Hurricane Rina aimed at Mexico resorts

CANCUN, Mexico -- Tourists fleeing Hurricane Rina crowded Cancun's airport Wednesday even as the cyclone lost some of its punch while heading toward Mexico's resort-studded Caribbean coast.

Rina is forecast to remain a hurricane as it sweeps along Mexico's most popular tourist destinations of Cancun, Cozumel and the Riviera Maya, on Thursday, though forecasters predicted it would be downgraded to a tropical storm upon hitting land south of Cancun late Thursday night.

Lines snaked from ticket counters in the crowded Cancun airport as jumbo airliners headed to Canada and Europe waited in pouring rain. Many travelers said they had already scheduled to leave Wednesday. But Janet Gallo, 41, of New York City decided to cut short her five-day trip to the town of Playa del Carmen.

"At the hotel, they told us they would make a decision whether to evacuate later today, but we didn't want to wait. We would rather be home when it hits," Gallo said.

Authorities evacuated some fishing communities and closed schools along the coast of Mexico'sYucatan Peninsula, and NASA cut short an undersea laboratory mission near Key Largo, Florida, bringing the crew back to land.

Mexican civil protection officials evacuated some 1,800 people in Holbox, an island off the coast where the Caribbean meets the Gulf of Mexico, and the federal government closed the archeological sites that dot the coastline.

Ports were closed to navigation for recreational, fishing and small boats in the state of Quintana Roo, home to Cancun, and neighboring Yucatan state, while the island of Cozumel was closed to larger vessels, including the ferry that connects the island and Playa del Carmen.

Some tourists decided to wait it out. Erin and Mickey Carolan of Grand Rapids, Michigan, were among a dozen people strolling Cancun's giant Kulkulcan shopping mall Wednesday afternoon, where most of the stores were already boarded up. They said they planned to return to the hotel by the required 3 p.m. curfew to begin sheltering from the storm.

"We could go to the airport and get stuck there, or we could stay at the hotel where there's food and water," said Erin Carolan, 24, adding that the couple had come to Cancun to celebrate their first wedding anniversary.

Area residents were also preparing for Rina. Luh McDevitt, 56, a furniture and interior designer in Cozumel, said her family was fitting hurricane shutters to the house and securing furniture.

"I am not really scared," said the Cincinnati, Ohio, native who has lived in Cozumel since 2000. "Hurricane Andrew in 1992 was a Category 5. The worst part of the hurricane is after. We didn't have electric in our house for three weeks."

Rina's maximum sustained winds dropped to 85 mph (135 kph) Wednesday afternoon, down from 110 mph (175 kph) earlier in the day. It was about 170 miles (275 kilometers) south-southeast of the island of Cozumel, and was moving to the west- northwest at about 6 mph (9 kph).

Jorge Arturo Cruz, spokesman for the education department in Quintana Roo state, said schools were closed in communities along the coast and in Cozumel in anticipation of the storm.

The Mexican government also announced it was sending nearly 2,400 electrical workers, plus cranes, vehicles and generators to repair and maintain services as quickly as possible after the storm.

Soldiers, marines and state police had arrived in Punta Allen on Tuesday to evacuate about 275 residents and take them to a storm shelter at a middle school. About 500 people are expected to be evacuated there in total, according to Quintana Roo state Civil Defense Director Luis Carlos Rodriguez.

The coastal area around Tulum is dotted with Mayan ruins, and further north is Playa del Carmen, another popular spot for international tourists and the departure point for ferries serving Cozumel.

State Tourism Director Juan Carlos Gonzalez Hernandez said about 83,000 tourists were in the state, with about 45,000 on a stretch of coast south of Cancun that includes Tulum and Playa de Carmen, and almost 28,000 in Cancun.

Gonzalez Hernandez said 1,719 tourists were in Cozumel, and many of them were leaving.

At least eight cruise ships were changing itineraries away from the storm's path, said Carnival Cruise Lines spokesman Vance Gulliksen.

The area was badly damaged by Hurricane Wilma in 2005, when Cancun's famous white-sand beaches were largely washed away. Insurance officials estimated total damage at $3 billion.

A hurricane warning is in effect for the east coast of the Yucatan Peninsula from north of Punta Gruesa to San Felipe on the Gulf coast.

A tropical storm warning is in effect farther south on the peninsula from Chetumal to Punta Gruesa and west of San Felipe to Progreso.

The projected track shows Rina curving east toward Cuba and the Straits of Florida by early next week, though the Hurricane Center cautioned "there is great uncertainty as to where Rina will be located by the weekend."

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Associated Press writer Adriana Gomez Licon in Mexico City contributed to this story.