Tourists Evacuated as Hurricane Emily Nears Mexican Coast

Mexico also launched a large-scale evacuation of offshore oil platforms, ordering 15,000 workers off rigs in the Gulf of Mexico and leaving less than 1,000 attendants behind. The state-owned Pemex oil company said the move included closing 63 wells and halting the production of 480,000 barrels of oil per day.

Emily is expected to cross over the Yucatan peninsula and re-emerge in the gulf Monday. The hurricane is then expected to cross the gulf and hit Mexico again — this time near the U.S. border — later in the week.

On its passage through the Caribbean, Emily’s winds ravaged hundreds of homes on the island of Grenada, destroyed crops and killed at least one man whose home was buried under a landslide.

AP via NYT