BELIZE CITY: Tropical Storm Earl whipped Belize and Mexico's Caribbean coast with wind and heavy rain, battering cars, disrupting transportation and forcing hundreds into shelters as it moved through Guatemala toward southeastern Mexico on Thursday.
Some flights to the Mexican seaside resort Chetumal and from the city of Campeche were canceled because of Earl, which smashed car windows and punched holes in the roofs of Belize City's wooden houses, downed trees and flooded parts of the coastline.
"It was a whole lot scarier than I thought," said Philip Gray, a church member from Birmingham, Alabama, who was staying in Belize City. "The wind was very, very strong, we saw the air conditioners on the roof coming apart so very dangerous." Earl had been a hurricane overnight, but rapidly weakened over high ground as dawn broke, the US National Hurricane Center (NHC) said. Mexico's government ended storm warnings, and rain-triggered floods or landslides were considered the main risk going forward.
At 1200 GMT, Earl had maximum sustained winds of 65 miles per hour (105 km per hour), churning about 90 miles (145 km) west of Belize City, the NHC said. Late Wednesday, more than 1,000 people were in shelters in Belize City, according to Philip Willoughby, who was in charge of the city's emergency management. Dozens of people were also evacuated in the Honduras on Wednesday, the government said.
The damage to Belize City was concentrated in impoverished areas, and residents were seen early in the day attempting repairs amid the flood waters.
Some 35 families were evacuated from the southern part of the Mexican state of Quintana Roo, chiefly in Banco Chinchorro, an atoll off the coast from Chetumal, Pedro Santos, a local emergency services official, said by telephone.
Mexican airline Interjet canceled six flights to and from Chetumal on Wednesday and Thursday. The airline TAR said it had called off some flights from Campeche.
As it moves west, Earl was expected to weaken to a tropical depression later Thursday, the NHC said. Mexican national oil company Pemex said Wednesday night it was monitoring Earl but had not evacuated workers at oil platforms concentrated in the southern Gulf of Mexico.
Earl, the fifth named storm of the 2016 season, was expected to bring 8 to 12 inches (20-30 cm) of rain in parts of Belize, Guatemala and southern and western Mexico through Friday morning, the Miami-based NHC said in a statement.
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