Mexico Braces for Collision with Hurricane Dean

By Ethan Cole, Christian Post Reporter Monday, August 20, 2007

Mexico is in for a head-on collision as Hurricane Dean makes its way towards the Yucatan Peninsula – home to many of the country's popular resorts.

With Haiti, Jamaica, and the Cayman Islands left battered, the powerful Category 4 hurricane is expected to hit central Mexico on Tuesday, according to The Associated Press.

However, the U.S. National Hurricane Center warned that Dean could grow into a Category 5 hurricane – the highest level – before it hits the Peninsula.

News of the storm has sent tourists fleeing the region, trying to catch the next flight out of the country. Tens of thousands of tourists are being ushered out of Cancun alone before Dean's arrival.

"We're leaving. You don't play around with nature," said Maclovio Manuel Kanul, who owns a beachfront fishing shack near Cancun, according to AP.

"We still haven't been able to recover from Wilma, and now this is coming," he added.

Hurricane Wilma ravaged Cancun in 2005 causing $3 billion in damages – the largest insured loss in Mexican history.

Dean is the first hurricane of the Atlantic season, hitting the Cayman Islands late Sunday after it battered Jamaica. Yet the Cayman was "spared the brunt of Hurricane Dean" when the eye passed some 100 miles south of the islands sparing it from hurricane-force winds, according to AP.

The international Christian aid agency World Vision has activated its local Rapid Response Team to take action in the Dominican Republic and Haiti. Officials say at least four people were killed in Haiti.

"These countries are especially vulnerable because they are already struggling with chronic poverty," noted Francois de la Roche, WV's emergency response director in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Regional staff distributed informational materials and alerted the communities before Dean hit the island.

Moreover, food, clean water, medicines, and emergency generators were prepared in the south provinces where the hurricane was going to hit hardest.

Although Mexico will be hit directly by Dean, southern Texas will likely suffer from rain, heavy winds and possible flooding.

"Our mission is very simple. It's to get people out of the kill zone, to get people out of the danger area, which is the coastline of Texas," said Johnny Cavazos, chief emergency director of Cameron County at Texas' southern tip, according to AP.

Early Monday, Dean had sustained winds of 150 mph, up from 145 mph Sunday, and could pour up to 20 inches of rain. It is expected to have sustained winds of 160 mph before colliding with the Yucatan peninsula.

The storm has killed at least eight people as it moved across the Caribbean.