Ernesto Starts Across Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula
Ernesto spun inland over Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula early Wednesday while hundreds of fishermen who fled low-lying villages for shelters and tourists evacuated from resorts to inland hotels hunkered down for a stormy night.
Ernesto hit the peninsula as a hurricane with sustained winds of 85 mph (140 kph) when it swept over the shore town of Mahuahal shortly before midnight Tuesday and moved into a sparsely populated coastal region, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said. It had weakened to a tropical storm by early Wednesday with winds near 70 mph (110 kph), but was expected to regain hurricane strength when its centered emerged over the Bay of Campeche.