Hurricane Emily Forced Heavy Evacuation of Tourists in Cancun, Playa del Carmen

Hurricane Emily slammed into Mexico´s Yucatan Peninsula early Monday as a powerful Category 4 storm, snapping concrete utility poles with its winds of 135 mph and punishing waves along the region´s famous white-sand beaches.

The National Hurricane Center in Miami said Emily made landfall near Tulum, 100 miles south of Cancun. The northern eye wall, where the worst weather would be expected passed directly over Cozumel, it said.

The hurricane knocked out power and phone service to much of Mexico´s famous Riviera Maya coastline, where tourists rode out the storm in sweltering, makeshift shelters set up in schools and hotel ballrooms.

In Cancun, hundreds of buses moved more than 25,000 people, mostly tourists, to temporary shelters on Sunday, evacuating them from hotels and low-lying seaside neighborhoods in Cancun being battered by strong waves.

They were among the nearly 60,000 tourists being evacuated statewide from resorts like Tulum, Playa de Carmen and Cozumel. Cancun´s airport closed Sunday afternoon after thousands lined up at ticket counters, trying to get flights out before the storm hit.

Hundreds of mostly foreign tourists lay shoulder-to-shoulder on thin foam pads in a sweltering gymnasium near the center of Cancun. They were given free bottled water and sandwiches, but many gasped when a hard rain rattled the metal roof of the building.

Beach erosion has long been a problem for Cancun, and waves were starting to lap almost at the doorsteps of some hotels.