Mexican evacuations start as Dean looms

CANCUN, Mexico, Aug 18 (Reuters) Authorities began evacuating residents of the Mexican Caribbean today and tourists in Cancun cleared supermarket shelves as the second ferocious hurricane in two years neared the luxury resort.

Hurricane Dean, which is on the verge of becoming a rare Category 5 storm, was expected to strike the Yucatan Peninsula late on Monday or early on Tuesday, according to the US National Hurricane Center.

It has already killed at least three people in the Caribbean on its way toward Jamaica and the Gulf of Mexico.

Mexican navy and army officers evacuated some 3,000 people from small Caribbean islands including Holbox and Punta Allen and helped fishing communities to shelters.

On the island of Cozumel, one of world's top scuba diving destinations, residents boarded up their windows and pulled boats out of the water. Tourists lined up to get flights out.

''We are not taking any chances with Hurricane Dean,'' Felix Gonzalez, governor for Cozumel and Cancun's Quintana Roo state, told reporters.

But with the sun still shining and people on the beach, hotel owners, local officials and embassy representatives in Cancun said they would wait until Dean passed over Jamaica on Sunday before deciding when to move some 40,000 tourists.

''We are ready to be evacuated if necessary,'' said Marvin Sarkowski, a postal worker from Memphis on holiday in Cancun.

Airlines and local officials called on the 40,000 tourists due to arrive in Cancun this weekend to postpone their visit.

PORTS STILL OPEN Mexico's Gulf ports were open today. State oil company Pemex said its operations in the Gulf of Mexico were normal and it would not take any decisions to evacuate staff until later in the weekend.

Royal Dutch Shell and ConocoPhillips said they were removing workers from their Gulf facilities on Saturday because of Dean.

Tourists and local residents in Cancun stocked up on food and water, emptying the shelves at some stores.

''I came to see what I could get, but there's not much left in the supermarket,'' said Jorge Sanchez, 48, an airport worker shopping at a Wal-Mart store in Cancun.

Quintana Roo and the neighboring Yucatan state issued storm alerts on local radio in Spanish, English and the local indigenous language Maya, while Mexico's national rescue service said it had some 1,500 shelters ready in the two states.

Cancun is still recovering from Hurricane Wilma, a Category 4 storm on the five-step Saffir-Simpson intensity scale that hit in October 2005 and killed at least seven people.

Wilma howled over Cancun and nearby Cozumel Island for two days, sucking away entire white sand beaches, stranding tens of thousands of tourists and causing hundreds of millions of dollars in damages and lost revenues.

Reuters SZ VP0338