UPDATE: Hurricane Dean Weakens after Slamming into Mexico
"Everyone holed up in their houses. Thank God that the worst is over."
(Tulum, Mexico)?Although Hurricane Dean first made landfall, on the Caribbean coast of Mexico early Tuesday morning as a category five storm, winds have since slowed, and the storm was downgraded to a category three. Dean is expected to move out into the Bay of Campeche later Tuesday night, and may once again gain strength.
Mexican resident, Miguel Colli, described what Dean was like as it came ashore, "We began to feel the strong winds about 2 in the morning and you could hear that the trees were breaking and some tin roofs were coming off. Everyone holed up in their houses. Thank God that the worst is over."
(Monday-Aug. 20)Already a category 4 storm, the U.S. National Hurricane Center warned that Dean could gather strength before hitting land?possibly growing into a dreaded category five hurricane.
"We still haven't been able to recover from Wilma, and now this is coming," said Cancun local Maclovio Manuel Kanul.
According to the AP report, Hurricane Dean was "centered about 440 miles east of Belize City and traveling west at 21 mph," at about 8am Eastern Time on Monday.
