Ernesto hits Yucatan Peninsula

Hurricane Ernesto moved across Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula early Wednesday, bashing the region with punishing winds, U.S. forecasters said. In its 2 a.m. advisory, the National Hurricane Center in Miami said the Category 1 hurricane was centered about 20 miles north of Chetumal, Mexico and 160 miles east-southeast of Campeche, Mexico. Ernesto had eased up only slightly, with sustained winds 80 miles per hour, down from 85 earlier in the night before it made landfall, the hurricane center said. The forecasters said a hurricane warning was in effect from Chetumal to Tulum along the east coast of the Yucatan Peninsula, as well as for Cozumel and the coast of Belize from Belize City north to the Mexican border. A hurricane watch was in place from Barra de Nautla to Punta el Lagarto, Mexico. A tropical storm warning was ordered from north of Tulum to Cabo Catoche on the east cost of the Yucatan, south of Belize City southward to the Guatemalan border, and from Celestun southward and westward to Chilitepec along the Gulf Coast. A tropical storm watch was in effect for north of Barra de Nautla to Tuxpan, Mexico. Ernesto was heading west at about 15 mph and forecasters said the storm was expected to stay on that path for the next day or so, emerging over the Bay of Campeche Wednesday afternoon. While Ernesto was expected to weaken some as it passed over the peninsula Wednesday morning, it was expected to regain power once it gets back out over open water, forecasters said. Ernesto was pushing hurricane-force winds out 35 miles from its eye and tropical storm-force gales up to 175 miles. Rainfall associated with the storm was to range from just a few inches to up to a foot in some areas of Belize, the Yucatan Peninsula and northern Guatemala. Flash floods, mudslides and dangerous storm surges are possible throughout the region, forecasters said.