Hurricane Dean, a huge Category 5 storm, lashed Mexico's Caribbean coast on Monday with howling winds and driving rain that hit beach resorts where thousands of tourists huddled in shelters.
Seas churned as the storm, which has left a trail of destruction and killed 11 people so far on its rampage through the Caribbean, began to strike Mexico's "Mayan Riviera" hotel strip.
Tourists squeezed into a hotel serving as a shelter for 400 people in the Playa del Carmen resort, with as many as 12 people sharing some rooms.
"We could be two or three days without water or electricity," said Italian vacationer Emanuela Beriola, 41, who stockpiled tinned meat, energy drinks and cans of tuna fish.
Category 5 hurricanes -- the strongest possible -- are rare but there were four in 2005, including Katrina, which devastated New Orleans. The higher number of powerful storms in recent years has reinforced research that suggests global warming may increase the strength of tropical cyclones.
Out to sea, Dean was packing winds of around 160 mph (256 kph), and the eye of the storm was 150 miles (240 km) from the shore.
Some visitors were unfazed before the worst of the storm. "I am very calm. It's fun," said French tourist Sylvie Salei.
Dean was due to make landfall in a marshy zone near Mexico's border with Belize early on Tuesday. Troops and police patrolled the area to enforce a curfew declared by the state government.
Store owners boarded up windows along the east coast of the Yucatan Peninsula, a strip of beach resorts with white sands and turquoise seas that is yet to fully recover from the devastation of Hurricane Wilma in 2005.
Wilma, the strongest Atlantic storm recorded, wrecked Cancun and other beach resorts. It washed away whole beaches, killed seven people and caused $2.6 billion in damages.
