Hurricane Dean strengthened into a 160mph Category 5 storm capable of catastrophic damage today, as its first rain and winds began hitting the coasts of Mexico and Belize.

British actress Sienna Miller has abandoned her hopes of reuniting with former lover Jude Law - and has found herself a hunky model instead.

Punishing winds and rain pummelled the Mexican island of Cozumel early today and Cancun braced for the brunt of Wilma’s wrath as the massive hurricane inched toward Mexico’s resort-studded coastline, where thousands of stranded tourists took refuge in shelters and hotel ballrooms.

A weakened Hurricane Emily triggered flooding outside Mexico’s third-largest city last night after demolishing homes, toppling trees and sparking thousands of evacuations on the northern Gulf Coast.

Thousands fled as the outer edge of Hurricane Emily lashed coastal areas around the Texas-Mexico border and its already powerful centre continued to strengthen just offshore.

HURRICANE Emily was gathering strength in the Gulf of Mexico yesterday as it took aim at north-eastern Mexico and south Texas, a day after ripping roofs off resort hotels and stranding thousands of tourists in the Yucatan Peninsula.

Hurricane Emily stranded thousands of tourists along Mexico’s luxurious Mayan Riviera and left hundreds of local residents homeless yesterday, forcing many to remain in crowded, leaky shelters.

Hurricane Emily swept over the Yucatan peninsula early today, snapping whole rows of concrete power lines in half, flooding some streets with knee-deep water and shattering ground-floor windows.