TULUM: Hurricane Grace struck the Caribbean coast of Mexico in the south of the Ancient Maya Tulum Temple on Thursday morning, pushing a dangerous wave of storms.
Heavy rain and strong winds threatened to destroy thinner houses and keep tourists out of the white sand beach until they crossed the Yucatan Peninsula.
Storm Category 1 has soaked Haiti damaged by the earthquake, Jamaica and the Cayman Islands on the way to direct attacks at Riviera Maya, the heart of the Mexican tourism industry.
Grace’s Center crashed south of Tulum at 4:45 a.m.
with a maximum sustainable wind of 80 mph (130 kmh), according to the US National Hurricane Center.
The state of Quintana Roo opened a shelter and evacuated several hotels and residents ahead of the arrival of the storm.
Grace missed cozumel the destination of popular cruise ships and landed south of Playa del Carmen, where the city center, usually pounding with music and spectators, very deserted Wednesday night.
Authorities have ordered all businesses to be closed and the people at 8pm.
One exception is Axel Felix, a 37-year-old pizza sender who made his last drop of the night in a raincoat.
“Now I’ll go home and I won’t leave until tomorrow,” Felix said.
“You have to be careful and stay at home.” The other is Juan Gonzalez, a 25-year-old student walking his dog.
“At home we will be calm with food, waiting to see what happens and with the protected window,” he said.
With a little to stand on the peninsula, Grace is expected to weaken a little then regain the strength of the storm in the Gulf of Mexico before doing the second land in Mexico this weekend.
Quintana Roo Gov.
Carlos Joaquin said the authorities had evacuated hotels that were not made to hold the typhoon and he called the cessation of alcohol sales in the area at 5 pm.
Some airlines canceled flights to the peninsula.
In the main obstacle of Tulum, tourists in Ponchos Plastic spread through puddles when the wind picks up.
On the beach side, the waves grow and beach visitors take refuge from the sand blowing.
Army soldiers and sailors patrolled the streets of Tulum in the truck, and the business recorded and climbed up the window as a line formed in grocery stores with families scattered above essential.
“We take precautions, buy milk, sugar, water and cakes because we don’t know how long we will be closed,” said a 21-year-old housewife Adamaris Garcia, stood on the dozens of people in a small shop.
Meanwhile, some tourists made the missing days on the beach while others prepared for their first storm experience.
Johanna Geys, from Munich, Germany, was drinking beer in Tulum on Wednesday afternoon.
This is the first time in Mexico and Grace will be his first storm.
“We don’t know how it is (in a storm),” said Geys, a 28-year-old waiter.
People say it, it won’t be bad.
Leaving a shop with several equipment, 25-year-old California law students Sarah Lynch said he was not too worried.
“We have extra water.
We are preparing for a storm and we will only roll up with a storm and see what happens,” Lynch said.
“It’s a little scary because it’s unknown, but besides that we are fine.
We made it past Covid.” On the beach in Cancun, fishermen dragged their boats from the waterfront in preparation.
“Last year it caught us like that (not ready) because the information we got was sometimes incorrect and sometimes we could bear it (storm.),” Said Fisherman Carlos Canche Gonzalez.
“But I don’t think it will strengthen, and from the experience we have from last year, Well, if not or not, we have to protect our equipment.
That’s what we leave, we have become a fisherman for years.” “For a tourist, this storm is really bad because we all have activities scheduled for certain days and if you cancel it impact on our vacation,” said Keanguentes, a 19-year-old child from Colombia, in Cancun with his family.
The state authority said that in the past week, this region hosted around 130,000 tourists and the hotel was more than half full despite a pandemic.