Hurricane Emily gains strength

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.

Emily hit the Mayan Riviera on Monday as a fierce category 4 storm with 135mph winds.

Hundreds of residents were left homeless, but no deaths were reported.

The storm weakened, but once back out to sea it began to strengthen again, developing 90mph winds.

Emily is expected to get stronger. A category 1 hurricane yesterday morning, the storm was expected to strengthen to a category 2 storm later and possibly make landfall early today as a category 3 hurricane.

Category 1 hurricanes carry winds of 74-95mph, category 2 from 96-110mph, and category 3 from 111-130mph.

Last night, Emily was centred 210 miles east of the northern Mexican fishing town of La Pesca, and about 240 miles south-east of Brownsville, Texas.

From the Mexican port of Tampico 250 miles north to the southern Texas coast, residents evacuated low-lying areas.

Mexico’s state-run oil company, Petroleos Mexicanos, or Pemex, evacuated 15,000 oil workers from rigs in the storm’s path.

Felipe Portillo, a 67-year-old fisherman, helped his sons haul five small, fibreglass boats off the beach, away from the water. Then they planned to head inland.

“Overconfidence kills men,” Portillo said. “Running is your best defence.”

Many tourists on Texas’ South Padre Island began to pack up on Monday, although about 10,000 remained, officials said.

A local judge ordered vehicles in danger of being blown over by high winds to leave county parks on the island.

Yucatan Peninsula residents, meanwhile, assessed damage from Monday’s hit by Emily.

Many live in thatched huts just out of sight of the resorts. Officials estimated about 3,000 such huts were damaged or destroyed.