residents evacuate
Cruise ships in the region shifted their routes in the face of expected storm surges, waves and heavy rains from Rina. Hundreds of residents from the fishing town of Punta Allen, south of Tulum, were taken to emergency shelters and a smaller group was evacuated from the low-lying hamlet of Banco Chinchorro Tuesday.
Soldiers, marines and state police arrived with vehicles in Punta Allen on Tuesday to evacuate about 275 residents and take them to a storm shelter at a middle school; about 500 people are expected to be evacuated there in total, according to Quintana Roo state Civil Defense Director Luis Carlos Rodriguez.
The coastal area around Tulum is dotted with Mayan ruins, and further north is Playa del Carmen, another popular spot for international tourists and the departure point for ferries serving Cozumel.
State Tourism Director Juan Carlos Gonzalez Hernandez said there were about 83,000 tourists in the state, with about 45,000 of those on a stretch of coast south of Cancun that includes Tulum and Playa de Carmen, and almost 28,000 in Cancun.
There were only about 1,719 tourists in Cozumel, and many of them were leaving, Gonzalez Hernandez said.
"In the case of Cozumel, which could be hit hardest, people are leaving of their own accord and are cutting their reservations short," said Gonzalez Hernandez.
But some were planning to ride out Rina.
Douglas Baird, 40, of Glasgow, Scotland, said he had been in Playa del Carmen for 11 days on a tour with 10 other people. He plans to stay for the five remaining days of his vacation.
"I'll go to the bar," he said about his plans for waiting out his first hurricane. "It won't be a problem."
But Wendy Powers, a 49-year-old from Louisiana who was taking a stroll at a shopping mall with two other friends, said she hadn't heard anything about the storm until a reporter told her about it. Still, she said she wasn't worried.
"We had Katrina and we survived it," Powers said. "If the one coming here is a category 1 or 2, we could have a beach party."
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New intineraries
In Cancun's hotel zone, a string of pickup trucks hauled small boats and jet skis away from marinas, while workers at shopping malls began boarding up windows.
At least eight cruise ships were changing itineraries away from the storm's path, said Carnival Cruise Lines spokesman Vance Gulliksen.
Three cruise ships from the company Norwegian Cruise Line and one from Royal Caribbean have canceled their Friday port of call in the area, said Hiram Toledo, Quintana Roo port administrator.
The area was badly damaged by Hurricane Wilma in 2005, when Cancun's famous white-sand beaches were largely washed away. Insurance officials estimated total damage at $3 billion.
State officials said they were readying more than 1,100 shelters that could handle nearly 200,000 people, though so far there was no word of any planned evacuations.
The forecast track shows it curving east toward Cuba by the weekend, but senior hurricane specialist Michael Brennan at the hurricane center said it could also move toward southern Florida.
All the ports in the Gulf of Mexico remained open Tuesday. Most of Mexico's major oil installations are further east in the Gulf of Mexico, far from the hurricane's path.
Downpours that started on Oct. 12 over Central America have affected more than 1 million people and destroyed crops in the region, the United Nations said Tuesday.
El Salvador and the United Nations launched an appeal for $15.7 million to help 300,000 people affected by the floods.
In Guatemala, the situation was similarly grave, with a half million people hit by flooding and 50 percent of the country's roads blocked by landslides or overflowing rivers.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45042360/ns/weather/
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