Over the last few days, as it became apparent Hurricane Dean was going to make a Yucatan Landfall, sometime early Tuesday morning, I’ve been asked many times about the locations of many of the array of towns, villages and areas mentioned. Below is map of the Yucatan Peninsula, noting major cities and towns, along with certain points of interest.

Currently, the anticipated track of Hurricane Dean from the National Hurricane Center in Florida is indicating a landfall between the Felipe Carillo and Chetumal region, just North of the Mexican border with the country of Belize. This area includes the ecological reserves of Sian Ka’an and Uaymil. As of the most recent reports from the NHC, the area of Punta Herrero, to Majahual, to Xcalak on the coast, inland to Bacalar, and offshore, Chinchorro, appears extremely vulnerable to Hurricane Dean which is currently a very strong Category Four (4) Hurricane with winds measured at 150 MPH. Dean is expected by NHC projections to reach 156 MPH winds or stronger before striking the Yucatan, making it a very dangerous Category Five (5) Hurricane.

It’s important to keep in mind that the NHC has noted that Hurricane strength winds will extend outwards of up to 60 miles from the storms center, with Tropical Storm strength winds outwards of 200 miles.

The area projected for landfall is populated by not only towns but many small Maya villages that will be extremely vulnerable to Hurricane Dean’s strength. Flooding and heavy rain is also expected, as are storm surges and heavy surf along the coast. These towns and villages are traditional buildings, not the concrete pleasure palaces of Cancun, and in many cases the smaller villages, are areas populated by palapa housing, common to the Maya.

 In an effort to assist readers with distances, the following are approximate distances from Cancun in the Northern Yucatan.

Cancun to Tulum: 80 Miles

Cancun to Felipe Carillo: 140 Miles

Cancun to Majahual: 190 Miles

Cancun to Chetumal: 240 Miles

Stay Calm, Stay Safe, Stay Smart…

Posted By Dangers

Jim

Two new videos we took in Cancun today. These were taken about midday. The beach featured is the same one as the pics below, Playa Marlin - behind Plaza Kukulcan.

The other is a drive through the hotel zone as far as Plaza Kukulcan. Sorry about the speedy driving, I think I must drive like a local now!

I will try and take the same videos again in two days time.

Posted by Steve

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The latest update shows very little change as expected. The tracking path remains well south of Cancun, and the hurricane has not reached Category 5. But, there is still time yet.

Posted by Steve

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After my telephone interview for breakfast time news with KRIV FOX26 in Houston, I’ve also just done another pre-recorded one for BBC Radio 4. If you’re in the UK you can catch it on the “World Tonight” programme that starts at 10pm UK time, so you’ll have to be quick. My part is due to air around 10:15pm. I may have another interview to do for BBC Five Live later tonight (to be aired at 2.00am UK time) although this is yet to be confirmed.

The Fox coverage has been spread through their network and will also be featured on Fox LA, Fox Chicago and Fox NY, it may also be shown on Fox News.

CancunCancuck has been in contact with Canadian TV and Rivergirl has a phone interview with USA Today. This site has certainly caught the attention of the watching World.

We also have our site featured in the LA Times blog

If you are a member of the press and wish to discuss any matters related to the hurricane and Cancun with the local bloggers then please post a comment with your email and we will get back to you. We’d rather not give our emails out publicly as we may well be deluged and will struggle to answer everyone, to keep the updates coming and (lets not forget) deal with the hurricane itself.

Earlier today the site suffered some downtime, this was due to the phenomenal traffic we were receiving, at some times more than a 100 people a minute were visiting the site. The site has now been moved to a dedicated server which is more suitable for the traffic volume and should suffer no further downtime.
Posted by Steve

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We had a drive out to the Cancun Hotel Zone today at lunchtime. It was very quiet with few tourists around. The skies were near normal and though a little breezy by the sea it was nothing out of the ordinary and the sun was shining. The beach is at Playa Marlin, near to the Tucancun and Villas Marlin, behind Plaza Kukulcan. We have some video which we are just editing and putting together and should be online soon.

