Dean weakens over Yucatan to Category 2 (CNN)
CHETUMAL, Mexico (CNN) -- Hurricane Dean, weakened to a Category 2 storm, sprinted across Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula on Tuesday, knocking down trees and flooding streets but not inflicting catastrophic damage.
Dean charged ashore before dawn as a monster Category 5 storm but rapidly lost strength as it traversed the peninsula and was downgraded to a Category 2 at 10 a.m. (11 a.m. ET).
Downed power lines and damaged buildings were reported in Mexico and northern Belize, but no casualties.
Streets were flooded outside a hotel in Chetumal, just south of where Dean's center made landfall around 4:30 a.m. (5:30 a.m. ET) with maximum sustained winds of 165 mph (266 kph), according to the National Hurricane Center.
Two hotel workers tried to clear a clogged street drain with a garden rake in an effort to relieve the flooded streets.
The storm's eye passed just south of the resort areas of Cozumel and Cancun, striking a rural and sparsely populated area near Chetumal, the capital of the Mexican state of Quintana Roo.
At 10 a.m. (11 a.m. ET), the weakened hurricane had maximum sustained winds of 105 mph (165 kph) and was 90 miles (150 km) west-northwest of Chetumal, according to the hurricane center. It was moving west at 20 mph (32 kph).
The storm is expected to lose more strength as it passes across the Yucatan, before re-emerging in the Gulf of Mexico. It is forecast to strengthen again and hit central Mexico Wednesday with winds around 100 mph (161 kph)
Electricity was out in Chetumal, where most of the 130,000 residents in the coastal city appeared to have heeded government warnings to seek shelter or evacuate. Watch Dean blow into Chetumal »
Telephones were working in Chetumal, and three radio stations were still broadcasting the location of the storm to residents early Tuesday, Quintana Roo Gov. Felix Arturo Gonzalez Canto told CNN's "American Morning."
"This information is very essential to the people of the area where the hurricane is hitting," Gonzalez Canto said. He said the reports give people "assurance of what's happening and also a lot of tranquillity."
Of the 20,000 tourists in Quintana Roo, about 13,000 had been evacuated as of Monday evening, said Rosario Ortiz Yeladaque, the state's secretary of government.
About 20,000 tourists remained in Cancun hotels. Security guards at the Gran Melia Hotel prevented guests and journalists from going outside into the storm by chaining and barricading exits, according to CNN's Jason Carroll.
Dean is so large -- about the size of Texas -- that its tropical winds and waves affected the entire Yucatan and neighboring Belize to the south.
Jeff Spiegel, owner of the Azul Resort in Amerbergris Caye, Belize, said it was "incredibly windy" and the ocean surge was "very, very high." Most of the docks and piers have been washed away on the western side of his narrow island, he said.
Douglas Podzun, owner of the Corozal Bay Inn, said he traveled outside early Tuesday to rescue a relative and witnessed some of the damage in the northern Belize town of Corozal.
"There are downed power lines, there's a lot of trees down, a lot of streets with roofing laying around that have been blown off of houses, and cars shaking," Podzun said. "[There's] nobody on the street at all, not even the police. The police said if anybody needs help they're on their own because they're not going out anymore."
The Mexican government deployed 4,000 troops Monday, and a state of emergency was declared in the state of Campeche, where residents were bracing for as much as 20 inches of rain in some places.
Mexican President Felipe Calderon, who was in Canada for a trilateral meeting with President Bush and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, cut short his visit and prepared to return home Tuesday to deal with the storm.
In anticipation of the storm, parts of Belize, including Belize City, were put under a curfew Monday night, and Prime Minister Said Musa froze prices of goods and services to prevent price gouging. People were being evacuated from low-lying, coastal and valley areas to hurricane shelters, the prime minister's office said.
Forecasters do not believe the storm presents a threat to the United States, although officials in Texas continued to make storm preparations just in case Dean's path takes an unexpected turn.
Along the northern Yucatan coast, winds were only expected to reach tropical-storm force, above 39 mph (63 kph).
Meanwhile, in Jamaica, residents cleaned up fallen trees and debris Monday as the island nation started to recover from its brush with Dean on Sunday. See I-Reports of what Dean has done across the Caribbean »
While electric service was still out and most stores were closed, the international airport in Montego Bay reopened Monday night, allowing tourists who had been caught in the storm to begin leaving.
Although parts of Jamaica were pounded with sustained winds of 114 mph (183 kph), the eye of the hurricane passed to the south of the island, sparing its 2.8 million residents from a direct hit. Two deaths were reported in Jamaica, and the storm caused property damage and triggered landslides in some rural areas.
Dean is being blamed for at least seven other deaths in its march across the Caribbean, including two fatalities in Haiti, two in both Martinique and Dominica, and one in St. Lucia.