By Fabiola Sánchez - The Associated Press
TULUM, Mexico - Category 1 Hurricane Grace made landfall early Thursday in the Mexican Caribbean, just south of the ancient Mayan temples of Tulum, triggering a dangerous storm surge warning and high winds.
Torrential rains and strong winds threatened to destroy the most fragile homes and prevent tourists from stepping on its white sand beaches as it crossed the Yucatan Peninsula.
The phenomenon had already unloaded its rains on Haiti - days after suffering a devastating earthquake - Jamaica and the Cayman Islands en route to a direct impact on the Riviera Maya, the heart of Mexico's tourism industry.
[How to prepare for a hurricane?]
Grace's vortex made landfall just south of Tulum at 4:45 a.m. with maximum sustained winds 80 miles per hour (130 kilometers per hour), according to the United States National Hurricane Center (NHC, for its acronym in English).
The state of Quintana Roo opened shelters and evacuated some hotels that were already residents before Grace's arrival.
The hurricane bypassed Cozumel, a popular cruise destination, and downtown Playa del Carmen, which is often full of music and parties, looked eerily desolate Wednesday night.
The authorities ordered the closure of all businesses and a curfew starting at 8 pm.
[The updated hurricane forecast for this season foresees up to 21 storms]
One exception was Axel Félix, a 37-year-old pizza delivery man who did his last delivery of the night in a raincoat.
“Now I'm going home and she doesn't go out until tomorrow.
You have to take care of yourself and lock yourself in the house, "he said.
Another was Juan González, a 25-year-old student who was walking his dog.
"In the house we will all be calm, with food, waiting to see what happens and with protection on the windows," he explained.
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With little standing in the way of the peninsula, Grace is expected to weaken slightly before regaining hurricane strength in the Gulf of Mexico to make landfall in the country again later this week.
The governor of Quintana Roo, Carlos Joaquín González, pointed out that the authorities evacuated hotels that were not prepared to withstand hurricanes and called for the suspension of the sale of alcohol in the region from 5 pm.
Some airlines canceled their flights to the peninsula.
[A drone travels through the most devastated areas after the powerful earthquake in Haiti]
On Tulum's main avenue, tourists in plastic raincoats walked through puddles as the winds intensified.
On the beach, the tide was rising and bathers sought shelter from the sand blown by the wind.
Armed soldiers and sailors in pickup trucks patrolled the city streets.
Businesses began to wall up the windows and queues formed at grocery stores to purchase staples.
Tourists sunbathe on the beach before the arrival of Hurricane Grace, in Cancun, in the state of Quintana Roo, Mexico, on August 18, 2021.AP Photo / Marco Ugarte
"We are taking precautions, making some purchases, such as milk, sugar, water and cookies, because we do not know how long we should be locked up," said Adamaris García, a 21-year-old housewife who was in a line of dozens of people in a small shop.
Some tourists worried about a missed day at the beach on their vacation and others were preparing for their first experience with a hurricane.
Johanna Geys, from Munich, Germany, was having a beer in Tulum on Wednesday afternoon.
It is the first time he has visited Mexico and his first hurricane.
[The rains in Haiti have been a 'coup de grace' for the people who were already dying from an earthquake]
"We don't know what it's like," said Geys, a 28-year-old waitress, although people have told her it won't be bad.
As she left a store with some products, Sarah Lynch, a 25-year-old law student in California, noted that she was not overly concerned.
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“We have additional water.
We are prepared for the hurricane and we are just going to adapt to the storm and see what happens, ”Lynch said.
“It's a bit scary because it is something unknown
, but other than that we are fine.
We have survived COVID-19, "he said.
To the north, in Cancun, some fishermen moved their boats away from the shore to protect them.
“Last year they grabbed us like this (without preparing) because the information they give is sometimes not correct and sometimes we endure (the storms),” commented one of them, Carlos Canché González.
“But I don't think it will get worse.
Already last year the experience we have, because if it worsens or not, we have to save the team.
That is what we live on, we have been fishermen for many years ”, he explained.
[Hospitals overflow after the earthquake in Haiti. There are wounded waiting for help in the streets]
"For one as a tourist, this hurricane is very negative, because we all have activities scheduled for certain days and that one is canceled because it damages our vacations," said Keny Sifuentes, a 19-year-old Colombian who traveled to Cancun with his family.
State authorities said that, as of last week, the region was hosting about 130,000 tourists and that hotels were occupied at more than half capacity despite the coronavirus pandemic.