Hurricane Delta leaves "minimal damage" in its first hours over Mexico

A tourist walks through the rubble caused by Hurricane Delta in Cancun, this Wednesday.Alonso Cupul / EFE

Hurricane Delta made landfall this Wednesday at 5.30 in the morning, in the municipality of Puerto Morelos, on the northeastern tip of the Yucatan Peninsula.

Puerto Morelos, halfway between Cancun and Playa del Carmen, was the gateway to the worst hurricane in the Mexican Caribbean since 2005, when Wilma left at least eight dead in the Yucatan peninsula and 47 total deaths in the Caribbean.

Delta reached the Mexican coast as a Category 2 hurricane, with winds of 175 kilometers per hour.

The authorities have not yet reported deaths, but the phenomenon has put 66 of the 117 municipalities in the states of Quintana Roo and Yucatán on red alert due to hurricane force winds.

It has also left half of Cancun and Cozumel, major tourist destinations, without electricity.

In the most recent report, the United States National Hurricane Center (NHC, for its acronym in English), warns that the eye of the hurricane remains with maximum sustained winds of 155 kilometers per hour 45 kilometers from the municipality of Dzilam del Bravo, at the northern tip of the Yucatan peninsula.

The Meteorological Service of Mexico warns that "its wide circulation causes very heavy rains with intense punctuals accompanied by electric shocks, strong gusts of winds and high waves".

The storm that accompanies the hurricane has caused, so far, "minimal damage" in the coastal cities of the peninsula.

Holbox Island has been completely evacuated and at least 35,000 people have been displaced, especially in the hotel areas of Cancun, Playa del Carmen and Puerto Morelos.

Now, the center of the #Huracán #Delta is located over the # GolfoDeMéxico 45 km northeast of Dzilam and 110 km east-northeast of Progreso, both locations in # Yucatán.

It has #Maximum sustained winds of 155 km / h and #Gaves of 185 km / h.

https://t.co/iGFK4kaRaU pic.twitter.com/sdjCpAPu4H

- CONAGUA Climate (@conagua_clima) October 7, 2020

The authorities of the State of Quintana Roo expect Delta to pass through the State in 10 or 14 hours.

"Let's hope it doesn't hurt us so much," Quintana Roo Governor Carlos Joaquín González said in a radio interview about the hurricane's loss of speed when it reached the coast.

According to the NHC, the level 2 hurricane will strengthen once it enters the Gulf of Mexico and may reach category 4 again before hitting the southern United States between this Thursday and Friday.

Delta has caused rains to the north of Quintana Roo and to the east of Yucatan, and strong winds and waves of up to nine meters high have been reported in both states.

The Government of Quintana Roo has lowered the alert to orange in the municipalities of Tulum, Solidaridad, Cozumel, Puerto Morelos, Isla Mujeres, Benito Juárez and Lázaro Cárdenas, but the authorities have asked that the population remain alert.

This hurricane season has been one of the busiest on record.

Tropical storms are named - according to the order of appearance - according to the first 22 letters of the Latin alphabet.

Last month, with the formation of Storm Wilfred, meteorologists sold out the denominations and moved on to the next resource: the Greek alphabet.

Delta is the second cyclone named in this way, after the appearance of the subtropical storm Alpha last May.

Before this year, meteorologists had turned to the Greek alphabet only once, in 2015, when the season running from June to November saw a total of 28 storms.