Mexico evacuates 41,000 tourists from the Caribbean awaiting the impact of hurricane Delta

The Mexican authorities have evacuated 41,000 tourists from the country’s Caribbean coasts while waiting for the arrival of Hurricane Delta, downgraded to category 3 in recent hours, but advancing with winds of 195 kilometers per hour and gusts of 265 kilometers per hour. time. According to a report by United States National Hurricane Center (NHC) it will make landfall in “potentially catastrophic” winds. After passing through Cuba and the Cayman Islands this Monday, the hurricane is approaching the southeast coast of Mexico. The forecast of the National Meteorological Service points out that the hurricane will enter around 05:00 local time (seven hours more in the Spanish peninsula) at a point near Puerto Morelos, between the resorts of Cancun and Playa del Carmen, the most sought after by tourists, reports Efe.

“The center of Delta is expected to continue its route to the southwest of the Cayman Islands in the afternoon and pass through the northeast part of the Yucatan peninsula late at night or early Wednesday,” the NHC reported in its newsletter this Tuesday. In the morning Delta went from a storm to a category two hurricane on Monday, when it practically doubled in strength.

The authorities of Quintana Roo have reported the transfer of 41,000 tourists due to the impact of the hurricane, of which 85% are Mexican and the rest foreigners, especially Americans, reports AFP. “We were at 35% of our capacity. To prevent the spread of covid-19, the same measures have been taken in the shelters as in hotels, such as the use of gel, face masks ”, reported Roberto Cintrón, president of the Cancun Hotel Association, one of the main tourist destinations of the Mexican Caribbean.

The hurricane has the authorities on edge from southeastern Mexico. The governor of the State of Quintana Roo, Carlos Joaquín González, has issued the red alert in the northern part of the territory and has announced the start of the evacuation in the hotel areas of Puerto Morelos, Cancun and on the island of Holbox. Delta is located 130 kilometers east-southeast of Cozumel and 175 kilometers southeast of Cancun and is moving at 26 kilometers per hour to the west northwest; Its effects have already begun to be felt on the island of Cozumel and in much of the Yucatan Peninsula.

“The entire State will suffer the consequences of the storm,” Governor González said during a press conference this Tuesday afternoon, in which he also announced that he expects the hurricane to have finished its passage through the State on Wednesday afternoon. late.

The National Meteorological Service of Mexico has also issued an alert for tropical storm winds in the northwest of the Yucatan Peninsula, in the 80-kilometer strip between the coastal cities of Progreso and Dzilam de Bravo. “It is predicted that during the night it will cause intense rains, electric shocks, strong winds with gusts, waves of six to 10 meters high and storm surge in the north of Quintana Roo and the east of Yucatan,” reported the agency. Both Yucatan and Quintana Roo await the arrival of Delta after spending the weekend under the lash of tropical storm Gamma, which left at least six people dead and some 600,000 affected by floods throughout southern Mexico. The rains forced more than 3,000 people to leave their homes in the states of Veracruz, Chiapas and Tabasco, according to the Mexican Ministry of the Interior.

In his morning conference this Tuesday, the Mexican president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, has reported that he will send 5,000 members of the National Navy to the peninsula as a “support team” to face the contingency. “According to projections, the hurricane is going to hit harder until the night. We have all day to prevent and heed the recommendations, ”said the Mexican president.

Delta is the 26th named storm in an unusually active hurricane season in the Atlantic. If the hurricane makes landfall, it will become the 10th tropical cyclone of the season, breaking the mark of nine that did so in 2016. According to NHC monitoring, the hurricane would reach the southern United States between Thursday night and Friday morning at a still undetermined point in the States of Texas, Louisana, Mississippi of Alabama.

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