Hurricane Dean drenches Mexico’s eastern mainland

MEXICO CITY -- A weakened Hurricane Dean passed west from the Yucatan peninsula into the Gulf of Mexico, reaching land about 10 a.m. today in Tecolutla, on Mexico’s eastern mainland, about halfway between Tampico and the port of Veracruz.

Coastal residents were bracing for heavy rains and possible flooding from the storm.

An estimated 20,000 people have been evacuated from coastal cities stretching north from the port city of Veracruz to Tampico, officials said today.

The Category 2 hurricane is expected to move inland and dissipate, but first it could bring as much as 20 inches of rain to the states of Veracruz, Puebla and Hidalgo.

Mexican President Felipe Calderon today toured damaged regions on the Yucatan, which included thousands of acres of corn, sugar and citrus farmland.

On Tuesday, Hurricane Dean, packing 165-mph winds as a Category 5 storm, made landfall on the Yucatan near the town of Felipe Carrillo Puerto, causing widespread destruction but relatively few injuries.

No deaths had been reported, despite the fierce winds that caused heavy damage to more than one-third of the buildings in some seaside communities.

“They’ve made an effort here to spread the idea of being prepared,” said Abel Posadas, part of a team of Red Cross workers who had driven 1,000 miles from Mexico City to Felipe Carrillo Puerto in the days before the hurricane struck.

“Everyone just stays calm and gets ready.”

About 1,500 families saw their homes destroyed or heavily damaged in Quintana Roo state, which includes Felipe Carrillo Puerto and resorts such as Cancun, officials said.

Many of those rendered homeless are the state’s poorest residents, including hundreds of Maya Indians.

Humberto Sosa, 35, a Maya-speaking resident of Felipe Carrillo Puerto, was one of those who lost his home. Like many in the region, it was a flimsy structure of cardboard and tin sheets.

“When those tin sheets start flying, they’re really dangerous because they’re sharp,” he said. “You have to get away.” He escaped injury by seeking refuge in a city shelter.

In Tulum, about 60 miles north of Felipe Carrillo Puerto, officials evacuated a 10-mile stretch of beach outside the city, where hotels and bungalows face pristine white sands and the turquoise Caribbean.

A third of the buildings along the beach sustained heavy damage, officials said.

Tulum emergency coordinator Lucio Salvador Arguea credited the government’s year-round education efforts, which include PowerPoint presentations on “storm surges” at local schools.

“People here know that when the army and the municipal government comes and tells them to leave, they have to go,” he said.

The eye of the storm passed through sparsely populated nature reserves and jungles between Felipe Carrillo Puerto and Chetumal, a stroke of good fortune that some attributed to an act of God and nature.

“There was a cold front off Cuba,” said Montalvo Rodriguez. “At the last minute, it pushed the eye away from us, and away from Chetumal.”

Fallen trees littered the 90-mile road that links Chetumal and Felipe Carrillo Puerto. But the mangrove swamps and tropical forests that cover much of the region acted like a huge pillow that absorbed Dean’s punch.

Chetumal, the capital of Quintana Roo state and home to 147,000 people, was the city hardest hit by the storm. There was extensive flooding in the city center.

Hundreds of trees and light poles were felled in the city, an official said. But otherwise, the infrastructure appeared to have suffered no serious damage.

U.S. forecasters said Hurricane Dean was the third-most intense Atlantic hurricane to make landfall since record-keeping began in the mid-19th century.

The only recorded storms that were stronger when they hit land were a 1935 Labor Day hurricane that hit the Florida Keys, and Hurricane Gilbert, which hit Cancun in 1988.

Cecilia Sánchez of The Times’ Mexico City Bureau contributed to this report.

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