Hurricane Emily hit Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula last night before heading towards the US border.
Tens of thousands of locals and tourists along the popular "Maya Riviera" coastline rode out winds of 215 kph and torrential rain in makeshift shelters as it smashed into hotels and holiday homes. The hurricane halted all of Mexico's oil exports
Several people died in Mexico in incidents indirectly caused by the powerful storm, which killed at least four in Jamaica.
Emergency workers in Tamaulipas state near the Texas border were evacuating some people last night ahead of the hurricane's expected arrival there.
Mexico's major Caribbean resorts escaped largely unscathed but the small seaside town of Puerto Aventuras was badly damaged.
Mexico closed down most offshore oil production and ports in the Gulf of Mexico, knocking out 2.95 million barrels of crude a day in output until midweek and freezing all exports. Mexico is one of the main suppliers of crude to the United States, and news of a production cut briefly forced a spike in world oil prices.
The storm, travelling at 26 kph was due to hit the northeastern Mexican state of Tamaulipas near the US border tonight and a hurricane warning was in place for the coast of southern Texas.
Officials in Tamaulipas said they had begun to evacuate residents from areas close to beaches and rivers.
In Cancun, many locals had feared a repeat of Hurricane Gilbert, which tore up the town in 1988, destroying homes and killing hundreds.
But storm warning systems and evacuation procedures have improved greatly since then. The civil protection agency said it had shelters capable of holding more than 300,000 people.