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Emily ravages Yucatan, expected to gain steam

A tourist sits with her child Monday near several destroyed huts in Playa del Carmen, Mexico, after Hurricane Emily passed over the Yucatan peninsula resort.

PLAYA DEL CARMEN, Mexico - Hurricane Emily ripped roofs off luxury hotels along Mexico's Mayan Riviera, stranded thousands of tourists and left hundreds of residents homeless Monday, forcing many to remain in crowded, leaky shelters.

Residents of Yucatan peninsula resorts, including Playa del Carmen and Tulum, began wading through knee-deep floodwaters to assess damage under a light drizzle as the storm barreled west into the Gulf of Mexico.

No deaths or serious injuries on the peninsula were reported, but Emily was expected to regain strength and threaten Mexican oil rigs before slamming into northeast Mexico or southern Texas as early as tonight.

From the port of Tampico to the southern Texas coastline, residents boarded up windows and evacuated low-lying areas. Mexico's state-run oil company, Petroleos Mexicanos, or Pemex, evacuated 15,000 oil workers from rigs in the storm's path.

The worst damage on the Yucatan peninsula was in Puerto Aventuras, where the storm's eye came ashore about 60 miles south of the resort of Cancun, and in Tulum, a collection of thatched hut hotels.

Tourists who spent the night in makeshift shelters emerged to try to find ways home. Many went to the Cancun airport, which reopened Monday after closing Sunday afternoon.

Quintana Roo state officials reported little damage to the ancient pyramids in Tulum or elsewhere, but a team of archaeologists was to inspect sites throughout the state. Tulum's streets were deserted Monday, and the village was without electricity, said officials reached by telephone.

Damage from the hurricane was evident everywhere on the eastern Yucatan's Mayan Riviera.

Power was knocked out all along the coast. The wind snapped concrete utility poles along a half-mile stretch of highway between Playa del Carmen and Cancun to the north. Plate glass windows were shattered on the ground floors of numerous businesses in Playa del Carmen.

All hotels in Quintana Roo state not severely damaged were expected to reopen sometime Monday, officials from the state's hotel association said.

About 60,000 tourists were evacuated from Cancun, Tulum, Playa de Carmen and Cozumel, an island just south of Cancun known for its diving.

Emily hit Mexico after sweeping across the Caribbean, causing flooding that killed a family of four in Jamaica but sparing the Cayman Islands major damage.

The hurricane's wind speeds soared to as much as 135 mph, making it a fierce Category 4 storm when it slammed into the Yucatan's east coast Sunday. It weakened to Category 2 as it passed over the peninsula early Monday with maximum sustained winds of 100 mph.

Emily's center churned into the cooler waters north of the peninsula, weakening it further throughout the day. It was a Category 1 storm by evening, with sustained winds of 75 mph. But forecasters expected it to regain force and hit the northeastern Mexican coast as a major hurricane as early as tonight, the National Hurricane Center said in Miami.

At 8 p.m., Emily was at latitude 22.6 N, longitude 91.5 W, or about 440 miles east-southeast of Brownsville, Texas. The storm was moving to the west-northwest about 16 mph. A hurricane watch was issued from Cabo Rojo, Mexico, along the Gulf Coast, north to Baffin Bay, Texas.

[Last modified July 19, 2005, 01:09:13]