Hurricane Delta gains strength and makes its way to the Gulf of Mexico

Hurricane Delta as it passes through the Caribbean, in a satellite image taken this Tuesday.HANDOUT / AFP

Tropical storm Delta gains strength in the Caribbean and has reached hurricane category two this Tuesday morning, as reported by the National Hurricane Center (NHC) of the United States.

After passing through Cuba and the Cayman Islands this Monday, the storm is approaching the southeast coast of Mexico with sustained winds of 160 kilometers per hour, a power that is growing rapidly, according to weather reports.

Delta threatens to hit the Yucatan Peninsula this Wednesday morning, already turned into a hurricane "of extremely dangerous conditions", according to the NHC, before continuing its passage through the Gulf of Mexico towards the southeastern United States.

"A further rapid strengthening is expected for this Tuesday and Delta is forecast to be a hurricane of great intensity when it approaches the Yucatan Peninsula," the NHC reported in its bulletin this Tuesday morning.

Delta went from being a storm to a category two hurricane on Monday, when it practically doubled in power, and the North American observatory predicts that the cyclone will grow even more in intensity to reach winds of up to 185 kilometers per hour when it reaches the east coast. of Mexico as a category four hurricane.

The National Meteorological Service of Mexico, for its part, expects the storm to make landfall in the State of Quintana Roo between the early hours and the morning of this Wednesday.

The storm has authorities in southeastern Mexico on edge.

According to the NHC report, the center of the hurricane is 710 kilometers from Cancun, and could impact the city of Puerto Morelos, 40 kilometers south of the capital of Quintana Roo, at two in the morning of this Wednesday.

The governor of the State, Carlos Joaquín González, has issued the orange alert for the coastal cities of Solidaridad, Cozumel, Puerto Morelos, Isla Mujeres, Lázaro Cárdenas, Benito Juárez and Tulum, and has prohibited the sale of alcoholic beverages in these tourist centers " until the weather conditions allow it ”.

The #AlertaNaranja is issued due to the approach of the #Delta category 2 hurricane for Tulum, Solidaridad, Cozumel, Puerto Morelos, Benito Juárez, Isla Mujeres and Lázaro Cárdenas.

#AlertaAmarilla: Felipe Carrillo Puerto and José Ma. Morelos.

#AlertaVerde: Othón P. Blanco and Bacalar.

pic.twitter.com/zTTFAeocrp

- Carlos Joaquín (@CarlosJoaquin) October 6, 2020

In his morning conference every day, the Mexican president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, has reported that he will send 5,000 troops from the National Navy to the peninsula as a "support team" to face the contingency.

“According to projections, the hurricane is going to hit harder until the night.

We have all day to prevent and heed the recommendations, ”said the Mexican president.

Delta is the 26th named storm in an unusually active hurricane season in the Atlantic.

If the hurricane makes landfall, it will become the 10th tropical cyclone of the season, breaking the mark of nine that did so in 2016. According to NHC monitoring, the hurricane would reach the southern United States between Thursday night and Friday morning at a still undetermined point in the States of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi or Alabama.