HURRICANE WILMA’S outer edge battered Cancun’s white-sand beaches yesterday as officials ordered guests out of hotels, tourists jockeyed for spots on the last flights out, and tens of thousands of people from Honduras to the Florida Keys evacuated ahead of the “extremely dangerous” storm.

Hurricane Wilma weakened slightly as it roared toward Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula and southern Florida today, leaving at least 12 people dead in its wake and forcing the evacuation of tens of thousands in coastal areas from Honduras to the Florida Keys.