Hurricane Keith Reaches Mexico, Belize

Oct. 1 -- Heavy rains and winds pounded parts of Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula, swelling streams and rivers and flooding thousands of homes, as Hurricane Keith came ashore.

At 4 p.m. ET, Keith was 50 miles south-southeast of Chetumal, Mexico, and 40 miles northeast of Belize City. Belize is a small country tucked just below Mexico’s Yucatan pennisula, north of Honduras and west of the Carribean Sea.

“Half of the circulation of this hurricane is over land and half over sea,” said Jamie Rhome, a meteorologist with the Miami-based National Hurricane Center. “For the next 12 hours we expect little motion as it slowly drifts northwest.”  

Keith dropped from a Category 4 Hurricane to a Category 3 today, but it was still packing winds of 125 mph.

In southeastern Mexico, officials scrambled to evacuate 5,000 people from low-lying areas in the city of Chetumal on the Yucatan peninsula, while the small carribean country of Belize also prepared to feel the brunt of the storm.

In Mexico, Setting up Shelters

Authorities in Mexico prepared for the worst, setting up 15 shelters andevacuating 800 people from high-risk areas in the region of 200,000people, which includes Chetumal, about 190 miles south of Cancun.

Maria de la Cruz, from the nearby community of Izcalac,abandoned her shack Saturday with her husband, five children andfour other relatives.

“They told us it’s going to hit hard,” said De la Cruz, one of 217 area residents sleeping at a school in Chetumal. “Thank God we have some place to go.”

Others stocked up on bottled water, groceries, flash lights, andsupplies. Hotels taped up their windows.

In southeastern Mexico, families waded down the streets in ankle-deep water. Others rode their bikes through the pounding rain, while old men drankcoffee along a covered sidewalk.

Forecasters warned of possible flash floods and mudslides,although the slow-moving hurricane was expected to weaken as itdrifted farther inland.