Hurricane Wilma batters Mexico's Yukatan

Mexico City (dpa) - Hurricane Wilma inched toward Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula early Friday and battered the region with high winds and rains.
The storm, which packs winds of 230 kilometres per hour, has begun pounding the popular tourist destinations near Cancun, including the island of Cozumel, and is expected to make landfall in the area later Friday.

Max Mayfield, director of the Miami-based National Hurricane Center, said Wilma could cause ''catastrophic damage''. Because the storm is slow moving, it is expected to linger over the area longer, adding to the destruction normally caused by such a high-intensity storm. Wilma is inching northwest at a mere seven kilometres per hour.

The storm is expected to douse the region with massive rainfall of up to 50 centimetres and could bring battering waves and storm tides of up to 3.3 metres. Rainfall of up to 100 centimetres is possible in some regions, the National Hurricane Center said.

The Mexican government ordered evacuations Thursday for 18,000 residents of Isla Mujeres, located in the Gulf of Mexico near the tourist hotspot of Cancun.

Cozumel hotels were evacuated, while hotels in Cancun were discussing the situation with government officials, who had imposed an evacuation order late Wednesday.

The same region was hit in July when Hurricane Emily slammed into Yucatan.

After hitting Mexico, Wilma was expected to turn to the northeast and head for Florida, reaching the U.S. mainland Monday. Officials have ordered mandatory evacuations of the Florida Keys for non-residents and those living in trailers. Evacuations of residents are also likely.

Earlier forecasts had predicted that Wilma would not make landfall until reaching Florida, but a new computer model had the storm hitting near Cancun. dpa re vo