Just gone 3pm here and although the skies are becoming cloudy, and winds picking up a little there’s no sign of rain yet.

Posted by Steve

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Logically I know that we are going to be just fine, but the butterflies just started flying in my stomach. After a couple of days of no wind, the breeze is starting to pick up. My next door neighbour brought in a HUGE generator that could possibly keep our entire neighbourhood lit for weeks. My son is napping peacefully, there is nothing I can do but sit and wait and stare at the models and pics from the NHC. Oh, I should clean up the lizard my cat just threw up, but does that really count as hurricane preparation? We’re as ready as we can be. Someone had asked in a comment if we would be boarding up our windows, no we will not, they are just too big to manage. They survived both Gilberto and Wilma without breaking so I am pretty confident they will hold.

We’ve had such a fantastic response to this blog and I wanted to thank everyone for their kind comments and their concern for the people in Mexico. I am overwhelmed by them right now and wish I could reply to them all but at the moment it’s just too many! I will try to address the main concerns right now.

1. If you have a tripped booked to Cancun that departs in the next three days, I would investigate your options for changing or cancelling. If it’s more than three days away, I would hold on and stay in “wait and see” mode. If you are traveling further south towards Tulum, I think you’ve got more to worry about. At this point my best advice is if you have plans in the next seven days to Tulum or points south, change them. We really won’t know what sort of clean up is necessary until after tomorrow.

2. If you are here right now, stay calm and cool and get your things in order. Buy water, food and comfort items for the shelters in the event of an evacuation. As of right now (I just talked to my husband who works in a resort), they are not evacuating the hotel zone of Cancun. If you can buy a disposable cel phone from Telcel, do it. You can buy phone cards and try to keep in touch with family back home.

3. If you have family in the region, please do not panic. I know it’s a very scary thing to be so far away and seemingly unable to help but I would like to reassure you that everything possible will be done to ensure every tourists safety. To be honest, they come first around here, there are thousands of Mexican employees for whom the tourists are the priority. They will stay with them for the duration of the storm at the expense of their own comfort and safety AND they will do it with a smile. The people who live and work here are incredibly caring and giving and they will give you the shirt off their back if you are cold. You just have to read reports of the shelters after Wilma to know that this is true. They were uncomfortable and wet, but everything I have read indicates that there is a huge amount of gratitude towards the people of Quintana Roo for their efforts in taking care of the tourists.

Ok, butterflies gone, I feel better. Guess I just needed to write about it. Thanks for listening everyone, stayed tuned!

posted by CancunCanuck (aka Kelly)

Mexican officials have announced airport closures for the areas that will be affected by Hurricane Dean’s landfall in the Yucatan. The Chetumal airport will close at 7 pm (CDT) tonight, the Cozumel airport will close at 8 pm (CDT) and the Cancun airport will close at 10 pm.

Posted by RiverGirl

RiverGirl’s Blog

Here’s the link to the TV interview I just did with KRIV-FOX 26 in Houston, many thanks to Megan for letting me know:

TV Interview

The BBC have just called and they want me to speak on their BBC 4 radio show “The World Tonight” at 10pm UK time tonight.

Posted by Steve

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I’m due to have a phone interview regarding the preparations in Cancun at 8am CST. If you’re in the Houston, Texas area then please listen out for me on TV at Houston KRIV-FOX 26.

Posted by Steve

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I couldnt sleep so thought I’d get up and check the latest.

Dean appears to have increased in speed to 150mph, which is 5mph short of being classed as Category 5. The track seems unchanged and all the models are converging into an almost single straight line. It’s probably fair to say that the hurricane is unlikely to move far from it’s predicted track before landfall. This is good news for Cancun.

I am back off to bed now for a couple of hours, I dont expect there will be much sleep to be had tonight.

Posted by Steve

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