Hurricane Dean strengthens off Mexican coast

VERACRUZ, Mexico, Aug 22 (Reuters) Hurricane Dean picked up strength and raced through southern Gulf of Mexico, slamming wild winds and roaring seas against oil platforms that produce crude for the United States.

Dean dumped heavy rain on the historic port city of Veracruz, where most stores and restaurants on the shore were shut. Hotel workers taped up windows against the screaming winds from the now moderate Category 2 hurricane.

The storm, which roughed up Mayan villages and tourist sites on a run across the Yucatan Peninsula yesterday, passed through the Campeche Sound where Mexico has several hundred oil wells and installations that have been evacuated.

State oil company Pemex said it would send teams out to sea to check on possible damage once Dean, packing winds of up to 100 mph (160 kph), had moved westward.

''They'll be able to go once the rains pass when it'll be possible to navigate and fly,'' spokeswoman Martha Avelar said.

Dean, which was a huge Category 5 storm earlier this week, was headed for land today north of Veracruz, a balmy city often compared to Havana.

Sugar cane and coffee grows in the mountains behind the port.

''There has been panic buying of food in supermarkets,'' said Gabriela Navarrete, 35, who runs a bar in the city, near where Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortes landed in Mexico in 1519 on his way to conquer the Aztec empire.

More than 10,000 people were evacuated to shelters in the north of the state.

The storm earlier hammered Mexico's Caribbean resort of Tulum and swallowed sand from the famous beach at Cancun after killing 13 people in Haiti, Jamaica and other parts of the Caribbean.

Mexico, one of the top three suppliers of US crude imports, evacuated more than 18,000 oil workers and shut down 80 per cent of its crude production ahead Dean's arrival.

OIL PRICE UP US crude oil futures moved up on Wednesday as oil markets awaited word from Pemex on any damage.

Mexico has shut down 2.65 million barrels per day of production -- slightly more than Venezuela's total output -- and closed ports as a precaution.

Dean wrecked flimsy homes in poor villages and forced tens of thousands of people, including many tourists, into shelters on the Yucatan Peninsula, but there were no reports of deaths or serious damage in Mexico.

High waves rushing inland wrecked many cabins and restaurants in small, arty Tulum and the beach at Cancun may have been damaged, a local government official said.

But the ''Mayan Riviera'' tourist area was almost intact compared to the devastation wrought on hotels and tourist sites by Hurricane Wilma in 2005.

Rain drenched Belize, a former British colony that is home to some 250,000 people and a famous barrier reef. Sugar cane fields were flattened but there were no deaths reported.

REUTERS GT RK2230