Cancun

Six people were listed as killed and two as missing early on Sunday after Hurricane Wilma erased beaches and flooded luxury hotels up to the third floor in Mexico’s famous Yucatan resorts. More than 71 000 people, many of them foreign tourists, remained in emergency refuge centers for a second night as slow-moving, powerful Wilma continued to pummel the region with high winds and rains.

Sea water rushed into the Mexican resort city of Cancun early on Saturday as Hurricane Wilma whipped up a massive storm surge and unleashed heavy rain and driving winds over a resort area known for its picturesque beaches. The Category Four storm hit the Yucatan peninsula packing sustained winds of 215km an hour, felling trees and tearing roofs off buildings, as tens of thousands of tourists and residents cowered in emergency shelters.

Hurricane Wilma battered deserted resorts along Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula with howling winds and torrential rain on Friday, toppling trees and power lines. The heart of the fearsome hurricane moved slowly on to the Mexican coast, and authorities have warned it could be one of the most dangerous storms in decades.

Mexico braced on Thursday for a major hit from a monstrous Hurricane Wilma as the powerful storm threatened to grow even stronger before making landfall in this touristic coastline. The storm forced thousands of European and American tourists to flee Cancun resort hotels, while tens of thousands of people were evacuated in Cuba.

A monstrous Hurricane Wilma barrelled toward Mexico and the storm-weary United States coast on Thursday, forcing tens of thousands to flee coastlines after it mushroomed into the most powerful storm recorded to date in the Atlantic. Cuba has started to evacuate 235 000 people.

Hurricane Wilma weakened slightly as it roared toward Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula and southern Florida on Wednesday, leaving 13 people dead in its wake and forcing the evacuation of tens of thousands in coastal areas from Honduras to the Florida Keys. Forecasters said the hurricane could strengthen again.

Hurricane Emily blasted the world-famous beach resorts on Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula on Monday, where thousands of tourists were evacuated or took refuge in shelters while the storm toll across the Caribbean rose to seven dead. Thousands of tourists were evacuated to wait as Emily headed out into the Gulf of Mexico.