Ominous skies and a near-empty beach in Cancún prior to the arrival of Hurricane Delta.
Hurricane Delta made landfall in Puerto Morelos, Quintana Roo, around 5:30 a.m. Wednesday as a Category 2 hurricane, causing limited damage and blackouts in parts of Yucatán and Quintana Roo. No injuries or deaths have been reported.
“We have registered minor impacts. We have a power outage in the municipality of Cancún and a lack of power in 70% of Cozumel,” said Luis Alberto Ortega of the Civil Protection agency. Damage was mainly limited to fallen trees and flooding, he reported. The Cancún airport, which was closed yesterday, remained without power.
Ortega urged residents to follow recommendations from Civil Protection and to continue to monitor warnings issued by the national weather service even though the storm has passed.
A total of 39,290 people were evacuated in Quintana Roo and Yucatán in preparation for what yesterday had been designated a Category 4 hurricane.
Quintana Roo Governor Carlos Manuel Joaquín González said that crews would be sent out to assess the damage and begin restoring power to affected areas, which were thought to be mainly Solidaridad, Cozumel and Puerto Morelos. All businesses remained closed in the wake of the storm and residents were asked to remain in their homes until further notice.
Delta, which was moving northward at a relatively good clip of 28 kilometers per hour, was expected to leave Mexican territory later today as it regains strength over the Gulf of Mexico. “Let’s hope that in the course of the day, before noon, the eye of the hurricane passes approximately through Dzilam de Bravo, Yucatán. There it would leave the coasts to return to the Gulf of Mexico to the east and later to the north,” navy official Juan Carlos Vera explained.
Vera added that in Quintana Roo there are currently 10,600 miliatary personnel deployed to support citizens in the storm’s aftermath.
“There is a deployment of elements from both the army and the navy, the Federal Electricity Commission, Conagua, Civil Protection. The entire federal government is there helping with whatever is necessary,” said President López Obrador at his morning press conference.
Although danger from the winds appears to have passed, the storm surge along the Yucatán Peninsula remains a cause for concern and water levels could rise as much as three meters above normal tide levels.
