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CANCUN, Mexico : Hurricane Dean on Tuesday slammed into Mexico's Caribbean coast as a monstrous category five storm and barrelled over the Yucatan Peninsula toward the oil-rich Gulf of Mexico.
Dean lost some of its punch after hitting land before dawn, dropping from the topmost level on the Saffir-Simpson intensity scale to a still dangerous category three hurricane, but could regain strength when it hits the warm Gulf waters, probably late Tuesday.
The killer hurricane made landfall near Puerto Bravo, about 280 kilometres south of Cancun, packing sustained winds of 270 kilometres per hour, with higher gusts.
While Cancun and other popular resorts were spared a direct hit, tens of thousands of tourists had fled ahead of the storm, and residents in low-lying areas headed to safer ground.
State-run Petroleos de Mexico (PEMEX) said it had evacuated and shut down all its offshore oil installations in the Gulf of Mexico.
A curfew was declared in the Quintana Roo state capital Chetumal, located close to the area where Dean slammed ashore. Electricity was shut down and main roads were closed in the city, which has a population of 450,000.
Authorities had deployed 2,000 army personnel and 600 police ahead of landfall to prevent the type of looting that followed the devastation wrought by Wilma that killed 10 people and caused millions of dollars in damage in Cancun two years ago.
Mexican President Felipe Calderon announced he would cut short a trip to Canada where he held talks with US President George W. Bush and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, in order to return to Mexico "as soon as possible."
Meanwhile world oil prices dropped on Tuesday as forecasters indicated the hurricane appeared likely to spare energy facilities in the United States, the world's biggest consumer of crude.
A few offshore rigs and platforms on the US side of the Gulf were nevertheless evacuated.
At 1200 GMT Dean's centre was located over the Yucatan Peninsula about 220 kilometres east-southeast of the city of Campeche on the shores of the Gulf of Mexico, forecasters said.
Dean's maximum sustained winds dropped to near 205 kilometres per hour, by 7:00 am (1200 GMT,) three and a half hours after it slammed ashore at a rare category five.
Only 28 Atlantic hurricanes are known to have reached that category since record keeping started in 1886.
Hurricane Dean had already killed at least nine people across the Caribbean before it hit Mexico.
One man died in Jamaica when his house caved in on him as the storm brushed past the island on Sunday.
Dean earlier swirled past Haiti, one of the world's poorest countries, lashing it with heavy rain and gale-force winds and leaving at least four people dead.
Two people were also killed in the French territory of Martinique and another two died in the Dominican Republic, while thousands of people across the region fled their homes. - AFP/de
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