Hurricane Dean lashed Mexico’s Caribbean coastline with fierce winds and heavy rain Tuesday as forecasters warned the rare Category 5 storm could bring “catastrophic” damage to the region as it continues to head west toward the middle of the Yucatan Peninsula on a course that appears to rule out any damage in Texas.
The eye of the storm made landfall around 4:30 a.m. ET near Majahual, about 64 kilometres east-northeast of Chetumal and the Belize border, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center.
It is the same strength of hurricane Katrina, that devestated new Orleans in 2005 and would mean maximum winds greater than 155mph.
“Category 5 storms cause catastrophic damage,” the centre’s Rebecca Waddington told CBC News on Tuesday from Miami.
The storm may lose some power over land, but is predicted to pick up strength once it reaches the warm waters of the southern Gulf of Mexico. It should remain at least a Category 3 storm before reaching central Mexico sometime Wednesday, Waddington said.
“It will weaken, but we don’t expect it to weaken too much,” she said.
Central Mexico was next on the storm’s path, though the outer bands were likely to bring rain, flooding and gusty winds to south Texas as well.
At the southern tip of Texas, sandbags were distributed in the resort town of South Padre Island, and residents were urged to evacuate. “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.