La Pesca, Mexico – Hurricane Emily slowed down late Tuesday night but was still on course to slam into Mexico for a second time as its outer rings began thrashing the country’s northeastern coast and triggered evacuations as far away as southern Texas.
Packing sustained winds of 125 mph, the hurricane slowed by about half to 7 mph, allowing it to strengthen even more over the Gulf of Mexico. Emily’s eye was likely to come ashore early this morning near this small fishing village popular with Mexican and U.S. tourists.
The storm already has struck Mexico once, ripping roofs off resort hotels and stranding thousands of tourists along the Mayan Riviera, which includes the resort of Cancun.
Residents rushed to nail plywood boards over windows and doors, while Mexican army trucks roamed the streets collecting evacuees laden with suitcases and rolled-up blankets.
The town was among at least 20 low-lying, seaside Mexican communities being emptied of residents before the storm, which was expected to hit a sparsely populated stretch of coastline just south of the Texas border.
In southern Texas, campers emptied beachfront parks on South Padre Island, residents piled sandbags to hold back possible floodwaters and schools were turned into shelters. But for many there, the huge waves were just too much to pass up.
“It is amazing,” said Marc Lambert, a tourist from New York who spent two hours boogie-boarding before the storm. “It is cool to see what Mother Nature can do.”
Some 150 miles south, in La Pesca, the approaching storm brought a steady wind that blew across the town, and breakers skittered toward the abandoned beach. Residents boarded up windows and tied down tin roofs of their homes.
Felipe Portillo, a 67-year-old fisherman, helped his sons haul five small fiberglass fishing boats off the beach and up to the roadside, away from the water. Then they planned to head to a shelter inland.
“Overconfidence kills men,” Portillo said. “Running is your best defense.”
Some residents were taken to a naval base on a relatively high point on the edge of town, where children raced giddily about, shrieking and laughing as their parents settled in.
Emily hit the Yucatan Peninsula on Monday as a fierce Category 4 storm with 135-mph winds, causing millions of dollars in damage. Hundreds were left homeless, but no deaths or major injuries were reported.
