Hurricane Grace sweeps over the Yucatán at a speed of 130 kilometers per hour. Waves go up to six meters high. Despite the precautionary measures, the damage is immense.
Chetumal – Hurricane Grace caused widespread power outages on Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula, which is popular with holidaymakers. The state provider CFE announced on Thursday that more than 180,000 connections were affected.
The category one cyclone – the lowest of five on the hurricane scale – had reached the beach town of Tulum Land early in the morning (local time) with sustained winds of 130 kilometers per hour. There were initially no reports of fatalities.
According to the US Hurricane Center, “Grace” moved slightly weakened in a westerly direction over the Yucatán. Trees and electricity pylons fell, there were short circuits, and traffic lights failed, Quintana Roo state governor Carlos Joaquín reported on Thursday. There were waves up to six meters high.
The evening before, residents of the coastal towns affected were brought to safety and the population had been asked to stay at home. Shops, offices and ports were temporarily closed. More than 400 soldiers were deployed.
According to Joaquín, hotels have also been evacuated in Tulum. The guests were housed in emergency shelters. Dozens of flights were canceled in Cancun. According to the state’s Ministry of Tourism, shortly before the arrival of the hurricane, around 120,000 tourists were in affected holiday destinations such as Cancún, Tulum, Playa del Carmen and the island of Cozumel.
“Grace” is expected to weaken a little further at first, but then gain strength again when the storm center reaches the Gulf of Mexico, the hurricane center said. The storm will likely hit Mexico’s east coast again as a hurricane late Friday or early Saturday. As a weaker tropical storm, it had already caused floods in Haiti on Tuesday night. dpa
