Powerful hurricane Emily tears toward Mexico

[HenryTo]

Quote from a paragraph towards the end of the article: "With the sea set to be badly whipped up, state oil monopoly Pemex, a major supplier to the United States, shut 63 oil wells in the southern Gulf of Mexico, west of Yucatan, and evacuated some 15,000 nonessential workers from offshore oil rigs."
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Powerful hurricane Emily tears toward Mexico

By Anahi Rama
CANCUN, Mexico (Reuters) - Mexico was braced for one of its worst storms in years as violent Hurricane Emily howled toward popular Caribbean resorts around Cancun on Sunday, packing winds of up to 155 mph.

The second major hurricane of the season, arriving just days after Hurricane Dennis ripped through Cuba and Florida, Emily was due to pass over the tiny Cayman Islands early Sunday and smash into Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula during the evening.

Tourists look out at the Caribbean Sea in the Mexican seaside resort town of Cancun July 16, 2005, as Hurricane Emily approaches. Thousands of sun seekers abandoned the palm-fringed Caribbean beaches around Cancun, Mexico, on Saturday, and local fishermen fled for cover as powerful Hurricane Emily headed toward the coast. (REUTERS/Henry Romero)
As it tore westward through the Caribbean, forecasters said Emily was on the verge of blowing into a rare and deadly Category 5 hurricane on the five-step scale of intensity, a level of storm capable of destroying buildings.

With local authorities on standby to evacuate the entire Yucatan coast if necessary, some 40,000 tourists were due to leave the area early on Sunday, many taking the last flights out of Cancun as airlines began packing up.

Some 30,000 tourists fled the day before, out of a total of 130,000 holidaymakers initially in the state of Quintana Roo.

Cancun was in turmoil on Saturday night as thousands of tourists evacuated from the resort islands of Isla Mujeres and Cozumel, or brought in from flimsy cabana resorts further down the coast, fought over rooms in sturdy hotels.

"I'm not happy about this situation," complained American pilot Roland Perr as he was turned away by the third Cancun hotel in a row, after being brought to shore from the backpacker paradise of Isla Mujeres earlier in the day.

He planned to head south to Central America with his wife first thing on Sunday to finish their vacation.

Tourists unable to leave the area were told to relocate on Sunday to 25 Cancun hotels inland from the coast and earmarked as being the most likely to withstand hurricane-force winds.

Local business owners were wincing at the thought of the damage Emily could do to a local economy that is one of the richest in Mexico thanks to a year-round influx of tourists.

Emily skirted past Jamaica some 100 miles (160 km) off the south coast but the torrential rains and howling winds trailing it were easily enough to trigger flooding and mudslides.

LULL BEFORE THE STORM

Cancun was still only feeling a light breeze as the city went to bed on Saturday night. Some locals had no idea a hurricane was approaching until reporters told them.

But coastal fishing communities were evacuated early on Saturday and almost all the tourists on Isla Mujeres and the upscale scuba-diving island of Cozumel were brought inland.

As local radio broadcast the hurricane warning, shops and bars boarded up windows, thousands of troops were on standby for rescue drills, and schools and sports centers were converted into emergency shelters with space for tens of thousands of people.

Local people piled into supermarkets to stock up on canned food and water and health authorities stockpiled medicine to treat possible infections caused by flooding. Motorists lined up for fuel, fearing a disruption to supplies.

Long-term residents feared a repeat of Hurricane Gilberto, which tore up Cancun in 1988, razing homes and scarring beaches. The worst hurricane since then was Isidore, which washed away beach huts, cut off power and destroyed swathes of jungle and mangroves in the Yucatan in 2002.

Cancun's concrete hotels are mostly able to resist high winds, but thousands of Mexicans in the area live in ramshackle homes and the flat terrain offers little resistance to storms.

With the sea set to be badly whipped up, state oil monopoly Pemex, a major supplier to the United States, shut 63 oil wells in the southern Gulf of Mexico, west of Yucatan, and evacuated some 15,000 nonessential workers from offshore oil rigs.

The closures will hold back a quarter of daily output, although no shipments have been canceled, Pemex said.

Tiny Belize, which borders the Yucatan Peninsula to the south and is known for its laid-back island resorts, upgraded its alert late on Saturday to a tropical storm warning.

[HenryTo]

An update on Hurricane Emily:
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Emily expected to miss key U.S.oil rigs

Shell Oil has shut in some oil and gas production, hurricane veering from U.S. gulf oil production.
July 17, 2005: 7:12 PM EDT

HOUSTON (Reuters) - While meteorologists over the weekend adjusted Hurricane Emily's forecast track away from the heart of U.S. Gulf of Mexico oil and natural gas production areas, Shell Oil Co. said on Sunday it had shut in some natural gas and oil production.

Shell said daily production of about 20 million cubic feet (MMCF) and 1,000 barrels of oil was shut and its North Padre, Brazos and West Cameron operations in the far western Gulf were completely evacuated, according to a statement.

The U.S. unit of the Royal Dutch/Shell Group of Companies said it was evacuating workers from the central Gulf on Sunday. As of Saturday, Shell had pulled 456 non-essential workers from the Gulf.

BP Plc (Research), Kerr McGee Corp. (Research) and ConocoPhillips (Research) also airlifted some nonessential workers out of the Gulf over the weekend.

Total Gulf crude oil production averaged 1.7 million bpd, while natural gas output was about 12.3 billion cubic feet per day in 2003.

The Gulf accounts for about 25 percent of U.S. oil and natural gas supply.

Late on Sunday, Emily had 145 mph sustained winds, earning it a Category 4 on the Saffir-Simpson scale of one to five.

Mexican state oil monopoly Pemex evacuated 15,000 offshore workers and shut about 480,000 barrels of crude per day as the storm approached its southwestern Gulf of Mexico breadbasket.

Because Emily has spun through important shipping zones, traders said they expect South American crude deliveries to the United States to be disrupted temporarily.

As of 5 p.m. EDT (2100 GMT) on Sunday, Emily was in the western Caribbean Sea, driving at 20 mph toward Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula. The eye was expected to strike late Sunday or early Monday, then emerge in the Gulf later Monday.

The storm's southerly position was good news for BP, which used the relative calm 150 miles off the shore of Louisiana to continue righting the Thunder Horse platform.

Crews found the $1 billion structure listing 20 degrees when they returned after Hurricane Dennis knifed through the Gulf a week ago. Workers had reduced the platform's list to about five degrees as of Sunday afternoon, BP said.

One of the busiest tropical storm seasons in history already has haunted the U.S. offshore just one summer after Hurricane Ivan caused record output losses.

Tropical storms Arlene and Cindy, as well as Hurricane Dennis all have threatened production so far. None, however, caused much lingering damage.