Hurricane Dean weakened Tuesday as it began sweeping over the Mexican mainland, with meteorologists lowering its strength to category 3 from the previous category 5, DPA. Wind speeds were measured at 205 kilometres per hour as Dean moved westwards, significantly lower than the 300 kilometres per hour reported when the hurricane first struck land, the US National Hurricane Centre reported. The hurricane had hit the mainland at a point around 55 kilometres north-east of the town of Chetumal, which borders Belize. Meteorologists expect the hurricane to cross back over the Yucatan peninsula and back into the Gulf of Mexico before then once again striking the Mexican mainland on Thursday. At least 12 people have died since Dean began dropping heavy rains Saturday on Haiti and the Dominican Republic and moved across the Lesser Antilles, Santa Lucia, Martinique, Dominica and Jamaica. Mexico's state-owned oil company, Petroleos de Mexico, said late Monday it was evacuating about 18,000 of its workers from its offshore oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico, cutting off most of the country's oil production, the BBC reported. Tens of thousands of foreign tourists evacuated the beaches of Mexico's Mayan Riviera as the storm threatened the ancient ruins as well as offshore oil installations in the Yucatan Peninsula The US National Hurricane Centre upgraded Dean to a Category 5 storm - the highest level - Monday night, calling it a "potentially catastrophic" hurricane and urging all preparations along the coast to be "rushed to completion." Mexico's federal government has declared a state of emergency for 106 municipalities of the Yucatan, including the famed tourist resorts of Cancun, Playa del Carmen and Tulum y Cozumel.
