Cancun Today

CNN — At 8 p.m., Dean’s eye was located about 210 miles (435 kilometers) east of Chetumal, Mexico, the hurricane center said. The storm was moving west at about 20 mph (32 kph).

Rain bands were already rolling on shore in the Yucatan even though the storm was more than 200 miles away. People were urged to prepare for an “extremely dangerous” storm.

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.

Coastal resorts such as Cancun and Cozumel largely emptied.

Regional airports said people were packing into planes to get out Monday, following one of the busiest weekends of the year — the last before schools reopen in Mexico.

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.

Although Dean was forecast to come ashore south of the main tourist areas and closer to Chetumal, the storm was so large — about the size of Texas — that its tropical winds and waves were expected to affect the entire Yucatan and neighboring Belize to the south.”

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