Monster Dean bears down on Yucatan

CHETUMAL, Mexico -- Hurricane Dean burgeoned into a Category 5 storm in the western Caribbean -- capable of inflicting catastrophic damage when it makes landfall early Tuesday.

Squalls of heavy rain and wind were rolling on shore in the Yucatan, where conditions were rapidly deteriorating ahead of landfall.

Dean is already blamed for at least seven deaths across the Caribbean, including two in Haiti, two in both Martinique and Dominica, and one in St. Lucia.

The area where the eye is expected to come ashore is rural and sparsely populated. However, hurricane force winds extended 60 miles (100 km) from the center, and tropical storm conditions extended 175 miles (280 km).

As of 1 a.m. (2 a.m. ET), Dean's maximum sustained winds were 160 mph (257 kph), and the center of the story was about 100 miles (160 km) east of Chetumal, Mexico, according to the National Hurricane Center. The hurricane was moving west at about 20 mph (32 kph) and the National Hurricane Center forecast that Dean would remain Category 5 at landfall and shortly afterward. See Dean's projected path »

A Category 5 storm is the most extreme level on the Saffir-Simpson scale of hurricane intensity. Such hurricanes can have a storm surge of more than 18 feet and are powerful enough to take off roofs, uproot trees, blow out windows and wipe out buildings.

Dean is forecast to weaken substantially as it crosses the Yucatan peninsula Tuesday, before re-emerging in the Gulf of Mexico, strengthening again and hitting central Mexico Wednesday with winds around 100 mph (160 kph).

Chetumal, the capital of the Mexican state of Quintana Roo, was largely empty Monday evening, with little traffic in the streets. Most of the 130,000 residents in the coastal city appeared to have heeded government warnings to seek shelter or evacuate.

Although Dean was forecast to come ashore south of the main tourist areas, the storm was so large -- about the size of Texas -- its tropical winds and waves were expected to affect the entire Yucatan and Belize to the south. Watch I-Reporter Kevin Canning's video of Hurricane Dean in Belize »

Tourists fled popular resort areas to the north, such as Cancun and Cozumel, trying to get a seat on the last planes out before the storm.

Of the 20,000 tourists in Quintana Roo, about 13,000 had been evacuated as of Monday evening, and planes were still taking off, said Rosario Ortiz Yeladaque, the state's secretary of government.

The Mexican government deployed 4,000 troops to the area, and a state of emergency was declared in the inland state of Campeche, where residents were bracing for as much as 20 inches (0.5 meters) of rain in some places.

Mexican President Felipe Calderon, who was in Canada for a summit with President Bush and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, announced he would cut short his visit and return home Tuesday to deal with the storm.

Along the northern Yucatan coast, winds were expected to reach tropical storm force, above 39 mph (60 kph). Mexican authorities also issued a hurricane watch for the country's western Gulf coast from the Bay of Campeche northward to Tampico, which means hurricane conditions were possible within 36 hours.

Parts of Belize, including Belize City, were put under a curfew Monday night, and Prime Minister Said Musa froze prices of goods and services to prevent price gouging. People were being evacuated from low-lying, coastal and valley areas to hurricane shelters, the prime minister's office said. Watch I-Report images of Dean's effects on the Caribbean »

Hurricane warnings were in effect for Belize and both the east coast of the Yucatan, facing the Caribbean, and the west coast, facing the Gulf of Mexico.

Meanwhile, in Jamaica, residents cleaned up fallen trees and debris Monday as the island nation started to recover from its brush with Dean on Sunday.

Forecasters do not believe Hurricane Dean presents a threat to the United States, although officials in Texas continued to make storm preparations just in case Dean takes an unexpected turn.

While electric service was still out, and most stores were closed, the international airport in Montego Bay reopened Monday night, allowing tourists who had been caught in the storm to finally begin leaving.

Although parts of Jamaica were pounded with sustained winds of 114 mph (180 kph), the eye of the hurricane actually passed to the south of the island, sparing its 2.8 million residents from a direct hit. While the storm caused property damage and triggered landslides in some rural areas, no deaths were reported there.

The latest projections showed little chance that Dean would hit the United States. But federal officials and their state counterparts in Texas were preparing for any unexpected turn northward, and oil workers off the Texas coast were heading for shore. E-mail to a friend

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