Weakened Hurricane Dean set for second Mexico landfall

NAUTLA, Mexico (AFP) - More than 10,000 people were ordered to evacuate threatened areas along the oil-rich Gulf of Mexico yesterday, just hours before Hurricane Dean was expected to make a second landfall in Mexico.

While the once-deadly hurricane packed only a fraction of the punch it had when it slammed ashore on Mexico's Caribbean coast, authorities worried about the risk of flooding and mudslides in the state of Veracruz.

"What keeps us in a state of alert is the enormous amount of water," Veracruz state Governor Fidel Herrera told Televisa television.

With just hours left before the hurricane was expected to make landfall authorities ordered evacuations in the most directly threatened areas, which include the city of Poza Rica, which has several oil refineries, and the port of city Tuxpan, a transfer point for oil extracted offshore.

The Petroleos de Mexico (PEMEX) state oil company had earlier evacuated all 18,000 personnel from its offshore oil installations in the Gulf of Mexico causing a production drop of two million barrels day.

On land, more than 10,000 people were ordered to leave their low-lying homes in Tuxpan alone. Residents along rivers likely to break their banks were also told to head to emergency shelters.

In Nautla, a small community near the area where the hurricane was expected to hit land, residents prepared to ride out the storm in an emergency shelter set up in a sports center.

Power in Nautla was cut off as a precaution ahead of the anticipated landfall as driving rain and strong winds lashed the area.

In nearby San Rafael, many residents anticipating major flooding moved their furniture to the upper floors of their homes before heading to emergency shelters set up by authorities.

Herrera declared a state of emergency in 89 Veracruz municipalities, saying a total of 3.5 million people were potentially at risk.

A 10:00 am (1500 GMT), the center of the hurricane was located 125 kilometers (75 miles) east-southeast of Tuxpan.

It regained a little of its lost strength, with maximum sustained winds at 160 kilometers (miles) per hour, but wasn't expected to draw much more power before it hits land, forecasters said.

When it hit the Caribbean coast on Tuesday, Hurricane Dean packed maximum sustained winds of 270 kilometers (165 miles) per hour, which ranked it at the topmost category five on the Saffir-Simpson scale.

It was the first Atlantic hurricane to make landfall at that intensity since Andrew ravaged Florida in 1992.

Despite its initial power, there were no reports of fatalities after Dean hit land in a sparsely populated area Tuesday, crossed the Yucatan Peninsula and swirled over the Gulf of Mexico.

It flooded some areas, shattered windows, destroyed bus shelters, uprooted trees and caused power outages. But there were none of the catastrophic damages initially feared, and the storm spared Cancun and other major tourist resorts along Mexico's Caribbean coast.

Mexican President Felipe Calderon was in the Yucatan Peninsula yesterday to survey the damage, after expressing concern over the fate of isolated and impoverished indigenous communities along the storm's path.

Authorities in neighboring Belize said the small Central American country did suffer some damage to buildings, but did not report any deaths.

Before it hit Mexico, Hurricane Dean was blamed for four deaths in Haiti, two in the Dominican Republic, two in Martinique and one in Jamaica.