Hurricane Wilma lashed Mexico's Caribbean beach resorts today, threatening heavy damage and loss of life as it moved slowly into the Yucatan peninsula.
Winds of 220 kph knocked over houses, upturned trees and trapped thousands of tourists in cramped shelters.
The storm was downgraded to a Category 3 on the Saffir-Simpson scale, from a Category 4 yesterday and a record-breaking Category 5 earlier this week.
The calm of the storm's eye settled over Playa del Carmen early in the day but the storm's north eye wall was "really clobbering northeastern Yucatan," the US National Hurricane Center said in a report at 9 am Irish time.
The storm is due to hang over the area until at least tonight, raising the risk of disaster. Authorities said there were no reports of deaths so far.
"It's a monster. It is roaring all the time," said Guadalupe Torroella in the low-lying resort of Cancun, where the sea rushed onto the land and flooded international hotels. Wilma dumped 590 mm of rain yesterday on Isla Mujeres island, an unprecedented downpour for Mexico.
"We are talking about a record hurricane as far as rain is concerned," said meteorologist Alberto Hernandez Unzon. He said Wilma had an unusually wide diameter of 800 km.
Mudslides caused by rains from Wilma killed 10 people in Haiti earlier this week and Cuba was reeling as the storm drenched the west of the island and unleashed tornadoes. Wilma was expected to begin hitting heavily populated southern Florida as early tomorrow.
While forecasters expect it to weaken by that time, authorities in the Florida Keys ordered tourists out and were considering evacuating the islands' 80,000 residents.
Wilma was expected to miss Gulf of Mexico oil and gas facilities but Florida's orange groves were at risk.
This hurricane season has spawned three of the most intense storms on record. Experts say the Atlantic has entered a period of heightened storm activity that could last 20 more years.